NON-CONTACT, SELF-REFERENCING FULL APERTURE METROLOGY FOR LARGE ASPHERIC MIRRORS

THE PROBLEM IS THE FABRICATION OF LARGE ASPHERIC OR GRAZING INCIDENCE MIRRORS. THE PROPOSED INNOVATION IS A GROUP OF EIGHT INNOVATIVE HARDWARE CONCEPTS AND MATHEMATICALALGORITHMS, COMBINED TO FORM A NON-CONTACTING, SELF-REFERENCING, NON-INTERFEROMETRIC METROLOGY INSTRUMENT CAPABLE OF MEASURING FIGURE ERRORS ON LARGE ASPHERIC MIRRORSTO AN ACCURACY OF A VERY SMALL FRACTION OF A WAVELENGTH OF LIGHT. IT CAN TEST METER-CLASS (OR LARGER) OPTICS WHICH ARESTEEP OR SHALLOW, AND CONCAVE, FLAT, OR CONVEX, WITHOUT ANY CHANGE IN CONFIGURATION. IT NEEDS NO LARGE TEST TOWER, AND CAN MEASURE ERRORS WITH SPATIAL PERIODS FROM METERS TO MILLIMETERS. STRAIGHTFORWARD ADAPTATIONS SHOULD ALLOW IT TO MEASURE GRAZING INCIDENCE OPTICS OR OPTICS IN THEIR COARSE GROUND STATE, AND BECOME AN INTEGRATED MEASURING/POLISHING MACHINE. OUR OBJECTIVES ARE TO DEVELOP A BASELINE INSTRUMENT CONCEPT DOWN TO THE SUBSYSTEM OR COMPONENT LEVEL AS APPROPRIATE; DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE PREDICTION MODEL; AND INVESTIGATE ISSUES RELATEDTO EXTENDING THE INSTRUMENT'S APPLICABILITY. THIS WILL DEMONSTRATE FEASIBILITY OF THE OPTICAL, MECHANICAL, AND ELECTRONIC SUBSYSTEMS AND OF THE ALGORITHMS, AND PROVIDE A FOUNDATION FOR THE PHASE II EFFORT, WHERE WE WILL PERFORM A DETAILED DESIGN FOR A PROTOTYPE INSTRUMENT; BUILD AND CHARACTERIZE THE INSTRUMENT; AND USE IT TO MEASURE KNOWN OPTICS.