Related papers: Mid-infrared guided optics: a perspective for astr…
Spectroscopy is one of the most important tools that an astronomer has for studying the universe. This chapter begins by discussing the basics, including the different types of optical spectrographs, with extension to the ultraviolet and…
Over its more than thirty-year history, the Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) program has provided grants to support technology development for ground-based astronomy. Research from this program has advanced adaptive optics,…
Lenses with dynamic focal length, also called zoom functionality, enable a variety of applications related to imaging and sensing. The traditional approach of stacking refractive lenses to achieve this functionality results in an expensive,…
Astrophotonics is the next-generation approach that provides the means to miniaturize near-infrared (NIR) spectrometers for upcoming large telescopes and make them more robust and inexpensive. The target requirements for our spectrograph…
The mid-infrared emission from 18 nearby galaxies imaged with the IRAC instrument on Spitzer Space Telescope samples the spatial distributions of the reddening-free stellar photospheric emission and the warm dust in the ISM. These two…
Long-baseline interferometry at optical and near-infrared wavelengths is an emerging technology which is quickly becoming a useful tool to investigate stellar atmospheres and to compare observations with models. Stellar atmosphere models…
The Large Binocular Telescope, with its expansive collecting area, angular resolving power, and advanced optical design, provides a robust platform for development and operation of advanced instrumentation for astronomical research. The LBT…
The diffractive nature of light has limited optics and photonics to operate at scales much larger than the wavelength of light. The major challenge in scaling-down integrated photonics is how to mold the light flow below diffraction-limit…
We propose a novel instrument design to greatly expand the current optical and near-infrared SETI search parameter space by monitoring the entire observable sky during all observable time. This instrument is aimed to search for…
Carbon dioxide is a vital gas for life on Earth, a waste product of human activities, and widely used in agriculture and industry. Its accurate sensing is therefore of great interest. Optical sensors exploiting the mid-infrared light…
Mid-infrared photodetectors are susceptible to background noise since every object in the surroundings emits thermal radiation from different directions. To reduce this background noise and enhance signal-to-noise ratio of mid-infrared…
The U. C. Berkeley Infrared Spatial Interferometer has been outfitted with a filterbank system to allow interferometric observations of mid-infrared spectral lines with very high spectral resolution (R ~ 10^5). This paper describes the…
We have investigated mid-infrared spectra of Earth obtained by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on-board the AQUA spacecraft to explore the characteristics that may someday be observed in extrasolar terrestrial planets. We…
The mid-infrared spectral range (2 to 20 \mu m) is of particular importance for chemistry, biology and physics as many molecules exhibit strong ro-vibrational fingerprints. Frequency combs - broad spectral bandwidth coherent light sources…
Photonic lanterns are an important enabling technology for astrophotonics with a wide range of potential applications including fibre Bragg grating OH suppression, integrated photonic spectrographs and fibre scramblers for high resolution…
Mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy is a crucial workhorse for a plethora of analytical applications and is suitable for diverse materials, including gases, polymers or biological tissue. However, this technologically significant wavelength…
In recent years there has been significant fundamental research into phonon polaritons, owing to their ability to compress light to extremely small dimensions, low-losses, and ability to support anisotropic propagation. In this perspective,…
Optical systems capable of generating fields with sub-wavelength spatial features have become standard in science and engineering research and industry. Pertinent examples include atom- and ion-based quantum computers and optical…
We summarized the room-temperature optical properties for infrared-transparent materials, defining transparency windows for two different applications: thin-film coatings (absorption coefficient $\alpha < 10 cm^{-1}$) and windows ($\alpha <…
Optical and near-infrared variability is a well-known property of young stellar objects. However, a growing number of recent studies claim that a considerable fraction of them also exhibit mid-infrared flux changes. With the aim of studying…