Design and Analysis of Quasioptical Components for use in Astronomical Telescopes

This thesis describes the use of Gaussian beam modes (GBM) and physical optics (PO) to design and analyse astronomical telescope systems operating at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. The techniques are applied to a proposed re-design of the 3 mm channel of the 20 m Onsala Space Observatory telescope. The industrystandard software GRASP was used for the PO simulations; GBM analysis was carried out using code written in mathematical software packages. GRASP was used to investigate the effect of random and systematic surface errors on such systems. Finally, Maynooth University's Vector Network Analyser was calibrated, aligned and used to characterise new waveguide probes