Open Access
16 May 2024 High-efficiency anti-reflective modification of freeform elements and cylindrical lenses for arrayed wide-field astronomical corrector units
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Abstract

Randomly distributed anti-reflective nanostructures were fabricated on both surfaces of cylindrical lenses and freeform optical elements using a plasma-assisted reactive-ion etching technique. An average spectral transmission of 98% was measured across the wavelength range from 340 to 800 nm. Mid-band full-angle directional scatter measurements show a difference of six orders of magnitude in transmission intensity between specular and off-specular angles. Measurements before and after the etching process show little to no wavefront distortion for the cylindrical lenses. The enhanced transmission optics were used as part of the dual-unit arrayed wide-field astronomical camera system tested on the Harlan J. Smith telescope at the McDonald Observatory, and their performance was contrasted with conventional thin film coated component performance.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
Uma Subash, Hanshin Lee, and Menelaos K. Poutous "High-efficiency anti-reflective modification of freeform elements and cylindrical lenses for arrayed wide-field astronomical corrector units," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 10(2), 025007 (16 May 2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.2.025007
Received: 26 December 2023; Accepted: 12 April 2024; Published: 16 May 2024
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KEYWORDS
Wavefronts

Optical transmission

Cylindrical lenses

Lenses

Etching

Imaging systems

Relays

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