Design of two-mirror telescope systems with freeform surfaces: modified configurations and analysis

Abstract

Conventional two-mirror optical telescope designs are well known. An attempt to improve the performance of a two-mirror telescopic system using freeform surface is reported. Four variants of the optical design that use symmetric and off-axis freeform surfaces for achieving superior performances in the spectral range from 400 to 900 nm are proposed. These designs are compared with the conventional Ritchey–Chretien and equivalent two-mirror off-axis telescope designs with rotationally symmetric surfaces. The optical design with freeform surfaces shows marked improvements compared with its counterpart comprising of conics and higher order aspherics. The incorporation of freeform surfaces is obtained by an overlay of fringe Zernike polynomial either on the base sphere or on the conic itself, which is used as a surface descriptor in the envisaged designs. This approach aids in correction of asymmetrical aberrations and also extends the performances to a wider field, which is quite advantageous in the case of off-axis (de-centered and tilted) optical systems.