Related papers: Manufacturing and testing a thin glass mirror shel…
Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin…
The need for both high quality images and lightweight structures is one of the main drivers in space telescope design. An efficient wavefront control system will become mandatory in future large observatories, retaining performance while…
The advent of extremely large telescopes will bring unprecedented light-collecting power and spatial resolution, but it will also lead to a significant increase in the size and complexity of focal-plane instruments. The use of freeform…
This paper presents the first-principle design approach for X-ray active optics, using the simulation-modulation cycle in place of the measurement-modulation feedback loops used in traditional active optics. Hence, the new active optics…
We present a method for the production of segmented optics. It is a novel processing developed at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (INAF-OAB) employing commercial of-the-shelf materials. It is based on the shaping of thin glass foils…
The detectors of the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) are broadly limited by the quantum noise and rely on the injection of squeezed states of light to achieve their full sensitivity. Squeezing improvement is…
X-ray mirrors with high focusing performances are in use in both mirror modules for X-ray telescopes and in synchrotron and FEL (Free Electron Laser) beamlines. A degradation of the focus sharpness arises in general from geometrical…
We present a method for the manufacturing of thin shells of glass, which appears promising for the development of active optics for future space telescopes. The method exploits the synergy of different mature technologies, while leveraging…
Active optics is defined as the control of the shape and the alignment of the components of an optical system at low temporal frequencies. For modern large telescopes with flexible monolithic or segmented primary mirrors and also flexible…
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.…
Carbon fibre composite technology for lightweight mirrors is gaining increasing interest in the space- and ground-based astronomical communities for its low weight, ease of manufacturing, excellent thermal qualities and robustness. We…
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…
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…
Micro-scanners have been widely used in many optical applications. The micro-scanner presented in this paper uses multimorph-type bending actuators to tilt a square plate mirror. This paper presents a complete analytical model of the…
We present a simple technique to produce active Q-switching in various types of fiber amplifiers by active integration of an electrostatic actuated deformable metallic micro-mirror. The optical MEMS (MOEMS) device acts as one of the laser…
The latest high-performance telescopes for deep space observation employ very large primary mirrors that are made of smaller segments, like the JWST which employs monolithic beryllium hexagonal segments. A very promising development stage…
In the development of space-based large telescope systems, having the capability to perform active optics correction allows correcting wavefront aberrations caused by thermal perturbations so as to achieve diffraction-limited performance…
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,…
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,…
Sensitivity and resolution of space telescopes are directly related to the size of the primary mirror. Enabling such future extremely large space telescopes or even arrays of those will require to drastically reduce the areal weight of the…