Attenuation of back-scattered optical signals by off-axis and variable aperture slits – a simulation

This technical report is focused on the investigation of the simulated behaviour of optical signals retro-reflected by S-LAH79 glass spheres [1] and intercepted by a rectangular slit (with variable apertures and off-axis positions), before being collected by a detector. A suitable opto-mechanical layout has been implemented in the context of a specific activity of the EMPIR project LaVA [2] (scheduled in the JRP Protocol as “Activity number 5.2.1”), in order to size a proper mechanical apparatus for the modulation of the signals to be processed to infer the position of the target. In Figure 1 a conceptual scheme of the required set up is shown. The simulations were performed by using the last version of the commercial software Zemax Optic Studio [3].