Acta Optica Sinica, Volume. 40, Issue 8, 0811001(2020)

Polarization Aberrations in an Unobscured Off-Axis Astronomical Telescope and Their Effects on Optics Ellipticity

Jing Luo1、*, Xu He1, Kuo Fan1,2, Xiaohui Zhang1, and Jihong Dong1
Author Affiliations
  • 1Third Research Department of Space Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China
  • 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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    Because of the continuously increasing detection ability in astronomy, polarization aberrations are playing increasingly important roles in the performance of astronomical telescopes. In this paper, the polarization aberrations of an unobscured off-axis astronomical telescope used to detect weak gravitational lensing effect are analyzed using polarization ray tracing. The diattenuation map and retardance map of each mirror for the telescope are obtained, and both its Jones pupil and amplitude response matrix are determined. It is found that the polarization aberrations of the telescope have an impact on both the imaging contrast and the spatial distribution of the point spread function (PSF). The optics ellipticity of the telescope is analyzed. The variations of optics ellipticity, which are dependent on the field of view (FOV), are induced by polarization aberrations. The maximum and mean variations of the optics ellipticity in all FOVs are 7.5×10 -3 and 2.7×10 -3, respectively. At the FOV [-0.0487°, 0.155°], the maximum ellipticity interpolation error increases from 1.2×10 -4 to 1.1×10 -3. Our analyses reveal that polarization aberrations should not be ignored and should be optimized in telescopes that require ultrahigh imaging performance, such as those used for detecting weak gravitational lensing effect.

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    Jing Luo, Xu He, Kuo Fan, Xiaohui Zhang, Jihong Dong. Polarization Aberrations in an Unobscured Off-Axis Astronomical Telescope and Their Effects on Optics Ellipticity[J]. Acta Optica Sinica, 2020, 40(8): 0811001

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    Paper Information

    Category: Imaging Systems

    Received: Oct. 31, 2019

    Accepted: Dec. 30, 2019

    Published Online: Apr. 13, 2020

    The Author Email: Jing Luo (luojingopt@ciomp.ac.cn)

    DOI:10.3788/AOS202040.0811001

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