Large Aperture Quad Cell for Fiducial Alignment with Large Diameter Meams

摘要

In this paper, we describe progres sint he design and development of a simple, low cost, lightweight means to provide large beam centering in an optical or infrared interferometer. The "smart template" is made up of silicon solar cells. A small algorithm implemented either in hardware or software measures the centering error. Stability over a four-hour period has been shown to be good to over one part in 3000 for relatively constant temperature. Digitizign the signal for automated data acquisition and control is easily implemented and will also be described. This is an enabling technology for the interferometric community where automated alignment of a large number of beams over long periods of time is critical. Use of solar cells makes the device easily translatable to a space qualifiable technology for space-based optical beam alignment.