Toroidal Mirrors

 

A toroidal mirror is a type of aspherical mirror that has two different curvatures on orthogonal axes. It can be used to focus and fold a light beam, minimizing astigmatism and aberrations.

Some common applications of toroidal mirrors are:

  • Spectroscopes and monochromators, where toroidal mirrors can correct for aberrations and astigmatism caused by spherical mirrors.
  • Laser beam shaping, where toroidal mirrors can focus and fold a light beam with different curvatures in orthogonal directions
  • Yolo telescopes, where toroidal mirrors can form an image of a source that is not on the optical axis of the mirror.

Toroidal mirrors are aspherical mirrors where each curvature of orthogonal two axes (horizontal and vertical one) are different.
When a spherical mirror focuses a light from a point source, there appears astigmatism. Toroidal mirrors, however, minimize such astigmatism and make it possible to focus on a small spot. The toroidals are ideal for focusing and/or aberration correction devices for spectroscopes.

  • X-ray imaging

  • Spectroscopy

  • Anamorphic focusing

  • Beam correction

  • Beam shaping

  • Beam folding

  • Component reduction