Application of torque sensitivity in the alignment of a Cassegrain system

Abstract

In order to improve the alignment accuracy of a Cassegrain system, to the best of our knowledge, a novel computer-aided alignment method based on torque sensitivity is proposed. Different from the traditional position sensitivity curve guiding scheme, the accurate position of the secondary mirror is not necessary while the torque sensitivity curve is generated. By establishing the relationship between the torque of the secondary mirror setting screw and the Zernike coefficients of the system, a practical quantitative alignment scheme for the Cassegrain system can be realized. For a two-mirror Cassegrain optical-mechanical system, an alignment scheme based on torque sensitivity is designed. The results show that the wavefront aberrations of three Cassegrain systems reach 0.0479 λ , 0.0537 λ , and 0.0698 λ respectively. It proves that the torque sensitivity curves can well guide the real alignment process.