Related papers: Formation flying for a Fresnel lens observatory mi…
Diffractive/refractive optics, such as Phase Fresnel Lenses (PFL's), offer the potential to achieve excellent imaging performance in the x-ray and gamma-ray photon regimes. In principle, the angular resolution obtained with these devices…
In principle, diffractive optics, particularly Phase Fresnel Lenses (PFLs), offer the ability to construct large, diffraction-limited, and highly efficient X-ray/$\gamma$-ray telescopes, leading to dramatic improvement in angular resolution…
Phase Fresnel lenses have the same imaging properties as zone plates, but with the possibility of concentrating all of the incident power into the primary focus, increasing the maximum theoretical efficiency from 11% to close to 100%. For…
Spacecraft formation flying serves as a method of astronomical instrumentation that enables the construction of large virtual structures in space. The formation-flying interferometry generally requires very-high control accuracy, and…
Space interferometry is the inevitable endpoint of high angular resolution astrophysics, and a key technology that can be leveraged to analyse exoplanet formation and atmospheres with exceptional detail. However, the anticipated cost of…
The capability of maintaining two satellites in precise relative position, stable in a celestial coordinate system, would enable major advances in a number of scientific disciplines and with a variety of types of instrumentation. The common…
Fresnel lenses offer the possibility of concentrating the flux of X-rays or gamma-rays flux falling on a geometric area of many square metres onto a focal point which need only be a millimetre or so in diameter (and which may even be very…
The low-energy gamma-ray domain is an important window for the study of the high energy Universe. Here matter can be observed in extreme physical conditions and during powerful explosive events. However, observing gamma-rays from faint…
The Virtual Telescope for X-Ray Observations (VTXO) is an Astrophysics SmallSat mission being developed to demonstrate 10-milliarcsecond X-ray imaging using a Phase Fresnel Lense (PFL) based space telescope. PFLs promise to provide several…
The ultimate astronomical observatory would be a formation flying interferometer in space, immune to atmospheric turbulence and absorption, free from atmospheric and telescope thermal emission, and reconfigurable to adjust baselines…
Formation-flying studies to date have required continuous and minute corrections of the orbital elements and attitudes of the spacecraft.This increases the complexity, and associated risk, of controlling the formation, which often makes…
Recent theoretical and experimental studies have shown that imaging with resolution well beyond the diffraction limit can be obtained with so-called superlenses. Images formed by such superlenses are, however, in the near field only, or a…
The Fresnel Interferometric Imager is a space-based astronomical telescope project yielding milli-arc second angular resolution and high contrast images with loose manufacturing constraints. This optical concept involves diffractive…
Traditional approaches to measuring the stellar mass function (MF) are fundamentally limited because objects are detected based on their luminosity, not their mass. These methods are thereby restricted to luminous and relatively nearby…
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), like pulsars, display radio emission from compact regions such that they can be treated as point sources. As this radiation propagates through space, they encounter sources of lensing such as a gravitational field…
Thin structured surfaces allow flexible control over propagation of electromagnetic waves. Focusing and polarization state analysis are among functions, required for effective manipulation of radiation. Here a polarization sensitive Fresnel…
Plasma lensing is the refraction of low-frequency electromagnetic rays due to cold free electrons in the universe. For sources at a cosmological distance, there is observational evidence of elongated, complex plasma structures along the…
Gravitational lensing of fast radio bursts (FRBs) offers an exciting avenue for several cosmological applications. However, it is not yet clear how many such events future surveys will detect nor how to optimally find them. We use the known…
Efficient ion-photon coupling is an important component for large-scale ion-trap quantum computing. We propose that arrays of phase Fresnel lenses (PFLs) are a favorable optical coupling technology to match with multi-zone ion traps. Both…
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project is dedicated to defining a next-generation facility that can answer fundamental questions about how planets form, including detection of young giant exoplanets and their circumplanetary disks. The…