Scalability in Simulating a Large-Aperture, Fresnel Zone Plate Lens for a Conceptual Space Telescope
Abstract
As ambitious space telescope concepts such as ultra-lightweight planar diffractive optical elements (DOEs) emerge, validating the performance remains a major computational challenge. Conventional Fourier propagation algorithms were observed to fail at meter-class apertures due to severe memory limits caused by rigid grid-sampling requirements, and the scaled-down proxy models used for reflector telescopes cannot be applied, since scaling compresses the outermost zones that govern resolution. We benchmarked five Fourier-based propagators against a common Fresnel diffraction integral and found that only those decoupling the focal-plane grid from the input aperture converge within a 1% error threshold. With these findings, we implemented an optimized, stripe-processed Chirp Z-Transform (CZT) framework, evaluating the focal spot strictly within a fixed region of interest to reduce peak memory usage. Applied to five full-aperture configurations from 1.0 m to 5.0 m at f/# = 5, the framework predicted spatial resolution and diffraction efficiency to within 0.001% and 0.16% of analytical references, with modulation transfer function results cross-checked by two analytical extraction methods, all within 6.4 GB of memory on a single consumer-grade GPU. This simulation study represents first steps toward quantifying the expected results of ambitious space telescope concepts and aids the mission development (or selection) phase. With a highly accurate, memory-efficient validation tool, the findings obtained will be used to guide the fabrication decisions of future hardware, optical testing, and physical deployment mechanisms of large-scale diffractive telescopes.
Related
- Operating the Fabry-Pérot systems of the European Solar Telescope in multi-aperture mode
- The Simons Observatory: Design and Initial Performance of the Detector Readout System for the Large-Aperture Telescope
- Weak lensing shear and aperture mass from linear to non-linear scales
- The MAGPI Survey: Emission Line Products Data Release and the Role of Spectroscopic Aperture Covering Fraction on the Balmer Decrement-Stellar Mass Relation
- Estimation of the laser guide star uplink tip-tilt using aperture size diversity
BibTeX
@misc{zoysa2026scalability,
title = {{Scalability in Simulating a Large-Aperture, Fresnel Zone Plate Lens for a Conceptual Space Telescope}},
author = {Maneesha Dushmantha De Zoysa and Yangwoo Seong and Ho Xuan Vinh and Jae Hung Han and Hyun Jung Kim},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01978},
eprint = {2609.01978},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01978},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Scalability in Simulating a Large-Aperture, Fresnel Zone Plate Lens for a Conceptual Space Telescope
AU - Maneesha Dushmantha De Zoysa
AU - Yangwoo Seong
AU - Ho Xuan Vinh
AU - Jae Hung Han
AU - Hyun Jung Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01978
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01978
AB - As ambitious space telescope concepts such as ultra-lightweight planar diffractive optical elements (DOEs) emerge, validating the performance remains a major computational challenge. Conventional Fourier propagation algorithms were observed to fail at meter-class apertures due to severe memory limits caused by rigid grid-sampling requirements, and the scaled-down proxy models used for reflector telescopes cannot be applied, since scaling compresses the outermost zones that govern resolution. We benchmarked five Fourier-based propagators against a common Fresnel diffraction integral and found that only those decoupling the focal-plane grid from the input aperture converge within a 1% error threshold. With these findings, we implemented an optimized, stripe-processed Chirp Z-Transform (CZT) framework, evaluating the focal spot strictly within a fixed region of interest to reduce peak memory usage. Applied to five full-aperture configurations from 1.0 m to 5.0 m at f/# = 5, the framework predicted spatial resolution and diffraction efficiency to within 0.001% and 0.16% of analytical references, with modulation transfer function results cross-checked by two analytical extraction methods, all within 6.4 GB of memory on a single consumer-grade GPU. This simulation study represents first steps toward quantifying the expected results of ambitious space telescope concepts and aids the mission development (or selection) phase. With a highly accurate, memory-efficient validation tool, the findings obtained will be used to guide the fabrication decisions of future hardware, optical testing, and physical deployment mechanisms of large-scale diffractive telescopes.
ER -