Related papers: Theoretical simulation and experimental verificati…
We show theoretically that thermomechanical effects in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals when illuminated by laser beams, can become important and lead to molecular reorientation at intensities substantially lower than that needed for…
We experimentally demonstrate optical control of filamentation that occurs during propagation of intense, ultrashort laser pulses through crystals like barium fluoride and sapphire. Control is exercised by rotating the plane of polarization…
The topic of this thesis is the theoretical analysis of the optomechanical coupling effects in a high-finesse optical cavity, and the experimental realization of such a device. Radiation pressure exerted by light limits the sensitivity of…
The dielectric permittivity of a material encapsulates the essential physics of light-matter interaction into the material's local response to optical excitation. Dynamic, photo-induced modulation of the permittivity can enable an…
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…
Magic windows (or mirrors) consist of optical devices with a surface deformation or thickness distribution devised in such a way to form a desired image. The associated image intensity distribution has been shown to be related to the…
Active optics has attracted considerable interest from researchers in synchrotron radiation facilities, because of its capacity for x-ray wavefront correction. Here, we report a novel and efficient technique for correcting or modulating a…
We simultaneously cool $\gtrsim$100 mechanical modes of a membrane with a photothermally modified optical cavity driven by a single blue-detuned laser. In contrast to radiation pressure and bolometric forces applied directly to the…
In this paper we present a Deformable Mirror (DM) based on the continuous voltage distribution over a resistive layer. This DM can correct the low order aberrations (defocus, astigmatism, coma and spherical aberration) using three…
The availability and performance of laser-based adaptive optics (AO) systems are strongly dependent on the power and quality of the laser beam before being projected to the sky. Frequent and time-consuming alignment procedures are usually…
Relativistic flying mirrors in plasmas are realized as thin dense electron (or electron-ion) layers accelerated by high-intensity electromagnetic waves to velocities close to the speed of light in vacuum. The reflection of an…
Laser beam shaping offers remarkable possibilities to control and optimise process stability and tailor material properties and structure in laser-based welding and additive manufacturing. However, little is known about the influence of…
Particle simulations confined by sharp walls usually develop an oscillatory density profile. For some applications, most notably soft matter liquids, this behavior is often unrealistic and one expects a monotonic density climb instead. To…
Reducing a set of diverse bulk-optic-based optical components to a single ultrathin and compact element that enables the same complex functionality has become an emerging research area, propelling further integration and miniaturization in…
The surface figure of x-ray mirrors can be improved by differential deposition of thin films. To achieve the required corrections, WSi2 layers of variable thickness were deposited through beam-defining apertures of different openings. The…
We present two concepts of deformable mirror to compensate for first order optical aberrations. Deformation systems are designed using both elasticity theory and Finite Element Analysis in order to minimize the number of actuators. Starting…
We study the Dynamical Casimir Effect resulting from the oscillatory motion of either one or two flat semitransparent mirrors, coupled to a quantum real and massless scalar field. Our approach is based on a perturbative evaluation, in the…
We report on the experimental observation of selective delamination of semi-transparent materials on the example of yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics upon femtosecond laser processing of its surface with low numerical aperture lens. The…
This paper introduces DextAIRity, an approach to manipulate deformable objects using active airflow. In contrast to conventional contact-based quasi-static manipulations, DextAIRity allows the system to apply dense forces on out-of-contact…
The formation, deformation, and break-up of liquid interfaces are ubiquitous phenomena in nature. In the present article we discuss the deformation of a liquid interface produced by optical radiation forces. Usually, the bending of such an…