Related papers: Superpolished OAPs for WFIRST CGI
Soft actuators have shown great advantages in compliance and morphology matched for manipulation of delicate objects and inspection in a confined space. There is an unmet need for a soft actuator that can provide torsional motion to e.g.…
We have reported previously on a new method we are developing for using image-based information to improve global coronal magnetic field models. In that work we presented early tests of the method which proved its capability to improve…
The revolution that wireless communication is suffering during the last decades has increased the need for antennas where performances such as lightweight, rapid manufacturing and portability run in parallel with their electric performance.…
We describe our work towards the manufacture of micro-optical arrays using freeform diamond machining techniques. Simulations have been done to show the feasibility of manufacturing micro-lens arrays using the slow-tool servo method. Using…
3D-printed bellow soft pneumatic arms are widely adopted for their flexible design, ease of fabrication, and large deformation capabilities. However, their low stiffness limits their real-world applications. Although several methods exist…
The 3D printing technology based on digital light processing (DLP) has highlighted its powerful manufacturing capabilities for optical components. However, the printing structure obtained by DLP based down projection printing is easily…
The Optimal Optical Coronagraph (OOC) Workshop at the Lorentz Center in September 2017 in Leiden, the Netherlands gathered a diverse group of 25 researchers working on exoplanet instrumentation to stimulate the emergence and sharing of new…
The rise in additive manufacturing comes with unique opportunities and challenges. Massive part customization and rapid design changes are made possible with additive manufacturing, however, manufacturing industries that desire the…
Robotic hands are an important tool for replacing humans in handling toxic or radioactive materials. However, these are usually highly expensive, and in many cases, once they are contaminated, they cannot be re-used. Some solutions cope…
Several recent designs for planet-finding telescopes use coronagraphs operating at visible wavelengths to suppress starlight along the telescope's optical axis while transmitting any off-axis light from circumstellar material. We describe a…
Phase-mask coronagraphs are known to provide high contrast imaging capabilities while preserving a small inner working angle, which allows searching for exoplanets or circumstellar disks with smaller telescopes or at longer wavelengths. The…
Over the past two decades, thousands of confirmed exoplanets have been detected; the next major challenge is to characterize these other worlds and their stellar systems. Much information on the composition and formation of exoplanets and…
A high contrast coronagraph is expected to provide one of the promising ways to directly observe extra-solar planets. We present the newest results of our laboratory experiment investigating "rigid" coronagraph with a binary shaped…
A structured optical fibre is drawn from a 3D-printed structured preform. Preforms containing a single ring of holes around the core are fabricated using filament made from a modified butadiene polymer. More broadly, 3D printers capable of…
(abridged) Vortex coronagraphs are among the most promising solutions to perform high contrast imaging at small angular separations. They feature a very small inner working angle, a clear 360 degree discovery space, have demonstrated very…
We report on a soft route towards optical vortex coronagraphy based on self-engineered electrically tunable vortex masks based on liquid crystal topological defects. These results suggest that a nature-assisted technological approach to the…
We propose a transmission-filter coronagraph for direct imaging of Jupiter-like exoplanets with ground-based telescopes. The coronagraph is based on a transmission filter that consists of finite number of transmission steps. A discrete…
Acquiring a portable high density charged particles trap might consist of an array of micro-Penning-Malmberg traps (microtraps) with substantially lower end barriers potential than conventional Penning-Malmberg traps [1]. We report on the…
A novel method for single-step, lithography-free, and large-scale laser writing of nanoparticle-based plasmonic structures has been developed. Changing energy of femtosecond laser pulses and thickness of irradiated gold film it is possible…
Traditional image stitching approaches tend to leverage increasingly complex geometric features (point, line, edge, etc.) for better performance. However, these hand-crafted features are only suitable for specific natural scenes with…