Optical alignment of pixelated 4f optical system using multiplexed filter

Novel optical alignment techniques to perform precise alignment of a typical pixelated 4f optical system are presented in this paper. These techniques use optical multiplexed matched filters, which were designed using a simple, efficient iterative optimization algorithm, known as direct binary search. Three alignment challenges are identified: positioning, focusing, and magnification. The first two alignments were performed using the optical multiplexed matched filtering technique, and the last one was performed using a new optical arrangement. Experimental results of the new alignment techniques and a simple optical pattern recognition problem to demonstrate the benefits of the new alignment techniques are also presented. Two pixelated, electrically addressed spatial light modulators (128 × 128 pixels and one pixel width is 80 μm) were used to represent the input and filter planes. The results clearly show that the new alignment techniques allow the 4f system to be aligned to a precision of 80 μm in the x-y direction and 0.716 mm in the z direction.