Automatic figure errors balancing method for catoptric and catadioptric lenses

For high performance imaging and focusing applications, figure errors can degrade the performance of lenses, especially in catoptric and catadioptric lenses. An automatic figure errors balancing method is proposed. By using geometrical optics, the linear relationships between the figure errors and wavefront error (WFE) of lens for three kinds of optical surfaces are established and verified. The WFE sensitivity to figure errors based on this linear relationship is analyzed before clocking optimization to improve the efficiency of optimization. The clocking procedure indirectly optimizes the rotation angle of individual WFE map induced by figure error and performs a 360-deg tour to determine which the best position is. Using this method, the optimal combination of rotation angle of components would be acquired fleetly, especially for optical system included an optical component which figure errors is remarkable influence on WFE. The method is implemented on two manufactured optical systems: a Schwarzschild projection lens and a collimator lens. Simulation experiment proves our method can greatly reduce the aberration caused by figure errors. Compared with conventional randomly assembling method, WFE of the projection lens can be reduced by 40% and WFE of the collimator lens can be reduced by 51%.