Wu Linghao, Zhang Yu, Li Yihuan, Sheng Lan, Xia Yuxin, Zhang Siqi, Gu Siwen
Opt Express. 2025 Feb 10;33(3):5627-5639. doi: 10.1364/OE.547160.
In order to surmount the challenge wherein the gray-scale resolution of liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) imaging within a faint starlight simulator acts as a limiting factor for the precision of stellar position correction, this paper introduces a design approach for a cascaded architecture tailored to faint starlight simulators. Through the implementation of an isometric mapping technique that maps the dimming LCOS onto the surface of the imaging LCOS, the dimensionality of gray-scale adjustment for the imaging LCOS is augmented, thereby enhancing the accuracy of simulated stellar position correction. Initially, a stellar position cascaded modulation architecture is meticulously constructed to investigate the pivotal factors that impact the gray-scale resolution of the imaging LCOS within the framework of the cascaded modulation architecture. Subsequently, the optimization protocol for the concentrator system embedded within the cascaded modulation architecture is formulated. Leveraging the simulated annealing algorithm, the multi-parameter freeform surface of the concentrator system undergoes synchronous optimization. Finally, the simulation outcomes derived from the cascaded modulation architecture both prior to and subsequent to optimization clearly demonstrate that upon the implementation of the novel architecture, the accuracy of simulated stellar position correction experiences a notable enhancement of 62%.
