This book will discuss alignment of optical systems. The broad range of different optical systems and approaches to optical alignment will be described. The unifying theme, the underlying aberration theory of perturbed optical systems, will be developed in detail in the introductory sections of the book.
This book will be structured such that in each chapter an introductory section gives a broad overview, before a more detailed technical discussion commences. This will enhance the accessibility for those non-technical readers who nevertheless require some background in the area of optical alignment theory and practice.
This book will first pose the problem of optical alignment in terms of misalignment induced aberrations. The range of tools and approaches to optical alignment, ranging from the traditional tools, such as alignment telescopes and auto-stigmatic microscopes, to relatively new approaches such as laser trackers, computer generated holograms and distance measuring laser gauges will be described. Specific test cases and results will be discussed as examples for each described tool or method
