Large aperture diffractive optics for space based lasers

摘要

While space based laser systems would be a valuable tool in defending against211u001eballistic missile attacks, they will be extremely expensive to field; quite 211u001eprobably too expensive. The purpose of this report is to examine one powerful 211u001eapproach, the use of very large aperture diffractive optics, for greatly reducing 211u001ethe cost and effort required to field space based laser defenses. Diffractive 211u001eoptics (thin, optically slow, lenses) are a novel means of providing very large 211u001eaperture (typically 20-50 meter) space optics; they are lightweight and 211u001epackageable, with greatly relaxed optical tolerances compared to conventional 211u001ereflectors. These optics are currently under active investigation (at LLNL and 211u001eelsewhere) for large aperture imaging applications; but their virtues should 211u001eprove equally attractive for this application as well.