Information and Metrology-Driven Optimisation of Wavefront Error in Telescope-Detected Radiation

The paper presents a solution to an information and metrology problem concerning minimising the wave-front error of telescope-detected radiation. As an example, we used aberration computation and simulation describing the optical system of the space telescope installed in the Millimetron observatory. We show that many factors that affect a space telescope decrease the quality of the image obtained. It is necessary to eliminate the effects of the distortion-generating factors and reduce their contribution to the total wavefront error. As the dimensions of the collecting aperture in telescopes increase, the factors that distort the wavefront of the radiation detected by the telescope begin to significantly affect the quality of the image obtained. We consider the ways of decreasing the effects of the distortion-generating factors caused by aberrations in the optical system. One of the solutions to this problem is to select a rational configuration of the space telescope optical system. In order to minimise the aberration, we used the Zemax 13 Release 2 SP4 Premium software package to simulate the optical system, to analyse and optimise it so as to diminish the scattering spot in the exit pupil. We achieved this goal by decreasing the spherical aberration and ensuring a more uniform distribution of it over the field. We used the data obtained to estimate the admissible dimensions of the misalignment spot

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