Related papers: Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic X-…
The LAMP (Lightweight Asymmetry and Magnetism Probe) X-ray telescope is a mission concept to measure the polarization of X-ray astronomical sources at 250 eV via imaging mirrors that reflect at incidence angles near the polarization angle,…
Due to turbulence in the atmosphere images taken from ground-based telescopes become distorted. With adaptive optics (AO) images can be given greater clarity allowing for better observations with existing telescopes and are essential for…
Interference-fit joints are typically adopted to produce permanent assemblies among mechanical parts. The resulting contact pressure is generally used for element fixing or to allow load transmission. Nevertheless, some special designs take…
Active optics techniques in astronomy provide high imaging quality. This paper is dedicated to highly deformable active optics that can generate non-axisymmetric aspheric surfaces-or freeform surfaces-by use of a minimum number of…
We have developed X-ray telescope mirrors using an original electroforming replication technique established through the fabrication of millimeter-aperture, ultra-short-focal-length nanofocusing mirrors for synchrotron X-ray microscopy.…
High-contrast imaging and spectroscopy provide unique constraints for exoplanet formation models as well as for planetary atmosphere models. Instrumentation techniques in this field have greatly improved over the last two decades, with the…
Deformable mirrors with very high order correction generally have smaller dynamic range of motion than what is required to correct seeing over large aperture telescopes. As a result, systems will need to have an architecture that employs…
Optical designs for astronomy involve implementation of active optics and adaptive optics from X-ray to the infrared. Developments and results of active optics methods for telescopes, spectrographs and coronagraph planet finders are…
The 10-100 keV region of the electromagnetic spectrum contains the potential for a dramatic improvement in our understanding of a number of key problems in high energy astrophysics. A deep inspection of the universe in this band is on the…
Astronomical imaging with micro-arcsecond ($\mu$as) angular resolution could enable breakthrough scientific discoveries. Previously-proposed $\mu$as X-ray imager designs have been interferometers with limited effective collecting area. Here…
High-Performance Adaptive Optics systems are rapidly spreading as useful applications in the fields of astronomy, ophthalmology, and telecommunications. This technology is critical to enable coronagraphic direct imaging of exoplanets…
We develop a comprehensive approach to simulate the deformation of mirrors and lenses due to thermal and mechanical stresses that couples efficiently to photon-based optics simulations. This expands upon previous work where we demonstrated…
Experiments in the field of optomechanics do not yet fully exploit the photon polarization degree of freedom. Here experimental results for an optomechanical interaction in a polarization nondegenerate system are presented and schemes are…
Adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful image correction technique with proven benefits for many life-science microscopy methods. However, the complexity of adding a reflective wavefront modulator and a wavefront sensor into already complicated…
X-ray mirror fabrication for astronomy is challenging; this is due to the Wolter I optical geometry and the tight tolerances on roughness and form error to enable accurate and efficient X-ray reflection. The performance of an X-ray mirror,…
A new technical method is developed for soft x-ray spectroscopy of near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS). The measurement is performed with continuously rotating linearly polarized light over 2$\pi$, generated by a segmented…
Fabricating freeform mirrors relies on accurate optical figuring processes capable of arbitrarily modifying low-spatial frequency height without creating higher-spatial frequency errors. We present a scalable process to accurately figure…
We show that a nonlinear optical response associated with a resonant, atomically thin material can be dramatically enhanced by placing it in front of a partially reflecting mirror, rendering otherwise weakly nonlinear systems suitable for…
Diffraction-limited focusing deep into biological tissue is challenging due to spherical aberrations that lead to a broadening of the focal spot particularly in axial direction. While the diffraction-limit can be restored employing…
The optics of a number of future X-ray telescopes will have very long focal lengths (10 - 20 m), and will consist of a number of nested/stacked thin, grazing-incidence mirrors. The optical quality characterization of a real mirror can be…