Image credit: Yury Zap/Shutterstock.com
We detail the commercial offerings from some of the main players in optical mirrors
An artist's conception of JWST in space. Credit: NASA
The JWST is an example of the culmination of years of work in technology development and research into advancing photonics technologies
Credit: NASA
The EU-funded PULSAR project aimed to create a fully autonomous robotic assembly system that could construct the primary mirror of a telescope from separate parts in orbit
Constraints in traditional manufacturing techniques have historically been a primary factor in the limited integration of freeform and aspheric mirrors into optical systems.
Advances in laser technology have paved the way for the development of powerful, ultrafast lasers with pulse lengths as short as 10fs or less. Building such systems has come with many challenges for the precision optics community. Ultrafast systems therefore require low group delay dispersion (GDD) components to access and maintain femtosecond pulse durations.
Keely Portway looks at some of the latest developments in optical mirrors – including a trend for larger sizes – and how the technology may develop further
The European Extremely Large Telescope project is well underway, and is stretching the capabilities of the optical industry, as Matthew Dale discovers
Professor Paul Shore led the team that micromachined the complex mirrors within James Webb’s mid-infrared instrument. He chats about the technical lessons learnt
EMF invested a great deal of time and effort in developing a coating system for producing long-lasting diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings on chalcogenides at scale
The properties of chalcogenide glass optics have opened up a number of use cases in infrared optics applications and beyond. This article assesses how some of the associated manufacturing and handling challenges of this material can be overcome
Image credit: Yury Zap/Shutterstock.com
We detail the commercial offerings from some of the main players in optical mirrors
Image credit: Mia Stendal/Shutterstock.com
Shining a light on the latest products and solutions in the diode laser space
Optical technologies offer researchers a powerful new toolkit to explore the structure and function of the brain. (Image: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com)
Advances in optical fibres and microscale LEDs are furthering neuroscientists’ understanding of the brain
The nulling interferometry devices under development at Caltech’s Exoplanet Technology Laboratory cancel out starlight to help detect and identify foreign worlds. (Credit: Shutterstock/Dotted Yeti)
Nemanja Jovanovic, lead instrument scientist at Caltech’s Optical Observatory and Exoplanet Technology Laboratory, on emerging astrophotonic technologies on his radar
Robert Smith is a professor at the University of Alberta and historian to JWST since 2002
As James Webb Space Telescope beams back images from the edge of space and time, space historian Robert Smith recalls some of the decisions made to bring the $10bn NASA project to fruition. David Stuart reports
