Phase plate fabrication process to simulate the turbulence effects on an optical imaging system in Korean atmospheric circumstances

Abstract

Abstract Telescopes which use light that has propagated through atmospheric paths detect distorted wave generated by atmosphere turbulence. The distorted wave decreases an image quality of the telescope. Adaptive optics technology can be applied to compensate the aberration caused by atmospheric turbulence. However, there are limitations in conducting experiment of the adaptive optical system with real atmosphere. Phase plate is one of the devices that can simulate the real atmosphere in laboratory. We suggest a novel two-step process for fabrication of the phase plate and present a process for manufacturing a phase plate that could simulate atmospheric turbulence similar to the actual atmosphere. The proposed fabrication method does not take additional activities such as a designing phase-screen and a phase simulation. Therefore, anyone can simply and inexpensively produce the phase plate. An analysis is conducted using the statistics of the index of the refraction fluctuation and the modal expansion from Kolmogorov theory. The goal of the experiment is to produce a phase plate for which D/r0 ≈ = 20 and r0 ≈ 7.5 cm. The target of the goal is set in consideration of the Korean atmospheric circumstances. Finally, the phase plate is manufactured by the proposed method, which follows characteristics similar to that of the actual atmosphere.