Analysis of athermalizing performance of thermal infrared optical system with Cassegrain antenna

The thermal infrared imaging system is of greatest importance in modern optics and the image quality closely relies on the accuracy of the optical system. Heat-induced mirror deformation influences the transmission performance of the optical antenna system significantly, which further degrades the accuracy of the whole system. In this work, the simulation on lens deformation circumstances under the thermal environment is carried out using the finite-element analysis software ANSYS. The focus shift property caused by the thermal effect is studied in the cases of reflective and refractive Cassegrain optical antennas, and the athermalizing performance of Cassegrain optical antenna system is also concluded. This work presents a direction to accurate designing of the thermal infrared optical system.