Related papers: NPF: mirror development in Chile
The realization of X-ray telescopes with imaging capabilities in the hard (> 10 keV) X-ray band requires the adoption of optics with shallow (< 0.25 deg) grazing angles to enhance the reflectivity of reflective coatings. On the other hand,…
Traditional glass-based optics are typically optimized for narrow spectral bands, such as the visible (400-700nm) or shortwave infrared (1000-1800nm). While the emergence of VIS-SWIR sensors (400-1700nm) offers transformative potential,…
We describe the design, hardware integration, and calibration performance of the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) instruments for the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission. The WFI instruments are a trio of visible-light…
Conventional mirrors obey Snell's reflection law: a plane wave is reflected as a plane wave, at the same angle. To engineer spatial distributions of fields reflected from a mirror, one can either shape the reflector (for example, creating a…
Wavefront cleaning by single-mode fibers has proved to be efficient in optical-infrared interferometry to improve calibration quality. For instance, the FLUOR instrument has demonstrated the capability of fluoride glass single-mode fibers…
We present an experiment based on a fibered Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The aim is to familiarize students with fibered optics and interferometry, and to improve their understanding of optical amplification. The laboratory project has two…
Fabry-Perot interferometers have advantages over slit spectrographs because they allow fast narrow-band imaging and post-factum image reconstruction of spectropolarimetric data. Temperature, plasma velocity, and magnetic field maps can be…
Among the most fascinating and hotly-debated areas in contemporary astrophysics are the means by which planetary systems are assembled from the large rotating disks of gas and dust which attend a stellar birth. Although important work has…
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,…
The Simons Observatory (SO) will be a cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment with three small-aperture telescopes and one large-aperture telescope, which will observe from the Atacama Desert in Chile. In total, SO will field…
We develop a novel hyperspectral imaging system using structured illumination in an SLM-based Michelson interferometer. In our design, we use a reflective SLM as a mirror in one of the arms of a Michelson interferometer, and scan the…
The South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) is the first instrument of its kind -- a direct-detection imaging spectrometer for astronomy in the submillimeter band. SPIFI's focal plane is a square array of 25 silicon bolometers…
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…
SPIFFI (SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging) is the integral field spectrograph of the VLT-instrument SINFONI (SINgle Far Object Near-infrared Investigation). SINFONI is the combination of SPIFFI with the ESO adaptive optics…
Our work relates to the use of metamaterials engineered to realize a meta-surface approaching the exotic properties of an ideal object not observed in nature, a "magnetic mirror". Previous realizations were based on resonant structures…
Interest in the study of magnetic fields and the properties of interstellar dust, explored through increasingly capable far-IR/submillimeter polarimetry, along with maturing detector technology, have set the stage for a transformative leap…
Resolving fine details of astronomical objects provides critical insights into their underlying physical processes. This drives in part the desire to construct ever-larger telescopes and interferometer arrays and to observe at shorter…
The quantum efficiency and reflectivity of thick, back-illuminated CCD's being fabricated at LBNL for astronomical applications are modeled and compared with experiment. The treatment differs from standard thin-film optics in that (a)…
We report on the design of an all-mirror wavefront-division interferometer capable of spectroscopic studies across multiple spectral ranges$\unicode{x2013}$from the plasma frequencies of metals to terahertz wavelengths and beyond. The…
The thermal emission at sub-millimeter wavelengths carries unique information in many astronomical applications ranging from disks and planet formation around young stars, to galaxy evolution studies at cosmological distances. Advancing on…