On-line correction of aberrations in particle spectrographs

Abstract

A new method is presented that allows the reconstruction of trajectories and the on-line correction of residual aberrations that limit the resolution of particle spectrographs. Using a computed or fitted high order transfer map that describes the uncorrected aberrations of the spectrograph under consideration, it is possible to determine a pseudo transfer map that allows the computation of the corrected data of interest as well as the reconstructed trajectories in terms of position measurements in two planes near the focal plane. The technique is only limited by the accuracy of the position measurements and the accuracy of the transfer map. In practice the method can be expressed as an inversion of a pseudo transfer map and implemented in the differential algebraic framework. The practical application in connection with the S800 spectrograph is discussed. >