Method for determining individual element misalignments in optical systems

A new method for the misalignments calculation has been developed based in the analysis of the coefficients of the Zernike polynomial adjustment to the on-axis wavefront of the optical system. By means of a study of the system behavior in front of misalignments when they are small perturbations of position around the nominal value, it is shown that the Zernike coefficients behaviour can be aproximated with a polynomial. The coefficients of the Zernike polynomial are used to form a system of non-linear equations where the unknown variables are the misalignment values. This system of equations can be solved to find the misalignments values. The method has been validated by the simulation of a triplet where the second lens is misaligned. A series of misalignments of decentering and tilt have been applied and by simulation the wavefront have been obtained. Then the method has been used to calculate the misalignments from the wavefronts. Good results have been obtained for decentering and tilt separetely. With this process, the error of calculation for the tilt and the decentering has been obatined to be less than 20% for the simulated triplet system.

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