Advanced Physical Optics Modeling of Spaceborne Optical Systems

Diffraction-limited spaceborne optical systems require an accurate physical optical model to understand how the instrument performs. The design teams for NASA’s flagship observatories (e.g. JWST, Roman) achieve such a model through an ensemble of commercial ray tracers (Zemax, Code V) and open-source physical optics propagators (POPPY, PROPER). Considerations for polarization, misalignment errors, and the ideal wave optics performance are handled separately. This inhibits the designers of spaceborne systems from optimizing their instruments across all potential optical performance limiters. We propose the development of a new physical optics design tool that considers diffraction, polarization, and misalignment errors simultaneously. This tool utilizes Gaussian Beamlet Decomposition (GBD), a technique of propagating complex optical fields through a linear superposition of Gaussian beams. GBD’s strength lies in the ability to propagate the Gaussian beams using the linear laws of geometrical raytracing, enabling near-field diffraction calculations without computation of diffraction integrals (e.g. Fresnel, Angular Spectrum). The proposed design tool will leverage the geometrical nature of gaussian beamlets to compute the impact of optical system misalignment. Polarization aberrations will be considered by assigning a Jones vector to each Gaussian beam, enabling an expeditious calculation of vector diffraction in an optical system. The code generated from the proposed investigation will be formally integrated into POPPY (Physical Optics Propagation in Python) to enable open-source access through an already established physical optics tool tailored to the design of space telescopes (JWST, Roman). This project will advance the design process of spaceborne optical instrumentation by enabling greater simultaneous knowledge of the actual system performance. We further anticipate that GBD will be able to assist in the development of coronagraphic instruments identified for future investigation in NASA’s Decadal Survey (LUVOIR, HabEX),enhancing the search for exoplanets.

This project will advance the design process of spaceborne optical instrumentation by enabling greater simultaneous knowledge of the actual system performance. We further anticipate that GBD will be able to assist in the development of coronagraphic instruments identified for future investigation in NASA’s Decadal Survey (LUVOIR, HabEX),enhancing the search for exoplanets.

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