Related papers: Manufacturing and testing a thin glass mirror shel…
Among smart materials, piezoelectric materials occupy a very prominent position for sensing and actuation functions. Combined with simple or more advanced shunts, they are also proposed in various vibration mitigation schemes. However, the…
Advancements in high-efficiency hybrid variable reluctance (HVR) actuators are an enabling technology for building the next generation of large-format deformable mirrors, including adaptive secondary mirrors. The Netherlands Organization…
Integrated optics are used to achieve astronomical interferometry inside robust and compact materials, improving the instrument's stability and sensitivity. In order to perform differential phase measurements at the H$\alpha$ line (656.3…
We present the design and testing of a prototype in-plane echelle spectrograph based on an actively controlled fibre-fed double-pass design. This system aims to be small and efficient with the minimum number of optical surfaces - currently…
The MagAO-X instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics system for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths on the Magellan Clay Telescope. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical…
Robotic manipulation has made significant advancements, with systems demonstrating high precision and repeatability. However, this remarkable precision often fails to translate into efficient manipulation of thin deformable objects. Current…
Reflective imaging systems form an important part of photonic devices such as spectrometers, telescopes, augmented and virtual reality headsets or lithography platforms. Reflective optics provide unparalleled spectral performance and can be…
Thin-film optical filters can nowadays be integrated onto pixels of commercial image sensors used for spectral imaging. A drawback of having more filters on an image sensor is a loss in spatial resolution which could be regained by using…
Thin-film based phase plates are meanwhile a widespread tool to enhance the contrast of weak-phase objects in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thin film usually consists of amorphous carbon, which suffers from quick degeneration…
The increased need in pointing performance for Earth observation and science Space missions together with the use of lighter and flexible structures directly come with the need of a robust pointing performance budget from the very beginning…
We propose an effective route to fully control the phase of plane waves reflected from electrically (optically) thin sheets. This becomes possible using engineered artificial full-reflection layers (metamirrors) as arrays of electrically…
In this paper we present the first on-sky results with the fibered aperture masking instrument FIRST. Its principle relies on the combination of spatial filtering and aperture masking using single-mode fibers, a novel technique that is…
We present a new kind of varifocal mirror with independently adjustable curvatures in the major directions. For actuation we use two stacked piezo bending actuators with crossed in-plane polarization. This mirror can be used for example as…
Co-phase and co-focus detection is one of the key technologies for large-aperture segmented mirror telescopes. In this paper, a new edge sensor based on fringes of equal thickness is developed, which can detect each segment's relative…
We describe a new technology for the fabrication of inexpensive high-quality mirrors. We begin by chemically producing a large number of metallic nanoparticles coated with organic ligands. The particles are then spread on a liquid substrate…
The reflection of an optical wave from a metal, arising from strong interactions between the optical electric field and the free carriers of the metal, is accompanied by a phase reversal of the reflected electric field. A far less common…
Focusing mirrors for X-ray telescopes in grazing incidence, introduced in the 70s, are characterized in terms of their performance by their imaging quality and effective area, which in turn determines their sensitivity. Even though the…
One of the main design goals of the MAGIC telescopes is the very fast repositioning in case of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) alarms, implying a low weight of the telescope dish. This is accomplished by using a space frame made of carbon fiber epoxy…
Adaptive (or deformable) mirrors are widely used as wavefront correctors in adaptive optics systems. The optical calibration of an adaptive mirror is a fundamental step during its life-cycle: the process is in facts required to compute a…
The MagAO-X instrument is an upgrade of the Magellan AO system that will introduce extreme adaptive optics capabilities for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. A central component of this system is a…