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Polarization Ray Tracing and Polarization Aberration Compensation in Reflective Astronomical TelescopesAssessing and optimizing polarization performance in the context of ray-based optical design can be challenging. We describe an approach to this problem that decouples polarization effects from optical system geometry for reflective systems. Each surface's polarization properties are parameterized in terms of their impact on retardance and diattenuation in the small angle-of-incidence limit, separating polarization assessment from the task of coating design. A low-resolution ray trace of the system is adequate to determine ray geometry at each interface, which can then be interpolated to rapidly evaluate net Jones Matrix pupil functions. Coating behavior can be easily varied using the ellipsometric parameters to investigate impacts and compensation. Desired values of these parameters can then be specified as constraints in coating design. Investigation with candidate telescope optical designs for LUVOIR show baseline root-mean-square wavefront errors in the nm range for the on-diagonal Jones matrix component, and throughputs of tens of parts per million. Promising possibilities for compensation using a purpose-designed coating on the secondary mirror are discussed, which reduce the on-diagonal wavefront error by a factor 20, with accompanying but more modest reductions in coupling into off-diagonal terms.
Document ID
20190001892
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Sabatke, Derek
(Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. Boulder, CO, United States)
Knight, J. Scott
(Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp. Fairfax, VA, United States)
Bolcar, Matthew R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
March 26, 2019
Publication Date
September 17, 2018
Publication Information
Publication: Optical Modeling and Performance Predictions X
Publisher: SPIE
Volume: 10743
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Optics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN66134
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: August 19, 2018
End Date: August 23, 2018
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG15499015R
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG13FB20C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS5-02200
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Use by or on behalf of the US Gov. Permitted.
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