PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | October 24, 2016
Proc. SPIE. 9682, 8th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Large Mirrors and Telescopes
KEYWORDS: Optical components, Mirrors, High power lasers, Error analysis, Manufacturing, Solid state lasers, Finite element methods, Analytical research, Optical mounts, Optics manufacturing
In high-power solid-state laser facility (SG-III), focusing laser beams into the target center with precision better than 50 microns (RMS) is dependent on the stringent specifications of thousands of large-aperture transport mirror units and is a huge challenge on the surface aberration control of mirrors. The current mirror’s mounting techniques with screw fastening loads has several engineering conundrums – low control precision for loads (higher scatter even~±30%), and low assembly-rectification efficiency (~100 screws). To improve the current screw-fastening method, a new-style flexure supports method, which has a wonderful performance on uniform control of the external loads and only uses ~30 screws, is proposed to mount the mirror (size: 610mm×440mm×85mm). With theoretical modeling and FEM analysis, the impacts of mounting loads on mirror’s surface aberrations are analyzed and discussed in detail, and the flexure supports system is designed. Finally, with experimental research and case studies, the proposed flexure supports method shows a powerful performance on even control precision of external loads with scatter even less than ±10%, which is a promising mounting process to replace the threaded fasteners mounting the large-aperture optics. These improvements can lay a foundation for mounting process consistency, robustness, and assembly-rectification efficiency of large optical component.
