Related papers: Lobster Eye X-ray Optics
In a previous paper, we reviewed theoretically some of the available processing schemes for X-ray wavefront sensing based on random modulation. We here show experimental applications of the technique for characterising both refractive and…
Optical alignment and testing of the Integrated Science Instrument Module of the James Webb Space Telescope is underway. We describe the Optical Telescope Element Simulator used to feed the science instruments with point images of precisely…
Adaptive optics is a strategy to compensate for sample-induced aberrations in microscopy applications. Generally, it requires the presence of "guide stars" in the sample to serve as localized reference targets. We describe an implementation…
X-ray binary systems consist of a companion star and a compact object in close orbit. Thanks to their copious X-ray emission, these objects have been studied in detail using X-ray spectroscopy and timing. The inclination of these systems is…
The possibility of focusing light to an ever tighter spot has important implications for many applications and fields of optics research, such as nano-optics and plasmonics, laser-scanning microscopy, optical data storage and many more. The…
One important frontier for astronomical adaptive optics (AO) involves methods such as Multi-Object AO and Multi-Conjugate AO that have the potential to give a significantly larger field of view than conventional AO techniques. A second key…
In the last few years, integrated optics (IO) beam combiners have facilitated the emergence of 4-telescope interferometers such as PIONIER or GRAVITY, boosting the imaging capabilities of the VLTI. However, the spectral range beyond…
The imaging depth of deep-tissue optical microscopy is governed by the performance of the gating operation that suppresses the multiply scattered waves obscuring the ballistic waves. Although various gating operations based on confocal,…
The Constellation X-ray Mission is a high throughput X-ray facility emphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (E/\Delta E \sim 300-3000), and broad energy bandpass (0.25-40 keV). Constellation-X will provide a factor of nearly…
X-ray near-field speckle-based phase-sensing approaches provide efficient means to characterise optical elements. Here, we present a theoretical review of several of these speckle methods in the frame of optical characterisation and provide…
Motivated by efforts to return humanity to the Moon, three cases are reviewed for X-ray astronomy from the lunar surface: (1) Facilitation of ambitious engineering designs including high throughput telescopes, long focal length optics and…
The very recent years have seen a promising start in scientific publications making use of images produced by near-infrared long-baseline interferometry. The technique has reached, at last, a technical maturity level that opens new avenues…
This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of high-mass X-ray binaries and ultra-luminous…
As an approximate theory that is highly regarded for its computational efficiency, geometrical optics (GO) is widely used for modeling waves in various areas of physics. However, GO fails at caustics, which significantly limits its…
Superpositions of paraxial laser beam modes to generate atom-optical lenses based on the optical dipole force are investigated theoretically. Thin, wide, parabolic, cylindrical and circular atom lenses with numerical apertures much greater…
Sub-wavelength diffractive optics meta-optics present a multi-scale optical system, where the behavior of constituent sub-wavelength scatterers, or meta-atoms, need to be modelled by full-wave electromagnetic simulations, whereas the whole…
Since its emergence two decades ago, astrophotonics has found broad application in scientific instruments at many institutions worldwide. The case for astrophotonics becomes more compelling as telescopes push for AO-assisted,…
One of the key-points for the future developments of the multiconjugate adaptive optics for the astronomy is the availability of the correction for a large fraction of the sky. The sky coverage represents one of the limits of the existing…
LOFT, the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing, is a new space mission concept devoted to observations of Galactic and extra-Galactic sources in the X-ray domain with the main goals of probing gravity theory in the very strong field…
As we look to the next generation of adaptive optics systems, now is the time to develop and explore the technologies that will allow us to image rocky Earth-like planets; wavefront control algorithms are not only a crucial component of…