Physical optics of multiaperture systems

Many system analysis type codes have gone to a modeling technique that use modulation transfer function representations of random optical aberrations to calculate the overall system performance. Many aberrations ranging from turbulence distortions to device beam quality have been modeled in this way with good success. But to date these simulations have only addressed optical systems with single monolithic apertures. Recently, however, much attention has been given to optical transmitters and receivers that consist of many independently located apertures, all operated together as a unified coherent (or at least partially coherent) arrays. For these types of system, the impact of the common sorts of aberrations treated in the single aperture case may be significantly different and need more specialized treatment. Furthermore, there are a number of aberrations attendant with multiple aperture array systems that simply are not present in the single aperture configurations, such as independent aperture random piston and tilt. We have developed a methodology based on the modulation transfer function approach that enables us to study better the performance of multiple aperture systems.