Ultimate Limits In Optical Alignment

Marek Elbaum; Jerry Nowakowski

doi:10.1117/12.959455

31 December 1980 Ultimate Limits In Optical Alignment

Marek Elbaum, Jerry Nowakowski

Proceedings Volume 0251, Optical Alignment I; (1980) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959455
Event: 24th Annual Technical Symposium, 1980, San Diego, United States

Abstract

The accuracy and precision of optical alignment ultimately depend on the accuracy and precision of estimating the position of the pattern of light radiation. When the light radiation is sensed with an array of electronic photodetectors, the position is estimated from the photoelectric counts registered by the detectors. The probability distribution of the counts is used to establish the most elementary bound (Cramer-Rao) for variance of a set of position estimates. The corresponding minimum number of signal photons necessary to perform the measurement (estimation) with specified accuracy is established and its dependence on background noise and random fluctuations in signal intensity is examined. The results are of interest in all those applications for which the accuracy of the measurements has to be much better than the diffraction spread introduced by the collecting aperture.

Citation Download Citation

Marek Elbaum and Jerry Nowakowski "Ultimate Limits In Optical Alignment", Proc. SPIE 0251, Optical Alignment I, (31 December 1980); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.959455

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