Rapid monolith development at scale is achieved through use of a functionally equivalent optic simulant made from a low-cost material to substitute the functional optic. Monolith optical performance is affected not only by thermal expansion but also by temperature inhomogeneity due to the temperature dependence of refractive index.
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- Laser Materials Processing (5)
- Diode Lasers (4)
- Optical Damage Mitigation (3)
- Precision Optical Finishing (3)
- RF Photonics (3)
- Ultrashort Pulse Lasers (2)
- Additively Manufactured (AM) Optics (1)
- Manufacturing Simulation (1)
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- (-) Compact Space Telescopes (5)
- (-) Precision Engineering (1)
![MonoTel Compact Monolithic Space Telescope](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_exact_400x400_/public/2024-01/MonoTel%20Compact%20Monolithic%20Space%20Telescope.png?itok=G-ETi6O8)
Aeroptics are a proposed new class of monolithic optical system in aerogel fabricated by molding around a master mandrel. This approach combines the intrinsic stability of proven monolithic telescopes, with the ultralow density of silica aerogels. In Aeroptics, the monolith is hollow with an aerogel substrate providing a supporting structure. Theoretically, Aeroptics could enable 1-m aperture…
![MonoTel Compact Monolithic Space Telescope](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_exact_400x400_/public/2024-01/MonoTel%20Compact%20Monolithic%20Space%20Telescope.png?itok=G-ETi6O8)
This invention achieves both a wider field of view and faster f-number within a monolithic substrate by incorporating an aspheric convex refractive first surface and a planar aspheric field corrector surface on the final refractive surface. These two refractive surfaces work in conjunction with a concave aspheric primary and convex aspheric secondary mirror (e.g. Cassegrain type) to improve…
![monolithic_telescope.png monolithic_telescope](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_exact_400x400_/public/2019-08/monolithic_telescope.png?itok=s7ZajArc)
Monolithic Telescopes are a novel implementation of a solid catadioptric design form, instantiated in a monolithic block of fused silica.
![Optics](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_exact_400x400_/public/2022-07/Optics.jpg?itok=it_V--Tv)
The LLNL method for optimizing as built optical designs uses insights from perturbed optical system theory and reformulates perturbation of optical performance in terms of double Zernikes, which can be calculated analytically rather than by tracing thousands of rays. A new theory of compensation is enabled by the use of double Zernikes which allows the performance degradation of a perturbed…
![Space-based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris (STARE)](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_exact_400x400_/public/2022-06/STARE.jpg?itok=nUdNYjfG)
LLNL is developing the Space-based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris (STARE). STARE is a constellation of low cost nano-satellites (less than 5Kg) in low-earth orbit dedicated to the observation of space debris in conjunction with a ground-based infrastructure for maintenance, coordination and data processing. Each nano-satellite in the constellation is capable of recording an…