Design of fuselage conformal optical system based on freeform correctors

Existing scanning fuselage conformal optical systems all contain dynamic correctors. However, the stability of the optical system with dynamic corrector is poor and the structure is complex. To improve the stability of fuselage conformal optical systems for application and simplify the system structure, a static correction method used in fuselage conformal optical system which is based on freeform correctors is proposed. Based on aircraft applications, a conformal optical system with 3° field of view and 30° field of regard is designed by the method. The design results show that by adding two tilted freeform correctors behind the tilted conformal window, the static aberration and dynamic aberration introduced by the conformal window are corrected and the image quality of the conformal optical system is near the diffraction limit at every field of regard. Moreover, compared with dynamic correctors, the static freeform correctors enhance the stability of the optical system and simplify the system structure. © 2015, Chinese Optical Society. All right reserved.