Related papers: NPF: mirror development in Chile
The mission of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is to find Earth-like planets orbiting other stars and characterize the atmospheres of these planets using spectroscopy. Because of the enormous brightness ratio between the star and the…
Substrate-transferred crystalline coatings have recently emerged as a groundbreaking new concept in optical interference coatings. Building upon our initial demonstration of this technology, we have now realized significant improvements in…
In this paper we are exploring the possibilities of 3D printing in the fabrication of mirrors for astronomy. Taking the advantages of 3D printing to solve the existing problems caused by traditional manufacturing, two proof-of-concept…
A broadband two-layer anti-reflection (AR) coating was developed for use on a sapphire half-wave plate (HWP) and an alumina infrared (IR) filter for cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimetry. Measuring tiny CMB B-mode signals requires…
Silicon nanostructuring imparts unique material properties including antireflectivity, antifogging, anti-icing, self-cleaning, and/or antimicrobial activity. To tune these properties however, a good control over features size and shape is…
This study proposes a new way to manufacture large lightweight aspherics for space telescopes using Stress Mirror Polishing (SMP). This technique is well known to allow reaching high quality optical surfaces in a minimum time period, thanks…
Observations of circumstellar environments to look for the direct signal of exoplanets and the scattered light from disks has significant instrumental implications. In the past 15 years, major developments in adaptive optics, coronagraphy,…
Thermally induced fluctuations impose a fundamental limit on precision measurement. In optical interferometry, the current bounds of stability and sensitivity are dictated by the excess mechanical damping of the high-reflectivity coatings…
Optical fibers are the basis for applications that have grown considerably in recent years (telecommunications, sensors, fiber lasers, etc). Despite undeniable successes, it is necessary to develop new generations of amplifying optical…
We present the detailed design of the near infrared camera for the SuMIRe (Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts) Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) being developed for the Subaru Telescope. The PFS spectrograph is designed to collect…
Thermal noise is expected to be the dominant source of noise in the most sensitive frequency band of second generation ground based gravitational wave detectors. Reshaping the beam to a flatter wider profile which probes more of the mirror…
Photonic integrated circuits are established as the technique of choice for a number of astronomical processing functions due to their compactness, high level of integration, low losses, and stability. Temperature control, mechanical…
CMB-S4 will map the cosmic microwave background to unprecedented precision, while simultaneously surveying the millimeter-wave time-domain sky, in order to advance our understanding of cosmology and the universe. CMB-S4 will observe from…
We demonstrate chip-scale flat-top filters at near-infrared wavelengths using negative index photonic crystal based Mach Zehnder interferometers. Supported by full three-dimensional numerical simulations, we experimentally demonstrate a new…
Mirrors are a subset of optical components essential for the success of current and future space missions. Most of the telescopes for space programs ranging from Earth Observation to Astrophysics and covering all the electromagnetic…
Optically resonant particles are key building blocks of many nanophotonic devices such as optical antennas and metasurfaces. Because the functionalities of such devices are largely determined by the optical properties of individual…
With the LIGO announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs), the GW Astronomy was formally ushered into our age. After one-hundred years of theoretical investigation and fifty years of experimental endeavor, this…
The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) is one of the two instruments onboard the ESA PLANCK satellite foreseen to be launched in 2007. The LFI will image the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies and the polarization in four different…
This work presents the development and construction of the Heliometer of the Observat\'orio Nacional/MCTI. This instrument is designed to monitor changes on the solar diameter with the accuracy of the next-generation solar satellites. A…
Thermoelastic noise will be the most significant noise source in advanced-LIGO interferometers with sapphire test masses. The standard plan for advanced-LIGO has optimized the optics, within the framework of conventional mirrors, to reduce…