Related papers: The Planar Optics Phase Sensor: a study for the VL…

Despite the multitude of available methods, the characterisation of ultrafast pulses remains a challenging endeavour, especially at the single-photon level. We introduce a pulse characterisation scheme that maps the magnitude of its…

One of the major challenges of employing a dual-frequency phase-shifting algorithm for phase retrieval is its sensitivity to noise. Yun et. al [H Yun, B Li, S Zhang. 2017] proposed a dual-frequency method based on the Fourier transform…

The visibility of stars is often used for cloud detection using all-sky cameras, which have however only a limited reach and resolution near the horizon due to the lack of detectable stars. At the Pierre Auger Observatory, it is also used…

Full sky coverage Adaptive Optics on Extremely Large Telescopes requires the adoption of several Laser Guide Stars as references.With such large apertures, the apparent elongation of the beacons is absolutely significant.With few…

Context: Polarimetry is a very powerful tool to uncover various properties of astronomical objects that remain otherwise hidden in standard imaging or spectroscopic observations. However, the reliable measurement of the low polarization…

The Smart Focal Planes (SmartFP) activity is a European Joint Research Activity funded to develop novel optical technologies for future large telescope instrumentation. In this paper, we will discuss the image slicer developments being…

The next generations of ground-based cosmic microwave background experiments will require polarisation sensitive, multichroic pixels of large focal planes comprising several thousand detectors operating at the photon noise limit. One…

The direct observation of extrasolar planets and their spectra is coming into reach with the new generation of ground-based near-IR interferometers, like the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The high contrast between star and…

For Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the fringe spacing is extremely narrow compared to the field of view imposed by the primary beam of each element. This means that an extremely large number of resolution units can potentially be…

We propose and apply two methods to estimate pupil plane phase discontinuities for two realistic scenarios on VLT and Keck. The methods use both Phase Diversity and a form of image sharpening. For the case of VLT, we simulate the `low wind…

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy provides unprecedented insight into cellular and subcellular structures. However, going "beyond the diffraction barrier" comes at a price since most far-field super-resolution imaging techniques…

We demonstrate the use of an optimized 5 core photonic lantern (PL) to simultaneously measure tip/tilt errors at the telescope focal plane, while also providing the input to an instrument. By replacing a single mode (SM) fiber with the PL…

A distortion calibration method for wide-angle lens is proposed based on fringe-pattern phase analysis. Firstly, according to the experimental result of the radial distortion of the image not related to the recording depth of field, but…

The Multiconjugate Adaptive optics Demonstrator (MAD) for ESO-Very Large Telescopes (VLT) will demonstrate on sky the MultiConjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) technique. In this paper the laboratory tests relative to the first preliminary…

High precision astrometry aims at source position determination to a very small fraction of the diffraction image size, in high SNR regime. One of the key limitations to such goal is the optical response variation of the telescope over a…

The Liverpool Telescope is one of the world's premier facilities for time domain astronomy. The time domain landscape is set to radically change in the coming decade, with surveys such as LSST providing huge numbers of transient detections…

Asgard/NOTT (previously Hi-5) is a European Research Council (ERC)-funded project hosted at KU Leuven and a new visitor instrument for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Its primary goal is to image the snow line region around…

Thin structured surfaces allow flexible control over propagation of electromagnetic waves. Focusing and polarization state analysis are among functions, required for effective manipulation of radiation. Here a polarization sensitive Fresnel…

We present a conceptual framework of planar SIS mixer array receivers and the studies on the required techniques. This concept features membrane-based on-chip waveguide probes and a quasi-two-dimensional local-oscillator distribution…

Infrared interferometry has seen a revolution over the last few years. The advent of GRAVITY+ is about to enable high-contrast observations, all-sky coverage and faint science up to K=21, with the implementation on 8m-class telescope of…