Design and analysis of a diffraction-limited cat's-eye retroreflector

Mark L. Biermann; William S. Rabinovich; Rita Mahon; G. Charmaine Gilbreath

doi:10.1117/1.1483881

1 July 2002 Design and analysis of a diffraction-limited cat's-eye retroreflector

Mark L. Biermann, William S. Rabinovich, Rita Mahon, G. Charmaine Gilbreath

Optical Engineering, Vol. 41, Issue 7, (July 2002). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1483881

We describe a design for a modified, cat's-eye retroreflector. The design is catadioptric, containing a single concave mirror and several lenses. This retroreflector design exhibits a unique combination of performance characteristics. It is diffraction limited over a large field angle while operating with a large aperture and numerical aperture. There is little vignetting of the optical beam, even at large field angles, providing good light return at all angles of incidence. It brings the light beam to a focus and allows access to the light near the focal plane, thus decoupling the size of the aperture from the size of devices used with the retroreflector. This final feature makes the design appealing for use with spatial light modulators, or other optical or electro-optical components.

©(2002) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

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Mark L. Biermann, William S. Rabinovich, Rita Mahon, and G. Charmaine Gilbreath "Design and analysis of a diffraction-limited cat's-eye retroreflector," Optical Engineering 41(7), (1 July 2002). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1483881

Published: 1 July 2002

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