Effect of Temperature Gradients on the Wave Aberration in Athermal Optical Glasses

Abstract

Temperature gradients that are caused by partial heating in optical elements may result in wave aberrations. The athermal glasses developed within the past two years exhibit considerably reduced thermal wave aberrations compared to the classical optical glasses. Evidence is given that the total wave aberration is due not only to the change of optical path DeltaW(Gamma) computed from a, n, and dn/dT, but also that, upon the occurrence of thermal stresses, an additional wave aberration DeltaW(s) must be taken into consideration.