Design and Manufacture of an Off-axis Aluminum Mirror for Visible-light Imaging

Compared to one made of glass, an aluminum mirror features light weight, compact design, low cost, and quick manufacturing. Reflective mirrors and supporting structures can be made from the same material, to improve the athermal performance of the system. With the rapid development of ultraprecise machining technologies, the field of applications for aluminum mirrors has been developed rapidly. However, most of them are rotationally symmetric in shape, and are used for infrared applications. In this paper, the design and manufacture of an off-axis aluminum mirror used for a three-mirror-anastigmat (TMA) optical system at visible wavelengths is presented. An optimized, lightweight design provides a weight reduction of more than 40%, while the surface deformation caused by earth's gravity can meet the required tolerance. The two pieces of an off-axis mirror can be diamond-turned simultaneously in one setup. The centrifugal deformation of the off-axis mirror during single-point diamond turning (SPDT) is simulated through the finite-element method (FEM). The techniques used to overcome centrifugal deformation are thoroughly described in this paper, and the surface error is reduced to about 1% of the original value. After post-polishing, the form error is $1/30{\lambda}$ RMS and the surface roughness is better than 5 nm Ra, which can meet the requirements for visible-light imaging.