Related papers: The SNAP Telescope
The primary goal of the MAP satellite, now in orbit, is to make high fidelity polarization sensitive maps of the full sky in five frequency bands between 20 and 100 GHz. From these maps we will characterize the properties of the cosmic…
Submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths provide a unique view of the Universe, from the gas and dust that fills and surrounds galaxies to the chromosphere of our own Sun. Current single-dish facilities have presented a tantalising view of…
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) consists of 64 antennas of 12m diameter that will initially observe in 4 frequency bands between 84 and 720 GHz with spatial resolutions down to 0.01" and velocity resolutions as fine as 0.05 km/s.…
A large wide-field telescope and camera with optical throughput over 200 m^2 deg^2 -- a factor of 50 beyond what we currently have -- would enable the detection of faint moving or bursting optical objects: from Earth threatening asteroids…
We have designed, built, and characterized a high-resolution objective lens that is compatible with an ultra-high vacuum environment. The lens system exploits the principle of the Weierstrass-sphere solid immersion lens to reach a numerical…
We developed a scan mirror mechanism (SMM) that enable a slit-based spectrometer or spectropolarimeter to precisely and quickly map an astronomical object. The SMM, designed to be installed in the optical path preceding the entrance slit,…
Flat optics have been proposed as an attractive approach for the implementation of new imaging and sensing modalities to replace and augment refractive optics. However, chromatic aberrations impose fundamental limitations on diffractive…
Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) allows for the observation of the optical response of material surfaces with a resolution far below the diffraction limit. Based on amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy…
We present the development of Linear Astigmatism Free - Three Mirror System (LAF-TMS). This is a prototype of an off-axis telescope that enables very wide field of view (FoV) infrared satellites that can observe Paschen-$\alpha$ emission,…
SuperSpec is a pathfinder for future lithographic spectrometer cameras, which promise to energize extra-galactic astrophysics at (sub)millimeter wavelengths: delivering 200--500 km/s spectral velocity resolution over an octave bandwidth for…
The resolution of far-field optical microscopes, which rely on propagating optical modes, is widely believed to be limited because of diffraction to a value on the order of a half-wavelength $\lambda /2$ of the light used. Although…
We examine the utility of very high redshift Type Ia supernovae for cosmology and systematic uncertainty control. Next generation space surveys such as the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) will obtain thousands of supernovae at z>1.7,…
This project presents the development and implementation of a compact spectrometer, named SPECTRUMMATE, tailored for small telescopes. Small telescopes offer several advantages: they are cost-effective, occupy less space, and are simpler to…
The numerical aperture (NA) of a lens determines its ability to focus light and its resolving capability. Having a large NA is a very desirable quality for applications requiring small light-matter interaction volumes or large angular…
The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) aims to be the premier next generation large diameter (50-meter) single dish observatory capable of observations across the millimeter/sub-millimeter spectrum, from 30 to 950~GHz.…
The survey of a strip of sky carried out with a zenith-observing 4-m liquid mirror can discover and observe several thousand supernovae/year to z = 1, making it quite competitive with other proposed surveys. Because LMs are inexpensive, and…
We present the design of the prototype telescope and spectrograph system for the Affordable Multiple Aperture Spectroscopy Explorer (AMASE) project. AMASE is a planned project that will pair 100 identical multi-fiber spectrographs with a…
Microscopes and various forms of interferometers have been used for decades in optical metrology of objects that are typically larger than the wavelength of light {\lambda}. However, metrology of subwavelength objects was deemed impossible…
The far-field resolution of optical imaging systems is restricted by the Abbe diffraction limit, a direct result of the wave nature of light. One successful technological approach to circumventing this limit is to reduce the effective size…
A Superoscillatory lens (SOL) is known to produce a sub-diffraction hotspot which is useful for high-resolution imaging. However, high-energy rings called sidelobes coexist with the central hotspot. Additionally, SOLs have not yet been…