Image degradation due to scattering effects in two-mirror telescopes

Image degradation due to scattered radiation is a serious problem in many short-wavelength (x-ray and EUV) imaging systems. Most currently available image analysis codes require the scattering behavior [data on the bidirectional scattering distribution function (BSDF)] as input in order to calculate the image quality from such systems. Predicting image degradation due to scattering effects is typically quite computation-intensive. If using a conventional optical design and analysis code, each geometrically traced ray spawns hundreds of scattered rays randomly distributed and weighted according to the input BSDF. These scattered rays must then be traced through the system to the focal plane using nonsequential ray-tracing techniques. For multielement imaging systems even the scattered rays spawn more scattered rays at each additional surface encountered in the system. In this paper we describe a generalization of Peterson's analytical treatment of in-field stray light in multielement imaging systems. In particular, we remove the smooth-surface limitation that ignores the scattered-scattered radiation, which can be quite large for EUV wavelengths even for state-of-the-art optical surfaces. Predictions of image degradation for a two-mirror EUV telescope with the generalized Peterson model are then numerically validated with the much more computation-intensive ZEMAX® and ASAP® codes.