<title>Focal Plane Optics In Far-Infrared And Submillimeter Astronomy</title>

The construction of airborne observatories, high mountain-top observatories, and space observatories designed especially for infrared and submillimeter astronomy has opened new fields of research requiring new optical techniques. A typical far-IR photometric study involves measurement of a continuum spectrum in several passbands between - 30pm and 1000pm and diffraction-limited mapping of the source. At these wavelengths, diffraction effects strongly influence the design of the field optics systems which couple the incoming flux to the radiation sensors (cold bolometers). The Airy diffraction disk for a typical telescope at submillimeter wavelengths (- 100pm - 100011m) is many millimeters in diameter; the size of the field stop must be comparable. The dilute radiation at the stop is fed through a Winston nonimaging concentrator to a small cavity containing the bolometer. The purpose of this paper is to review the principles and techniques of infrared field optics systems, including spectral filters, concentrators, cavities, and bolometers (as optical elements), with emphasis on photometric systems for wavelengths longer than 60 pm.