The SLAC Design and Manufacturing Process of Sphere-Mounted Reflectors (Oct 1997)
Sphere-Mounted Reflectors (SMRs) are used at SLAC for a variety of alignment purposes. They consist of a retroreflective set of mirrors mounted inside a hollowed out sphere. The most significant property of these is that the reflected beam emerging from the SMR is parallel to the incoming beam. The reflector is comprised of three reflective surfaces that are mutually orthogonal forming the geometrical equivalent of the corner of a cube. Initially a series of 1 1/2 inch (38.10 mm) versions were purchased for $3250 each. These consisted of steel balls that were hollowed out allowing an air-cube to be precisely inserted into the ball so that the apex of the mirror planes would intersect the center of the ball. This is critical so that when the SMR is placed into a ''nest'' it will always reflect from the same three-dimensional position regardless what orientation it is in. Due to the high cost of manufacturing, a delivery time of several months, and with no assurance that the reflector will pass quality control, we decided to embark on manufacturing these ''in-house'' hoping for less expensive and equally or possibly even more accurate versions.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 813115
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-9823; TRN: US0303691
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 14 May 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Dual surface interferometer
Dual surface interferometer