Published Papers
Chapter 5 – Optical axis definition
Chapter 5 – Optical axis definition The purpose of optical alignment is making the optical axis of an optical element, or complete system,coaxial with some other axis that is defined by other optical or mechanical components. This means wemust start the discussion of optical alignment by making sure we all mean the same thing when […]
Chapter 4 -Autostigmatic microscope
Chapter 4 -Autostigmatic microscope There is no better way to describe an autostigmatic microscope (ASM) than to call it an autocollimator(AC) with a microscope objective attached to the front. This converts the AC from an instrument thatmeasures 2 angular degrees of freedom (DOF) into an instrument that measures the location of thecenter of curvature of […]
Chapter 3 – Classical optical alignment instruments
Classical optical alignment instruments – Chapter 3 The most basic optical instrument used for alignment and testing of optics is a collimator, an instrumentdesigned to produce a parallel beam of rays, or a plane wavefront, from a point source of light. Turningwords into hardware we have something like Fig. 1 where a single mode optical […]
Chapter 2 – Three methods of alignment
Three methods of alignmentIn the Introduction to this series of articles on optical alignment, I said there were three basic methodsof alignment. This article presents my thoughts on these methods. My approach may be a bitunconventional, but I hope this way of beginning makes the whole idea of alignment easier tounderstand. To illustrate the three […]
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Introduction to a series of articles on optical alignmentFor some time, I have been encouraged to write a book about optical alignment. There have beenseveral halfhearted attempts at beginning, but it never seemed there was enough to talk about and Ikept finding new ideas about alignment. I didn’t want the book to be out of […]
Chapter 21 – Bessel Beam Alignment of a Single Lense
Introduction: In Chapters 14 and 15 I explained how a Bessel beam is used to align optics when you have all the necessary degrees of freedom to fully align the optics in tilt, decenter and focus. Many times, you have physical constraints due to the hardware the optics are installed in, so you don’t have […]