Infrared and Laser Engineering, Volume. 54, Issue 7, 20250108(2025)

Research on suppression method of aerodynamic optical effects in conformal optical systems

Haoran WANG, Mingxu PIAO, Xian ZHANG, Chenxiao LI, Yichen LOU, Huitian ZOU, Yingran TONG, Junsong WANG, and Bo ZHANG
Author Affiliations
  • School of Opto-electronic Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130022, China
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    ObjectiveWith the advancement and development of science and technology, traditional optical systems are no longer able to meet the growing demand of people. Conformal optical sphere cover is an optical protective structure that highly matches the shape of the carrier, and the demand for conformal optical sphere cover is increasing with new high-tech things. However, traditional conformal optical systems require the addition of a phase plate at the rear of the system, resulting in excessive mass and high cost. In order to reduce the weight of the conformal optical system and simplify its structure, a conformal optical system without the need for additional phase plates was designed using the optical numerical joint method, effectively reducing the system weight and simplifying the system structure.MethodsWe studied a method based on optical numerical joint to eliminate the influence of aerodynamic optical effects on conformal optical systems, and investigated the restoration of overall scanning angle images based on different feature scanning angles (Fig.9). In the image restoration section, the sum of image gradients based on different feature scanning angles was studied (Tab.2), and the Richardson Lucy iterative algorithm was used to deconvolve and restore the synthesized PSF model to obtain the restored image (Fig.10). By combining optical and digital methods, the influence of aerodynamic optical effects on conformal optical systems has been eliminated.Results and DiscussionsThis article designs a conformal optical system with a focal length of 50 mm, a working wavelength range of 3-5 μm, and a scanning field of view of ±15°. Firstly, the Zernike polynomial is used to fit the wavefront aberration to construct a generalized pupil function, and then Fourier transform is performed to obtain the PSF model. Then, singular value decomposition is implemented, and the cardinality matrix Bi and coefficient matrix Miare introduced to construct an asymmetric full field PSF model, which is used for deconvolution image restoration. The sum of image gradients in a conformal optical system reflects the overall edge intensity and texture complexity characteristics of the image. The reconstructed image has improved sum of image gradients by at least 1.4E+07 at each scanning angle, and the improvement in partial scanning field of view can reach 2.0E+07. This method does not require the introduction of additional correction components, and significantly improves the impact of aerodynamic optical effects on imaging quality while ensuring system lightweighting and low cost.ConclusionsTo address the aberrations caused by aerodynamic optical effects in conformal optical systems, a segmented restoration of the full field PSF model is constructed through the combination of light and number to restore the image. This article designs a conformal optical system with a focal length of 50 mm, a working wavelength range of 3-5 μm, and a scanning field of view of ±15°. Firstly, the wavefront aberration is fitted using Zernike polynomials to construct a generalized pupil function, followed by Fourier transform to obtain the PSF model. Then, singular value decomposition is implemented, and the cardinality matrix Bi and coefficient matrix Mi are introduced to construct an asymmetric full field PSF model. The sum of image gradients in a conformal optical system reflects the overall edge intensity and texture complexity characteristics of the image. The sum of image gradients of the reconstructed image at each scanning angle is improved by at least 1.4E+07, and the improvement in partial scanning field of view can reach 2.0E+07. This method provides a new approach to eliminate the influence of aerodynamic optical effects on conformal optical systems and has practical engineering application prospects.

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    Haoran WANG, Mingxu PIAO, Xian ZHANG, Chenxiao LI, Yichen LOU, Huitian ZOU, Yingran TONG, Junsong WANG, Bo ZHANG. Research on suppression method of aerodynamic optical effects in conformal optical systems[J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2025, 54(7): 20250108

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    Paper Information

    Category: Optical design and fabrication

    Received: Feb. 17, 2025

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Aug. 29, 2025

    The Author Email:

    DOI:10.3788/IRLA20250108

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