Application for surveying technology for the alignment of large optical systems

Precise alignment of optical elements in large optical systems is difficult if many elements are positioned such that direct alignment or boresighting becomes impossible. A practical approach is to identify discrete optical path segments and align these using standard surveying or optical-tooling instrumentation. One simply has to develop an alignment theory in which the alignment optical path duplicates or closely approximates the optical path of the operational device. The surveying instruments can then be used to simulate the optical input beams to the system segments to be aligned. Auxiliary targets and reflectors may be added, and the alignment procedure may be augmented by standard optical test instrumentation and techniques. Examples are given using theodolites, transits, and levels with autocollimating capability and micrometer adaptors to perform boresighting and autocollimation techniques on segments of the optical train of the Antares Laser Fusion System at Los Alamos National Laboratory