Related papers: Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic X-…
The trend towards ever larger telescopes and more advanced adaptive optics systems is driving the need for deformable mirrors with a large number of low cost actuators. Liquid mirrors have long been recognized a potential low cost…
The next generation of large telescopes for direct imaging of exoplanets will require segmented primary mirrors. Over both long and short timescales, these telescopes experience segment misalignments which degrade the final science image.…
Optical stellar interferometers have demonstrated milli-arcsecond resolution with few apertures spaced hundreds of meters apart. To obtain rich direct images, many apertures will be needed, for a better sampling of the incoming wavefront.…
Context. Narrow-band interference filters can be tuned toward shorter wavelengths by tilting them from the perpendicular to the optical axis. This can be used as a cheap alternative to real tunable filters, such as Fabry-P\'erot…
Multi-dielectric coated coverslip can be designed to reach large optical field enhancements when working under proper illumination conditions and in total internal reflection. In an objective-based total internal reflection fluorescence…
Future large space- or ground-based telescopes will offer the resolution and sensitivity to probe the habitable zone of a large sample of nearby stars for exo-Earth imaging. To this end, such facilities are expected to be equipped with a…
In disordered materials under mechanical stress, the produced deformation can deviate from the affine one already in the elastic regime. The nonaffine contribution was observed and characterized in numerical simulations for various systems.…
Elaborating reliable and versatile strategies for efficient light coupling between free space and thin films is of crucial importance for new technologies in energy efficiency. Nanostructured materials have opened unprecedented…
Optical imperfections, misalignments, aberrations, and even dust can significantly limit sensitivity in high-contrast imaging systems such as coronagraphs. An upstream deformable mirror (DM) in the pupil can be used to correct or compensate…
Photonic technologies offer numerous advantages for astronomical instruments such as spectrographs and interferometers owing to their small footprints and diverse range of functionalities. Operating at the diffraction-limit, it is…
In recent times, we experimentally realized a quite efficient modeling of the shape of diffraction-resistant optical beams; thus generating for the first time the so-called Frozen Waves (FW), whose longitudinal intensity pattern can be…
The Hot Slumping Technology is under development by several research groups in the world for the realization of grazing-incidence segmented mirrors for X-ray astronomy, based on thin glass plates shaped over a mould at temperatures above…
We consider a scheme of thin films, deposited on periodically modulated amplifying materials. We show that the reflection from such meta-interface can undergo substantial amplification, due to Fano resonances in the thin films. The…
The performance of mirrors in optical interferometers is critically influenced by their surface quality. Accurate metrology enables mirror surfaces to be characterized through phase maps describing their three-dimensional structure after…
Adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful tool employed across various research fields, from aerospace to microscopy. Traditionally, AO has focused on correcting optical phase aberrations, with recent advances extending to polarisation…
The volume available on small satellites restricts the size of optical apertures to a few centimetres, limiting the Ground-Sampling Distance (GSD) in the visible to typically 3 m at 500 km. We present in this paper the latest development of…
Optical tweezers are widely used for the manipulation of cells and their internal structures. However, the degree of manipulation possible is limited by poor control over the orientation of trapped cells. We show that it is possible to…
Astronomical adaptive optics systems with open-loop deformable mirror control have recently come on-line. In these systems, the deformable mirror surface is not included in the wavefront sensor paths, and so changes made to the deformable…
The addition of an optically absorptive layer to otherwise standard dielectric mirrors enables a set of laser direct writing nanostructuring methods that can add functionality to such mirrors while retaining their high reflectivity. These…
Diffractive/refractive optics, such as Phase Fresnel Lenses (PFL's), offer the potential to achieve excellent imaging performance in the x-ray and gamma-ray photon regimes. In principle, the angular resolution obtained with these devices…