Tolerance determination for a Dove prism using exact ray trace

We use exact ray trace to calculate the prism tolerance for manufacturing errors. We model the manufacturing errors by modifying the position of the prism vertices. The normal to the prism faces modify the direction of the rays. We determine the prism tolerance by analyzing the optical transversed path rays. We calculate the change to the image (position in 3D space) introduced by this deviation. When the manufacturing tolerance is maintained at ± 0.3 arc sec, the maximum wave-front deviation is λ/10 for 633 nm wavelength. The calculated tolerance improves the performance of the Dove prism in 99% with respect to the tolerance of ± 2 arc sec. This work complements a previous analysis on a Dove prism for its application in a rotational shearing interferometer.