Ultralightweight deformable mirrors
- Creators
- Patterson, Keith
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Pellegrino, Sergio
Abstract
This paper presents a concept for ultralightweight deformable mirrors, based on a thin substrate of optical surface quality, coated with continuous active layers that provide separate modes of actuation at different length scales. This concept eliminates any kind of stiff backing structure for the mirror surface and exploits microfabrication technologies to provide tight integration of the active materials into the mirror structure, to avoid actuator print-through effects. Proof-of-concept, 10 cm diameter mirrors with an areal density of 0.6 kg/m^2 have been designed, built, and tested to measure their shape-correction performance and verify the finite-element models used for design. The low-cost manufacturing scheme involves low-temperature processing steps (below 140°C) to minimize residual stresses, does not require precision photolithography, and is therefore scalable to larger diameters depending on application requirements.
Additional Information
© 2013 Optical Society of America. Received 25 April 2013; revised 27 June 2013; accepted 1 July 2013; posted 1 July 2013 (Doc. ID 189333); published 22 July 2013. We thank Dr. Harish Manohara (JPL) for providing access to the Microdevices Lab (MDL) cleanroom facilities for sample fabrication. We thank Dr. Risaku Toda (JPL) and Mr. Victor White (JPL) for processing equipment training and usage advice at the MDL. We also thank Dr. Namiko Yamamoto (Caltech) for assistance and advice on mirror fabrication. We are grateful to Dr. Jim Breckinridge (Caltech) for helpful discussions on optics and telescope design, Prof. Chiara Daraio (Caltech) and John Steeves (Caltech) for advice regarding the fabrication of prototype mirrors, and Dr. Andrew Shapiro (JPL) for advice on material selection. We also appreciate the fabrication facilities provided by the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. Financial support from the Keck Institute of Space Studies (KISS) at Caltech is gratefully acknowledged. A part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Attached Files
Published - ao-52-22-5327.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 40912
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130822-142341866
- Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS)
- NASA
- Created
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2013-08-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- GALCIT, Keck Institute for Space Studies