APPHi: Automated Photometry Pipeline for High Cadence Large Volume Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sánchez, E.; Castro, J.; Silva, J.; Hernández, J.; Reyes, M.; Hernández, B.; Alvarez, F.; García T.

2018-04-01

APPHi (Automated Photometry Pipeline) carries out aperture and differential photometry of TAOS-II project data. It is computationally efficient and can be used also with other astronomical wide-field image data. APPHi works with large volumes of data and handles both FITS and HDF5 formats. Due the large number of stars that the software has to handle in an enormous number of frames, it is optimized to automatically find the best value for parameters to carry out the photometry, such as mask size for aperture, size of window for extraction of a single star, and the number of counts for the threshold for detecting a faint star. Although intended to work with TAOS-II data, APPHi can analyze any set of astronomical images and is a robust and versatile tool to performing stellar aperture and differential photometry.

Development and Testing of a Power Trough System Using a Structurally-Efficient, High-Performance, Large-Aperture Concentrator with Thin Glass Reflector and Focal Point Rotation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

May, E. K.; Forristall, R.

2005-11-01

Industrial Solar Technology has assembled a team of experts to develop a large-aperture parabolic trough for the electric power market that moves beyond cost and operating limitations of 1980's designs based on sagged glass reflectors. IST's structurally efficient space frame design will require nearly 50% less material per square meter than a Solel LS-2 concentrator and the new trough will rotate around the focal point. This feature eliminates flexhoses that increase pump power, installation and maintenance costs. IST aims to deliver a concentrator module costing less than $100 per square meter that can produce temperatures up to 400 C. Themore » IST concentrator is ideally suited for application of front surface film reflectors and ensures that US corporations will manufacture major components, except for the high temperature receivers.« less

A vacuum flash-assisted solution process for high-efficiency large-area perovskite solar cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xiong; Bi, Dongqin; Yi, Chenyi; Décoppet, Jean-David; Luo, Jingshan; Zakeeruddin, Shaik Mohammed; Hagfeldt, Anders; Grätzel, Michael

2016-07-01

Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) currently attract enormous research interest because of their high solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency (PCE) and low fabrication costs, but their practical development is hampered by difficulties in achieving high performance with large-size devices. We devised a simple vacuum flash-assisted solution processing method to obtain shiny, smooth, crystalline perovskite films of high electronic quality over large areas. This enabled us to fabricate solar cells with an aperture area exceeding 1 square centimeter, a maximum efficiency of 20.5%, and a certified PCE of 19.6%. By contrast, the best certified PCE to date is 15.6% for PSCs of similar size. We demonstrate that the reproducibility of the method is excellent and that the cells show virtually no hysteresis. Our approach enables the realization of highly efficient large-area PSCs for practical deployment.

Narrowband, tunable, 2 µm optical parametric master-oscillator power amplifier with large-aperture periodically poled Rb:KTP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coetzee, R. S.; Zheng, X.; Fregnani, L.; Laurell, F.; Pasiskevicius, V.

2018-06-01

A high-energy, ns, narrow-linewidth optical parametric oscillator and amplifier system based on large-aperture periodically poled Rb:KTP is presented. The 2 µm seed source is a singly resonant OPO locked with a transversely chirped volume Bragg grating, allowing a wavelength tuning of 21 nm and output linewidth of 0.56 nm. A maximum output energy of 52 mJ and conversion efficiency of 36% was obtained from the amplifier for a pump energy of 140 mJ. The high-energy and the robust and narrow dual-wavelength spectra obtained make this system an ideal pump source for difference frequency generation-based THz generation schemes.

Study on High Resolution Membrane-Based Diffractive Optical Imaging on Geostationary Orbit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiao, J.; Wang, B.; Wang, C.; Zhang, Y.; Jin, J.; Liu, Z.; Su, Y.; Ruan, N.

2017-05-01

Diffractive optical imaging technology provides a new way to realize high resolution earth observation on geostationary orbit. There are a lot of benefits to use the membrane-based diffractive optical element in ultra-large aperture optical imaging system, including loose tolerance, light weight, easy folding and unfolding, which make it easy to realize high resolution earth observation on geostationary orbit. The implementation of this technology also faces some challenges, including the configuration of the diffractive primary lens, the development of high diffraction efficiency membrane-based diffractive optical elements, and the correction of the chromatic aberration of the diffractive optical elements. Aiming at the configuration of the diffractive primary lens, the "6+1" petal-type unfold scheme is proposed, which consider the compression ratio, the blocking rate and the development complexity. For high diffraction efficiency membrane-based diffractive optical element, a self-collimating method is proposed. The diffraction efficiency is more than 90 % of the theoretical value. For the chromatic aberration correction problem, an optimization method based on schupmann is proposed to make the imaging spectral bandwidth in visible light band reach 100 nm. The above conclusions have reference significance for the development of ultra-large aperture diffractive optical imaging system.

Multi-aperture digital coherent combining for free-space optical communication receivers.

PubMed

Geisler, David J; Yarnall, Timothy M; Stevens, Mark L; Schieler, Curt M; Robinson, Bryan S; Hamilton, Scott A

2016-06-13

Space-to-ground optical communication systems can benefit from reducing the size, weight, and power profiles of space terminals. One way of reducing the required power-aperture product on a space platform is to implement effective, but costly, single-aperture ground terminals with large collection areas. In contrast, we present a ground terminal receiver architecture in which many small less-expensive apertures are efficiently combined to create a large effective aperture while maintaining excellent receiver sensitivity. This is accomplished via coherent detection behind each aperture followed by digitization. The digitized signals are then combined in a digital signal processing chain. Experimental results demonstrate lossless coherent combining of four lasercom signals, at power levels below 0.1 photons/bit/aperture.

Highly efficient periodically poled KTP-isomorphs with large apertures and extreme domain aspect-ratios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canalias, Carlota; Zukauskas, Andrius; Tjörnhamman, Staffan; Viotti, Anne-Lise; Pasiskevicius, Valdas; Laurell, Fredrik

2018-02-01

Since the early 1990's, a substantial effort has been devoted to the development of quasi-phased-matched (QPM) nonlinear devices, not only in ferroelectric oxides like LiNbO3, LiTaO3 and KTiOPO4 (KTP), but also in semiconductors as GaAs, and GaP. The technology to implement QPM structures in ferroelectric oxides has by now matured enough to satisfy the most basic frequency-conversion schemes without substantial modification of the poling procedures. Here, we present a qualitative leap in periodic poling techniques that allows us to demonstrate devices and frequency conversion schemes that were deemed unfeasible just a few years ago. Thanks to our short-pulse poling and coercive-field engineering techniques, we are able to demonstrate large aperture (5 mm) periodically poled Rb-doped KTP devices with a highly-uniform conversion efficiency over the whole aperture. These devices allow parametric conversion with energies larger than 60 mJ. Moreover, by employing our coercive-field engineering technique we fabricate highlyefficient sub-µm periodically poled devices, with periodicities as short as 500 nm, uniform over 1 mm-thick crystals, which allow us to realize mirrorless optical parametric oscillators with counter-propagating signal and idler waves. These novel devices present unique spectral and tuning properties, superior to those of conventional OPOs. Furthermore, our techniques are compatible with KTA, a KTP isomorph with extended transparency in the mid-IR range. We demonstrate that our highly-efficient PPKTA is superior both for mid-IR and for green light generation - as a result of improved transmission properties in the visible range. Our KTP-isomorph poling techniques leading to highly-efficient QPM devices will be presented. Their optical performance and attractive damage thresholds will be discussed.

A solvent- and vacuum-free route to large-area perovskite films for efficient solar modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Han; Ye, Fei; Tang, Wentao; He, Jinjin; Yin, Maoshu; Wang, Yanbo; Xie, Fengxian; Bi, Enbing; Yang, Xudong; Grätzel, Michael; Han, Liyuan

2017-10-01

Recent advances in the use of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites for optoelectronics have been rapid, with reported power conversion efficiencies of up to 22 per cent for perovskite solar cells. Improvements in stability have also enabled testing over a timescale of thousands of hours. However, large-scale deployment of such cells will also require the ability to produce large-area, uniformly high-quality perovskite films. A key challenge is to overcome the substantial reduction in power conversion efficiency when a small device is scaled up: a reduction from over 20 per cent to about 10 per cent is found when a common aperture area of about 0.1 square centimetres is increased to more than 25 square centimetres. Here we report a new deposition route for methyl ammonium lead halide perovskite films that does not rely on use of a common solvent or vacuum: rather, it relies on the rapid conversion of amine complex precursors to perovskite films, followed by a pressure application step. The deposited perovskite films were free of pin-holes and highly uniform. Importantly, the new deposition approach can be performed in air at low temperatures, facilitating fabrication of large-area perovskite devices. We reached a certified power conversion efficiency of 12.1 per cent with an aperture area of 36.1 square centimetres for a mesoporous TiO2-based perovskite solar module architecture.

A series connection architecture for large-area organic photovoltaic modules with a 7.5% module efficiency.

PubMed

Hong, Soonil; Kang, Hongkyu; Kim, Geunjin; Lee, Seongyu; Kim, Seok; Lee, Jong-Hoon; Lee, Jinho; Yi, Minjin; Kim, Junghwan; Back, Hyungcheol; Kim, Jae-Ryoung; Lee, Kwanghee

2016-01-05

The fabrication of organic photovoltaic modules via printing techniques has been the greatest challenge for their commercial manufacture. Current module architecture, which is based on a monolithic geometry consisting of serially interconnecting stripe-patterned subcells with finite widths, requires highly sophisticated patterning processes that significantly increase the complexity of printing production lines and cause serious reductions in module efficiency due to so-called aperture loss in series connection regions. Herein we demonstrate an innovative module structure that can simultaneously reduce both patterning processes and aperture loss. By using a charge recombination feature that occurs at contacts between electron- and hole-transport layers, we devise a series connection method that facilitates module fabrication without patterning the charge transport layers. With the successive deposition of component layers using slot-die and doctor-blade printing techniques, we achieve a high module efficiency reaching 7.5% with area of 4.15 cm(2).

Achieving the Earth Science Enterprise Vision for the 21st Century: Platform Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lemmerman, Loren; Komar, George (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The ESE observational architecture of the future vision is dramatically different from that of today. The vision suggests observations from multiple orbits, collaborating space assets, and even seamless integration of space and other assets. Observations from GEO or from Libration points rather than from LEO suggest spacecraft carrying instruments with large deployable apertures. Minimization of launch costs suggests that these large apertures have long life, be extremely mass and volume efficient, and have low life cycle cost. Another significant challenge associated with high latitude orbits is high precision pointing and control. Finally, networks of spacecraft flying in predetermined constellation will be required either to apply complementary assets to an observation or to extend the virtual aperture beyond that attainable with a single spacecraft. These changes dictate development of new technology on several fronts, which are outlined in this paper. A section on high speed communications will outline requirements and approaches now envisioned. Sensorwebs will be developed from the viewpoint of work already begun for both space and for terrestrial networks. Precision guidance, navigation and control will be addressed from the perspective of precision flying for repeat pass interferometry and extreme pointing stability for advanced altimetry. A separate section will address requirements for distributed systems. Large lightweight deployables will be discussed with an emphasis on inflatable technology and its predicted benefits for large aperture instruments. For each technology area listed, current state-of-the-art, technological approaches for future development, and projected levels of performance are outlined.

A Radar/Radiometer Instrument for Mapping Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hildebrand, Peter H.; Hilliard, Laurence; Rincon, Rafael; LeVine, David; Mead, James

2003-01-01

The RadSTAR instrument combines an L-band, digital beam-forming radar with an L-band synthetic aperture, thinned array (STAR) radiometer. The RadSTAR development will support NASA Earth science goals by developing a novel, L-band scatterometer/ radiometer that measures Earth surface bulk material properties (surface emissions and backscatter) as well as surface characteristics (backscatter). Present, real aperture airborne L-Band active/passive measurement systems such as the JPUPALS (Wilson, et al, 2000) provide excellent sampling characteristics, but have no scanning capabilities, and are extremely large; the huge JPUPALS horn requires a the C-130 airborne platform, operated with the aft loading door open during flight operation. The approach used for the upcoming Aquarius ocean salinity mission or the proposed Hydros soil mission use real apertures with multiple fixed beams or scanning beams. For real aperture instruments, there is no upgrade path to scanning over a broad swath, except rotation of the whole aperture, which is an approach with obvious difficulties as aperture size increases. RadSTAR will provide polarimetric scatterometer and radiometer measurements over a wide swath, in a highly space-efficient configuration. The electronic scanning approaches provided through STAR technology and digital beam forming will enable the large L-band aperture to scan efficiently over a very wide swath. RadSTAR technology development, which merges an interferometric radiometer with a digital beam forming scatterometer, is an important step in the path to space for an L-band scatterometer/radiometer. RadSTAR couples a patch array antenna with a 1.26 GHz digital beam forming radar scatterometer and a 1.4 GHz STAR radiometer to provide Earth surface backscatter and emission measurements in a compact, cross-track scanning instrument with no moving parts. This technology will provide the first L-band, emission and backscatter measurements in a compact aircraft instrument and will be ideally suited to large apertures, possibly at GEO, and could possibly be implemented on a swarm of micro-satellites. This instrument will have wide application for validation studies, and will have application for other microwave frequencies.

Large space antenna communications systems: Integrated Langley Research Center/Jet Propulsion Laboratory development activities. 2: Langley Research Center activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cambell, T. G.; Bailey, M. C.; Cockrell, C. R.; Beck, F. B.

1983-01-01

The electromagnetic analysis activities at the Langley Research Center are resulting in efficient and accurate analytical methods for predicting both far- and near-field radiation characteristics of large offset multiple-beam multiple-aperture mesh reflector antennas. The utilization of aperture integration augmented with Geometrical Theory of Diffraction in analyzing the large reflector antenna system is emphasized.

Eyeglass Large Aperture, Lightweight Space Optics FY2000 - FY2002 LDRD Strategic Initiative

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hyde, R

2003-02-10

A series of studies by the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA have identified the critical role played by large optics in fulfilling many of the space related missions of these agencies. Whether it is the Next Generation Space Telescope for NASA, high resolution imaging systems for NRO, or beam weaponry for the Air Force, the diameter of the primary optic is central to achieving high resolution (imaging) or a small spot size on target (lethality). While the detailed requirements differ for each application (high resolution imaging over the visible and near-infrared for earth observation, high damage thresholdmore » but single-wavelength operation for directed energy), the challenges of a large, lightweight primary optic which is space compatible and operates with high efficiency are the same. The advantage of such large optics to national surveillance applications is that it permits these observations to be carried-out with much greater effectiveness than with smaller optics. For laser weapons, the advantage is that it permits more tightly focused beams which can be leveraged into either greater effective range, reduced laser power, and/or smaller on-target spot-sizes; weapon systems can be made either much more effective or much less expensive. This application requires only single-wavelength capability, but places an emphasis upon robust, rapidly targetable optics. The advantages of large aperture optics to astronomy are that it increases the sensitivity and resolution with which we can view the universe. This can be utilized either for general purpose astronomy, allowing us to examine greater numbers of objects in more detail and at greater range, or it can enable the direct detection and detailed examination of extra-solar planets. This application requires large apertures (for both light-gathering and resolution reasons), with broad-band spectral capability, but does not emphasize either large fields-of-view or pointing agility. Despite differences in their requirements and implementations, the fundamental difficulty in utilizing large aperture optics is the same for all of these applications: It is extremely difficult to design large aperture space optics which are both optically precise and can meet the practical requirements for launch and deployment in space. At LLNL we have developed a new concept (Eyeglass) which uses large diffractive optics to solve both of these difficulties; greatly reducing both the mass and the tolerance requirements for large aperture optics. During previous LDRD-supported research, we developed this concept, built and tested broadband diffractive telescopes, and built 50 cm aperture diffraction-limited diffractive lenses (the largest in the world). This work is fully described in UCRL-ID-136262, Eyeglass: A Large Aperture Space Telescope. However, there is a large gap between optical proof-of-principle with sub-meter apertures, and actual 50 meter space telescopes. This gap is far too large (both in financial resources and in spacecraft expertise) to be filled internally at LLNL; implementation of large aperture diffractive space telescopes must be done externally using non-LLNL resources and expertise. While LLNL will never become the primary contractor and integrator for large space optical systems, our natural role is to enable these devices by developing the capability of producing very large diffractive optics. Accordingly, the purpose of the Large Aperture, Lightweight Space Optics Strategic Initiative was to develop the technology to fabricate large, lightweight diffractive lenses. The additional purpose of this Strategic Initiative was, of course, to demonstrate this lens-fabrication capability in a fashion compellingly enough to attract the external support necessary to continue along the path to full-scale space-based telescopes. During this 3 year effort (FY2000-FY2002) we have developed the capability of optically smoothing and diffractively-patterning thin meter-sized sheets of glass into lens panels. We have also developed alignment and seaming techniques which allow individual lens panels to be assembled together, forming a much larger, segmented, diffractive lens. The capabilities provided by this LDRD-supported developmental effort were then demonstrated by the fabrication and testing of a lightweight, 5 meter aperture, diffractive lens.« less

Partially Filled Aperture Interferometric Telescopes: Achieving Large Aperture and Coronagraphic Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moretto, G.; Kuhn, J.; Langlois, M.; Berdugyna, S.; Tallon, M.

2017-09-01

Telescopes larger than currently planned 30-m class instruments must break the mass-aperture scaling relationship of the Keck-generation of multi-segmented telescopes. Partially filled aperture, but highly redundant baseline interferometric instruments may achieve both large aperture and high dynamic range. The PLANETS FOUNDATION group has explored hybrid telescope-interferometer concepts for narrow-field optical systems that exhibit coronagraphic performance over narrow fields-of-view. This paper describes how the Colossus and Exo-Life Finder telescope designs achieve 10x lower moving masses than current Extremely Large Telescopes.

Application of CHESS single-bounce capillaries at synchrotron beamlines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, R.; Szebenyi, T.; Pfeifer, M.; Woll, A.; Smilgies, D.-M.; Finkelstein, K.; Dale, D.; Wang, Y.; Vila-Comamala, J.; Gillilan, R.; Cook, M.; Bilderback, D. H.

2014-03-01

Single-bounce capillaries are achromatic X-ray focusing optics that can provide efficient and high demagnification focusing with large numerical apertures. Capillary fabrication at CHESS can be customized according to specific application requirements. Exemplary applications are reviewed in this paper, as well as recent progress on condensers for high-resolution transmission X-ray microscopy and small focal size capillaries.

A series connection architecture for large-area organic photovoltaic modules with a 7.5% module efficiency

PubMed Central

Hong, Soonil; Kang, Hongkyu; Kim, Geunjin; Lee, Seongyu; Kim, Seok; Lee, Jong-Hoon; Lee, Jinho; Yi, Minjin; Kim, Junghwan; Back, Hyungcheol; Kim, Jae-Ryoung; Lee, Kwanghee

2016-01-01

The fabrication of organic photovoltaic modules via printing techniques has been the greatest challenge for their commercial manufacture. Current module architecture, which is based on a monolithic geometry consisting of serially interconnecting stripe-patterned subcells with finite widths, requires highly sophisticated patterning processes that significantly increase the complexity of printing production lines and cause serious reductions in module efficiency due to so-called aperture loss in series connection regions. Herein we demonstrate an innovative module structure that can simultaneously reduce both patterning processes and aperture loss. By using a charge recombination feature that occurs at contacts between electron- and hole-transport layers, we devise a series connection method that facilitates module fabrication without patterning the charge transport layers. With the successive deposition of component layers using slot-die and doctor-blade printing techniques, we achieve a high module efficiency reaching 7.5% with area of 4.15 cm2. PMID:26728507

Highly uniform parallel microfabrication using a large numerical aperture system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Zi-Yu; Su, Ya-Hui, E-mail: ustcsyh@ahu.edu.cn, E-mail: dongwu@ustc.edu.cn; Zhang, Chen-Chu

In this letter, we report an improved algorithm to produce accurate phase patterns for generating highly uniform diffraction-limited multifocal arrays in a large numerical aperture objective system. It is shown that based on the original diffraction integral, the uniformity of the diffraction-limited focal arrays can be improved from ∼75% to >97%, owing to the critical consideration of the aperture function and apodization effect associated with a large numerical aperture objective. The experimental results, e.g., 3 × 3 arrays of square and triangle, seven microlens arrays with high uniformity, further verify the advantage of the improved algorithm. This algorithm enables the laser parallelmore » processing technology to realize uniform microstructures and functional devices in the microfabrication system with a large numerical aperture objective.« less

Optimized method for manufacturing large aspheric surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Xusheng; Li, Shengyi; Dai, Yifan; Xie, Xuhui

2007-12-01

Aspheric optics are being used more and more widely in modern optical systems, due to their ability of correcting aberrations, enhancing image quality, enlarging the field of view and extending the range of effect, while reducing the weight and volume of the system. With optical technology development, we have more pressing requirement to large-aperture and high-precision aspheric surfaces. The original computer controlled optical surfacing (CCOS) technique cannot meet the challenge of precision and machining efficiency. This problem has been thought highly of by researchers. Aiming at the problem of original polishing process, an optimized method for manufacturing large aspheric surfaces is put forward. Subsurface damage (SSD), full aperture errors and full band of frequency errors are all in control of this method. Lesser SSD depth can be gained by using little hardness tool and small abrasive grains in grinding process. For full aperture errors control, edge effects can be controlled by using smaller tools and amendment model with material removal function. For full band of frequency errors control, low frequency errors can be corrected with the optimized material removal function, while medium-high frequency errors by using uniform removing principle. With this optimized method, the accuracy of a K9 glass paraboloid mirror can reach rms 0.055 waves (where a wave is 0.6328μm) in a short time. The results show that the optimized method can guide large aspheric surface manufacturing effectively.

Dark-field microscopic image stitching method for surface defects evaluation of large fine optics.

PubMed

Liu, Dong; Wang, Shitong; Cao, Pin; Li, Lu; Cheng, Zhongtao; Gao, Xin; Yang, Yongying

2013-03-11

One of the challenges in surface defects evaluation of large fine optics is to detect defects of microns on surfaces of tens or hundreds of millimeters. Sub-aperture scanning and stitching is considered to be a practical and efficient method. But since there are usually few defects on the large aperture fine optics, resulting in no defects or only one run-through line feature in many sub-aperture images, traditional stitching methods encounter with mismatch problem. In this paper, a feature-based multi-cycle image stitching algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. The overlapping areas of sub-apertures are categorized based on the features they contain. Different types of overlapping areas are then stitched in different cycles with different methods. The stitching trace is changed to follow the one that determined by the features. The whole stitching procedure is a region-growing like process. Sub-aperture blocks grow bigger after each cycle and finally the full aperture image is obtained. Comparison experiment shows that the proposed method is very suitable to stitch sub-apertures that very few feature information exists in the overlapping areas and can stitch the dark-field microscopic sub-aperture images very well.

Advanced communications payload for mobile applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ames, S. A.; Kwan, R. K.

1990-01-01

An advanced satellite payload is proposed for single hop linking of mobile terminals of all classes as well as Very Small Aperture Terminal's (VSAT's). It relies on an intensive use of communications on-board processing and beam hopping for efficient link design to maximize capacity and a large satellite antenna aperture and high satellite transmitter power to minimize the cost of the ground terminals. Intersatellite links are used to improve the link quality and for high capacity relay. Power budgets are presented for links between the satellite and mobile, VSAT, and hub terminals. Defeating the effects of shadowing and fading requires the use of differentially coherent demodulation, concatenated forward error correction coding, and interleaving, all on a single link basis.

Sub-aperture stitching test of a cylindrical mirror with large aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xue, Shuai; Chen, Shanyong; Shi, Feng; Lu, Jinfeng

2016-09-01

Cylindrical mirrors are key optics of high-end equipment of national defense and scientific research such as high energy laser weapons, synchrotron radiation system, etc. However, its surface error test technology develops slowly. As a result, its optical processing quality can not meet the requirements, and the developing of the associated equipment is hindered. Computer Generated-Hologram (CGH) is commonly utilized as null for testing cylindrical optics. However, since the fabrication process of CGH with large aperture is not sophisticated yet, the null test of cylindrical optics with large aperture is limited by the aperture of the CGH. Hence CGH null test combined with sub-aperture stitching method is proposed to break the limit of the aperture of CGH for testing cylindrical optics, and the design of CGH for testing cylindrical surfaces is analyzed. Besides, the misalignment aberration of cylindrical surfaces is different from that of the rotational symmetric surfaces since the special shape of cylindrical surfaces, and the existing stitching algorithm of rotational symmetric surfaces can not meet the requirements of stitching cylindrical surfaces. We therefore analyze the misalignment aberrations of cylindrical surfaces, and study the stitching algorithm for measuring cylindrical optics with large aperture. Finally we test a cylindrical mirror with large aperture to verify the validity of the proposed method.

Research on precision grinding technology of large scale and ultra thin optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Lian; Wei, Qiancai; Li, Jie; Chen, Xianhua; Zhang, Qinghua

2018-03-01

The flatness and parallelism error of large scale and ultra thin optics have an important influence on the subsequent polishing efficiency and accuracy. In order to realize the high precision grinding of those ductile elements, the low deformation vacuum chuck was designed first, which was used for clamping the optics with high supporting rigidity in the full aperture. Then the optics was planar grinded under vacuum adsorption. After machining, the vacuum system was turned off. The form error of optics was on-machine measured using displacement sensor after elastic restitution. The flatness would be convergenced with high accuracy by compensation machining, whose trajectories were integrated with the measurement result. For purpose of getting high parallelism, the optics was turned over and compensation grinded using the form error of vacuum chuck. Finally, the grinding experiment of large scale and ultra thin fused silica optics with aperture of 430mm×430mm×10mm was performed. The best P-V flatness of optics was below 3 μm, and parallelism was below 3 ″. This machining technique has applied in batch grinding of large scale and ultra thin optics.

High Resolution Full-Aperture ISAR Processing through Modified Doppler History Based Motion Compensation

PubMed Central

Song, Jung-Hwan; Lee, Kee-Woong; Lee, Woo-Kyung; Jung, Chul-Ho

2017-01-01

A high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) technique is presented using modified Doppler history based motion compensation. To this purpose, a novel wideband ISAR system is developed that accommodates parametric processing over extended aperture length. The proposed method is derived from an ISAR-to-SAR approach that makes use of high resolution spotlight SAR and sub-aperture recombination. It is dedicated to wide aperture ISAR imaging and exhibits robust performance against unstable targets having non-linear motions. We demonstrate that the Doppler histories of the full aperture ISAR echoes from disturbed targets are efficiently retrieved with good fitting models. Experiments have been conducted on real aircraft targets and the feasibility of the full aperture ISAR processing is verified through the acquisition of high resolution ISAR imagery. PMID:28555036

Broadband light funneling in ultrasubwavelength channels having periodic connected unfilled apertures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Subramania, Ganapathi Subramanian; Brener, Igal; Foteinopoulou, Stavroula

2017-08-01

A structure for broadband light funneling comprises a two-dimensional periodic array of connected ultrasubwavelength apertures, each aperture comprising a large sub-aperture that aids in the coupling of the incoming incident light and a small sub-aperture that funnels a significant fraction of the incident light power. The structure possesses all the capabilities of prior extraordinary optical transmission platforms, yet operates nonresonantly on a distinctly different mechanism. The structure demonstrates efficient ultrabroadband funneling of optical power confined in an area as small as .about.(.lamda./500).sup.2, where optical fields are enhanced, thus exhibiting functional possibilities beyond resonant platforms.

Aperture effects in squid jet propulsion.

PubMed

Staaf, Danna J; Gilly, William F; Denny, Mark W

2014-05-01

Squid are the largest jet propellers in nature as adults, but as paralarvae they are some of the smallest, faced with the inherent inefficiency of jet propulsion at a low Reynolds number. In this study we describe the behavior and kinematics of locomotion in 1 mm paralarvae of Dosidicus gigas, the smallest squid yet studied. They swim with hop-and-sink behavior and can engage in fast jets by reducing the size of the mantle aperture during the contraction phase of a jetting cycle. We go on to explore the general effects of a variable mantle and funnel aperture in a theoretical model of jet propulsion scaled from the smallest (1 mm mantle length) to the largest (3 m) squid. Aperture reduction during mantle contraction increases propulsive efficiency at all squid sizes, although 1 mm squid still suffer from low efficiency (20%) because of a limited speed of contraction. Efficiency increases to a peak of 40% for 1 cm squid, then slowly declines. Squid larger than 6 cm must either reduce contraction speed or increase aperture size to maintain stress within maximal muscle tolerance. Ecological pressure to maintain maximum velocity may lead them to increase aperture size, which reduces efficiency. This effect might be ameliorated by nonaxial flow during the refill phase of the cycle. Our model's predictions highlight areas for future empirical work, and emphasize the existence of complex behavioral options for maximizing efficiency at both very small and large sizes.

Large-aperture plasma-assisted deposition of inertial confinement fusion laser coatings.

PubMed

Oliver, James B; Kupinski, Pete; Rigatti, Amy L; Schmid, Ansgar W; Lambropoulos, John C; Papernov, Semyon; Kozlov, Alexei; Spaulding, John; Sadowski, Daniel; Chrzan, Z Roman; Hand, Robert D; Gibson, Desmond R; Brinkley, Ian; Placido, Frank

2011-03-20

Plasma-assisted electron-beam evaporation leads to changes in the crystallinity, density, and stresses of thin films. A dual-source plasma system provides stress control of large-aperture, high-fluence coatings used in vacuum for substrates 1m in aperture.

High-energy, high-average-power laser with Nd:YLF rods corrected by magnetorheological finishing.

PubMed

Bagnoud, Vincent; Guardalben, Mark J; Puth, Jason; Zuegel, Jonathan D; Mooney, Ted; Dumas, Paul

2005-01-10

A high-energy, high-average-power laser system, optimized to efficiently pump a high-performance optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier at 527 nm, has been demonstrated. The crystal large-aperture ring amplifier employs two flash-lamp-pumped, 25.4-mm-diameter Nd:YLF rods. The transmitted wave front of these rods is corrected by magnetorheological finishing to achieve nearly diffraction-limited output performance with frequency-doubled pulse energies up to 1.8 J at 5 Hz.

Holographic Airborne Rotating Lidar Instrument Experiment (HARLIE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwemmer, Geary K.

1998-01-01

Scanning holographic lidar receivers are currently in use in two operational lidar systems, PHASERS (Prototype Holographic Atmospheric Scanner for Environmental Remote Sensing) and now HARLIE (Holographic Airborne Rotating Lidar Instrument Experiment). These systems are based on volume phase holograms made in dichromated gelatin (DCG) sandwiched between 2 layers of high quality float glass. They have demonstrated the practical application of this technology to compact scanning lidar systems at 532 and 1064 nm wavelengths, the ability to withstand moderately high laser power and energy loading, sufficient optical quality for most direct detection systems, overall efficiencies rivaling conventional receivers, and the stability to last several years under typical lidar system environments. Their size and weight are approximately half of similar performing scanning systems using reflective optics. The cost of holographic systems will eventually be lower than the reflective optical systems depending on their degree of commercialization. There are a number of applications that require or can greatly benefit from a scanning capability. Several of these are airborne systems, which either use focal plane scanning, as in the Laser Vegetation Imaging System or use primary aperture scanning, as in the Airborne Oceanographic Lidar or the Large Aperture Scanning Airborne Lidar. The latter class requires a large clear aperture opening or window in the aircraft. This type of system can greatly benefit from the use of scanning transmission holograms of the HARLIE type because the clear aperture required is only about 25% larger than the collecting aperture as opposed to 200-300% larger for scan angles of 45 degrees off nadir.

Position measurement of the direct drive motor of Large Aperture Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ying; Wang, Daxing

2010-07-01

Along with the development of space and astronomy science, production of large aperture telescope and super large aperture telescope will definitely become the trend. It's one of methods to solve precise drive of large aperture telescope using direct drive technology unified designed of electricity and magnetism structure. A direct drive precise rotary table with diameter of 2.5 meters researched and produced by us is a typical mechanical & electrical integration design. This paper mainly introduces position measurement control system of direct drive motor. In design of this motor, position measurement control system requires having high resolution, and precisely aligning the position of rotor shaft and making measurement, meanwhile transferring position information to position reversing information corresponding to needed motor pole number. This system has chosen high precision metal band coder and absolute type coder, processing information of coders, and has sent 32-bit RISC CPU making software processing, and gained high resolution composite coder. The paper gives relevant laboratory test results at the end, indicating the position measurement can apply to large aperture telescope control system. This project is subsidized by Chinese National Natural Science Funds (10833004).

Efficient dielectric metasurface collimating lenses for mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers.

PubMed

Arbabi, Amir; Briggs, Ryan M; Horie, Yu; Bagheri, Mahmood; Faraon, Andrei

2015-12-28

Light emitted from single-mode semiconductor lasers generally has large divergence angles, and high numerical aperture lenses are required for beam collimation. Visible and near infrared lasers are collimated using aspheric glass or plastic lenses, yet collimation of mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers typically requires more costly aspheric lenses made of germanium, chalcogenide compounds, or other infrared-transparent materials. Here we report mid-infrared dielectric metasurface flat lenses that efficiently collimate the output beam of single-mode quantum cascade lasers. The metasurface lenses are composed of amorphous silicon posts on a flat sapphire substrate and can be fabricated at low cost using a single step conventional UV binary lithography. Mid-infrared radiation from a 4.8 μm distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser is collimated using a polarization insensitive metasurface lens with 0.86 numerical aperture and 79% transmission efficiency. The collimated beam has a half divergence angle of 0.36° and beam quality factor of M2=1.02.

Efficient dielectric metasurface collimating lenses for mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

DOE PAGES

Arbabi, Amir; Briggs, Ryan M.; Horie, Yu; ...

2015-01-01

Light emitted from single-mode semiconductor lasers generally has large divergence angles, and high numerical aperture lenses are required for beam collimation. Visible and near infrared lasers are collimated using aspheric glass or plastic lenses, yet collimation of mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers typically requires more costly aspheric lenses made of germanium, chalcogenide compounds, or other infrared-transparent materials. We report mid-infrared dielectric metasurface flat lenses that efficiently collimate the output beam of single-mode quantum cascade lasers. The metasurface lenses are composed of amorphous silicon posts on a flat sapphire substrate and can be fabricated at low cost using a single step conventionalmore » UV binary lithography. Mid-infrared radiation from a 4.8 μm distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser is collimated using a polarization insensitive metasurface lens with 0.86 numerical aperture and 79% transmission efficiency. The collimated beam has a half divergence angle of 0.36° and beam quality factor of M² =1.02.« less

Dual-foci detection in photoacoustic computed tomography with coplanar light illumination and acoustic detection: a phantom study.

PubMed

Lin, Xiangwei; Liu, Chengbo; Meng, Jing; Gong, Xiaojing; Lin, Riqiang; Sun, Mingjian; Song, Liang

2018-05-01

A dual-foci transducer with coplanar light illumination and acoustic detection was applied for the first time. It overcame the small directivity angle, low-sensitivity, and large datasets in conventional circular scanning or array-based photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT). The custom-designed transducer is focused on both the scanning plane with virtual-point detection and the elevation direction for large field of view (FOV) cross-sectional imaging. Moreover, a coplanar light illumination and acoustic detection configuration can provide ring-shaped light irradiation with highly efficient acoustic detection, which in principle has a better adaptability when imaging samples of irregular surfaces. Phantom experiments showed that our PACT system can achieve high resolution (∼0.5  mm), enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (16-dB improvement), and a more complete structure in a greater FOV with an equal number of sampling points compared with the results from a flat aperture transducer. This study provides the proof of concept for the fabrication of a sparse array with the dual-foci property and large aperture size for high-quality, low-cost, and high-speed photoacoustic imaging. (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Metasurface Enabled Wide-Angle Fourier Lens.

PubMed

Liu, Wenwei; Li, Zhancheng; Cheng, Hua; Tang, Chengchun; Li, Junjie; Zhang, Shuang; Chen, Shuqi; Tian, Jianguo

2018-06-01

Fourier optics, the principle of using Fourier transformation to understand the functionalities of optical elements, lies at the heart of modern optics, and it has been widely applied to optical information processing, imaging, holography, etc. While a simple thin lens is capable of resolving Fourier components of an arbitrary optical wavefront, its operation is limited to near normal light incidence, i.e., the paraxial approximation, which puts a severe constraint on the resolvable Fourier domain. As a result, high-order Fourier components are lost, resulting in extinction of high-resolution information of an image. Other high numerical aperture Fourier lenses usually suffer from the bulky size and costly designs. Here, a dielectric metasurface consisting of high-aspect-ratio silicon waveguide array is demonstrated experimentally, which is capable of performing 1D Fourier transform for a large incident angle range and a broad operating bandwidth. Thus, the device significantly expands the operational Fourier space, benefitting from the large numerical aperture and negligible angular dispersion at large incident angles. The Fourier metasurface will not only facilitate efficient manipulation of spatial spectrum of free-space optical wavefront, but also be readily integrated into micro-optical platforms due to its compact size. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

High-Capacity Communications from Martian Distances

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, W. Dan; Collins, Michael; Hodges, Richard; Orr, Richard S.; Sands, O. Scott; Schuchman, Leonard; Vyas, Hemali

2007-01-01

High capacity communications from Martian distances, required for the envisioned human exploration and desirable for data-intensive science missions, is challenging. NASA s Deep Space Network currently requires large antennas to close RF telemetry links operating at kilobit-per-second data rates. To accommodate higher rate communications, NASA is considering means to achieve greater effective aperture at its ground stations. This report, focusing on the return link from Mars to Earth, demonstrates that without excessive research and development expenditure, operational Mars-to-Earth RF communications systems can achieve data rates up to 1 Gbps by 2020 using technology that today is at technology readiness level (TRL) 4-5. Advanced technology to achieve the needed increase in spacecraft power and transmit aperture is feasible at an only moderate increase in spacecraft mass and technology risk. In addition, both power-efficient, near-capacity coding and modulation and greater aperture from the DSN array will be required. In accord with these results and conclusions, investment in the following technologies is recommended:(1) lightweight (1 kg/sq m density) spacecraft antenna systems; (2) a Ka-band receive ground array consisting of relatively small (10-15 m) antennas; (3) coding and modulation technology that reduces spacecraft power by at least 3 dB; and (4) efficient generation of kilowatt-level spacecraft RF power.

Three-Dimensional Terahertz Coded-Aperture Imaging Based on Matched Filtering and Convolutional Neural Network.

PubMed

Chen, Shuo; Luo, Chenggao; Wang, Hongqiang; Deng, Bin; Cheng, Yongqiang; Zhuang, Zhaowen

2018-04-26

As a promising radar imaging technique, terahertz coded-aperture imaging (TCAI) can achieve high-resolution, forward-looking, and staring imaging by producing spatiotemporal independent signals with coded apertures. However, there are still two problems in three-dimensional (3D) TCAI. Firstly, the large-scale reference-signal matrix based on meshing the 3D imaging area creates a heavy computational burden, thus leading to unsatisfactory efficiency. Secondly, it is difficult to resolve the target under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this paper, we propose a 3D imaging method based on matched filtering (MF) and convolutional neural network (CNN), which can reduce the computational burden and achieve high-resolution imaging for low SNR targets. In terms of the frequency-hopping (FH) signal, the original echo is processed with MF. By extracting the processed echo in different spike pulses separately, targets in different imaging planes are reconstructed simultaneously to decompose the global computational complexity, and then are synthesized together to reconstruct the 3D target. Based on the conventional TCAI model, we deduce and build a new TCAI model based on MF. Furthermore, the convolutional neural network (CNN) is designed to teach the MF-TCAI how to reconstruct the low SNR target better. The experimental results demonstrate that the MF-TCAI achieves impressive performance on imaging ability and efficiency under low SNR. Moreover, the MF-TCAI has learned to better resolve the low-SNR 3D target with the help of CNN. In summary, the proposed 3D TCAI can achieve: (1) low-SNR high-resolution imaging by using MF; (2) efficient 3D imaging by downsizing the large-scale reference-signal matrix; and (3) intelligent imaging with CNN. Therefore, the TCAI based on MF and CNN has great potential in applications such as security screening, nondestructive detection, medical diagnosis, etc.

Large field distributed aperture laser semiactive angle measurement system design with imaging fiber bundles.

PubMed

Xu, Chunyun; Cheng, Haobo; Feng, Yunpeng; Jing, Xiaoli

2016-09-01

A type of laser semiactive angle measurement system is designed for target detecting and tracking. Only one detector is used to detect target location from four distributed aperture optical systems through a 4×1 imaging fiber bundle. A telecentric optical system in image space is designed to increase the efficiency of imaging fiber bundles. According to the working principle of a four-quadrant (4Q) detector, fiber diamond alignment is adopted between an optical system and a 4Q detector. The structure of the laser semiactive angle measurement system is, we believe, novel. Tolerance analysis is carried out to determine tolerance limits of manufacture and installation errors of the optical system. The performance of the proposed method is identified by computer simulations and experiments. It is demonstrated that the linear region of the system is ±12°, with measurement error of better than 0.2°. In general, this new system can be used with large field of view and high accuracy, providing an efficient, stable, and fast method for angle measurement in practical situations.

Alternative Beam Efficiency Calculations for a Large-aperture Multiple-frequency Microwave Radiometer (LAMMR)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, R. F.

1979-01-01

The fundamental definition of beam efficiency, given in terms of a far field radiation pattern, was used to develop alternative definitions which improve accuracy, reduce the amount of calculation required, and isolate the separate factors composing beam efficiency. Well-known definitions of aperture efficiency were introduced successively to simplify the denominator of the fundamental definition. The superposition of complex vector spillover and backscattered fields was examined, and beam efficiency analysis in terms of power patterns was carried out. An extension from single to dual reflector geometries was included. It is noted that the alternative definitions are advantageous in the mathematical simulation of a radiometer system, and are not intended for the measurements discipline where fields have merged and therefore lost their identity.

A fundamental mode Nd:GdVO4 laser pumped by a large aperture 808 nm VCSEL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Y. Q.; Ma, J. L.; Yan, C. L.; Liu, G. J.; Ma, X. H.; Gong, J. F.; Feng, Y.; Wei, Z. P.; Wang, Y. X.; Zhao, Y. J.

2013-05-01

A fundamental mode Nd:GdVO4 laser pumped by a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is experimentally demonstrated. The VCSEL has a circular output-beam which makes it easier for it to be directly coupled to a Nd:GdVO4 microcrystal. In our research, a large aperture 808 nm VCSEL, with a multi-ring-shaped aperture (MRSA) and an almost Gaussian-shaped far-field profile, is used as the pumping source. Experimental results for the Nd:GdVO4 laser pumped by the VCSEL are presented. The maximum output peak power of 0.754 W is obtained under a pump peak power of 1.3 W, and the corresponding opto-optic conversion efficiency is 58.1%. The average slope efficiency is 65.8% from the threshold pump power of 0.2 W to the pump power of 1.3 W. The laser beam quality factors are measured to be {M}x2=1.2 0 and {M}y2=1.1 5.

Solar Rejection Filter for Large Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemmati, Hamid; Lesh, James

2009-01-01

To reject solar radiation photons at the front aperture for large telescopes, a mosaic of large transmission mode filters is placed in front of the telescope or at the aperture of the dome. Filtering options for effective rejection of sunlight include a smaller filter down-path near the focus of the telescope, and a large-diameter filter located in the front of the main aperture. Two types of large filters are viable: reflectance mode and transmittance mode. In the case of reflectance mode, a dielectric coating on a suitable substrate (e.g. a low-thermal-expansion glass) is arranged to reflect only a single, narrow wavelength and to efficiently transmit all other wavelengths. These coatings are commonly referred to as notch filter. In this case, the large mirror located in front of the telescope aperture reflects the received (signal and background) light into the telescope. In the case of transmittance mode, a dielectric coating on a suitable substrate (glass, sapphire, clear plastic, membrane, and the like) is arranged to transmit only a single wavelength and to reject all other wavelengths (visible and near IR) of light. The substrate of the large filter will determine its mass. At first glance, a large optical filter with a diameter of up to 10 m, located in front of the main aperture, would require a significant thickness to avoid sagging. However, a segmented filter supported by a structurally rugged grid can support smaller filters. The obscuration introduced by the grid is minimal because the total area can be made insignificant. This configuration can be detrimental to a diffraction- limited telescope due to diffraction effects at the edges of each sub-panel. However, no discernable degradation would result for a 20 diffraction-limit telescope (a photon bucket). Even the small amount of sagging in each subpanel should have minimal effect in the performance of a non-diffraction limited telescope because the part has no appreciable optical power. If the front aperture filter is integrated with the telescope dome, it will reject heat from the dome and will significantly reduce dome temperature regulation requirements and costs. Also, the filter will protect the telescope optics from dust and other contaminants in the atmosphere. It will be simpler to clean or replace this filter than the telescope primary mirror. It may be necessary to paint the support grid with a highly reflective material to avoid overheating.

Ringfield lithographic camera

DOEpatents

Sweatt, W.C.

1998-09-08

A projection lithography camera is presented with a wide ringfield optimized so as to make efficient use of extreme ultraviolet radiation from a large area radiation source (e.g., D{sub source} {approx_equal} 0.5 mm). The camera comprises four aspheric mirrors optically arranged on a common axis of symmetry. The camera includes an aperture stop that is accessible through a plurality of partial aperture stops to synthesize the theoretical aperture stop. Radiation from a mask is focused to form a reduced image on a wafer, relative to the mask, by reflection from the four aspheric mirrors. 11 figs.

Dual-band plasmonic resonator based on Jerusalem cross-shaped nanoapertures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cetin, Arif E.; Kaya, Sabri; Mertiri, Alket; Aslan, Ekin; Erramilli, Shyamsunder; Altug, Hatice; Turkmen, Mustafa

2015-06-01

In this paper, we both experimentally and numerically introduce a dual-resonant metamaterial based on subwavelength Jerusalem cross-shaped apertures. We numerically investigate the physical origin of the dual-resonant behavior, originating from the constituting aperture elements, through finite difference time domain calculations. Our numerical calculations show that at the dual-resonances, the aperture system supports large and easily accessible local electromagnetic fields. In order to experimentally realize the aperture system, we utilize a high-precision and lift-off free fabrication method based on electron-beam lithography. We also introduce a fine-tuning mechanism for controlling the dual-resonant spectral response through geometrical device parameters. Finally, we show the aperture system's highly advantageous far- and near-field characteristics through numerical calculations on refractive index sensitivity. The quantitative analyses on the availability of the local fields supported by the aperture system are employed to explain the grounds behind the sensitivity of each spectral feature within the dual-resonant behavior. Possessing dual-resonances with large and accessible electromagnetic fields, Jerusalem cross-shaped apertures can be highly advantageous for wide range of applications demanding multiple spectral features with strong nearfield characteristics.

Aerogel-clad optical fiber

DOEpatents

Sprehn, G.A.; Hrubesh, L.W.; Poco, J.F.; Sandler, P.H.

1997-11-04

An optical fiber is surrounded by an aerogel cladding. For a low density aerogel, the index of refraction of the aerogel is close to that of air, which provides a high numerical aperture to the optical fiber. Due to the high numerical aperture, the aerogel clad optical fiber has improved light collection efficiency. 4 figs.

Aerogel-clad optical fiber

DOEpatents

Sprehn, Gregory A.; Hrubesh, Lawrence W.; Poco, John F.; Sandler, Pamela H.

1997-01-01

An optical fiber is surrounded by an aerogel cladding. For a low density aerogel, the index of refraction of the aerogel is close to that of air, which provides a high numerical aperture to the optical fiber. Due to the high numerical aperture, the aerogel clad optical fiber has improved light collection efficiency.

An Improved Solution for Integrated Array Optics in Quasi-Optical mm and Submm Receivers: the Hybrid Antenna

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buttgenbach, Thomas H.

1993-01-01

The hybrid antenna discussed here is defined as a dielectric lens-antenna as a special case of an extended hemi-spherical dielectric lens that is operated in the diffraction limited regime. It is a modified version of the planar antenna on a lens scheme developed by Rutledge. The dielectric lens-antenna is fed by a planar-structure antenna, which is mounted on the flat side of the dielectric lens-antenna using it as a substrate, and the combination is termed a hybrid antenna. Beam pattern and aperture efficiency measurements were made at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths as a function of extension of the hemi- spherical lens and different lens sizes. An optimum extension distance is found experimentally and numerically for which excellent beam patterns and simultaneously high aperture efficiencies can be achieved. At 115 GHz the aperture efficiency was measured to be (76 4 +/- 6) % for a diffraction limited beam with sidelobes below -17 dB. Results of a single hybrid antenna with an integrated Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) detector and a broad-band matching structure at submillimeter wavelengths are presented. The hybrid antenna is diffraction limited, space efficient in an array due to its high aperture efficiency, and is easily mass produced, thus being well suited for focal plane heterodyne receiver arrays.

Near-Space TOPSAR Large-Scene Full-Aperture Imaging Scheme Based on Two-Step Processing

PubMed Central

Zhang, Qianghui; Wu, Junjie; Li, Wenchao; Huang, Yulin; Yang, Jianyu; Yang, Haiguang

2016-01-01

Free of the constraints of orbit mechanisms, weather conditions and minimum antenna area, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) equipped on near-space platform is more suitable for sustained large-scene imaging compared with the spaceborne and airborne counterparts. Terrain observation by progressive scans (TOPS), which is a novel wide-swath imaging mode and allows the beam of SAR to scan along the azimuth, can reduce the time of echo acquisition for large scene. Thus, near-space TOPS-mode SAR (NS-TOPSAR) provides a new opportunity for sustained large-scene imaging. An efficient full-aperture imaging scheme for NS-TOPSAR is proposed in this paper. In this scheme, firstly, two-step processing (TSP) is adopted to eliminate the Doppler aliasing of the echo. Then, the data is focused in two-dimensional frequency domain (FD) based on Stolt interpolation. Finally, a modified TSP (MTSP) is performed to remove the azimuth aliasing. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed imaging scheme for near-space large-scene imaging application. PMID:27472341

High-speed and high-resolution quantitative phase imaging with digital-micromirror device-based illumination (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Renjie; Jin, Di; Yaqoob, Zahid; So, Peter T. C.

2017-02-01

Due to the large number of available mirrors, the patterning speed, low-cost, and compactness, digital-micromirror devices (DMDs) have been extensively used in biomedical imaging system. Recently, DMDs have been brought to the quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) field to achieve synthetic-aperture imaging and tomographic imaging. Last year, our group demonstrated using DMD for QPM, where the phase-retrieval is based on a recently developed Fourier ptychography algorithm. In our previous system, the illumination angle was varied through coding the aperture plane of the illumination system, which has a low efficiency on utilizing the laser power. In our new DMD-based QPM system, we use the Lee-holograms, which is conjugated to the sample plane, to change the illumination angles for much higher power efficiency. Multiple-angle illumination can also be achieved with this method. With this versatile system, we can achieve FPM-based high-resolution phase imaging with 250 nm lateral resolution using the Rayleigh criteria. Due to the use of a powerful laser, the imaging speed would only be limited by the camera acquisition speed. With a fast camera, we expect to achieve close to 100 fps phase imaging speed that has not been achieved in current FPM imaging systems. By adding reference beam, we also expect to achieve synthetic-aperture imaging while directly measuring the phase of the sample fields. This would reduce the phase-retrieval processing time to allow for real-time imaging applications in the future.

Large Aperture "Photon Bucket" Optical Receiver Performance in High Background Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vilnrotter, Victor A.; Hoppe, D.

2011-01-01

The potential development of large aperture groundbased "photon bucket" optical receivers for deep space communications, with acceptable performance even when pointing close to the sun, is receiving considerable attention. Sunlight scattered by the atmosphere becomes significant at micron wavelengths when pointing to a few degrees from the sun, even with the narrowest bandwidth optical filters. In addition, high quality optical apertures in the 10-30 meter range are costly and difficult to build with accurate surfaces to ensure narrow fields-of-view (FOV). One approach currently under consideration is to polish the aluminum reflector panels of large 34-meter microwave antennas to high reflectance, and accept the relatively large FOV generated by state-of-the-art polished aluminum panels with rms surface accuracies on the order of a few microns, corresponding to several-hundred micro-radian FOV, hence generating centimeter-diameter focused spots at the Cassegrain focus of 34-meter antennas. Assuming pulse-position modulation (PPM) and Poisson-distributed photon-counting detection, a "polished panel" photon-bucket receiver with large FOV will collect hundreds of background photons per PPM slot, along with comparable signal photons due to its large aperture. It is demonstrated that communications performance in terms of PPM symbol-error probability in high-background high-signal environments depends more strongly on signal than on background photons, implying that large increases in background energy can be compensated by a disproportionally small increase in signal energy. This surprising result suggests that large optical apertures with relatively poor surface quality may nevertheless provide acceptable performance for deep-space optical communications, potentially enabling the construction of cost-effective hybrid RF/optical receivers in the future.

Ringfield lithographic camera

DOEpatents

Sweatt, William C.

1998-01-01

A projection lithography camera is presented with a wide ringfield optimized so as to make efficient use of extreme ultraviolet radiation from a large area radiation source (e.g., D.sub.source .apprxeq.0.5 mm). The camera comprises four aspheric mirrors optically arranged on a common axis of symmetry with an increased etendue for the camera system. The camera includes an aperture stop that is accessible through a plurality of partial aperture stops to synthesize the theoretical aperture stop. Radiation from a mask is focused to form a reduced image on a wafer, relative to the mask, by reflection from the four aspheric mirrors.

Solar receiver performance of point focusing collector system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, Y. C.; Wen, L. C.

1978-01-01

The solar receiver performance of cavity receivers and external receivers used in dispersed solar power systems was evaluated for the temperature range 300-1300 C. Several parameters of receiver and concentrator are examined. It was found that cavity receivers are generally more efficient than external receivers, especially at high temperatures which require a large heat transfer area. The effects of variation in the ratio of receiver area to aperture area are considered.

Intense THz Pulses with large ponderomotive potential generated from large aperture photoconductive antennas.

PubMed

Ropagnol, X; Khorasaninejad, M; Raeiszadeh, M; Safavi-Naeini, S; Bouvier, M; Côté, C Y; Laramée, A; Reid, M; Gauthier, M A; Ozaki, T

2016-05-30

We report the generation of free space terahertz (THz) pulses with energy up to 8.3 ± 0.2 µJ from an encapsulated interdigitated ZnSe Large Aperture Photo-Conductive Antenna (LAPCA). An aperture of 12.2 cm² is illuminated using a 400 nm pump laser with multi-mJ energies at 10 Hz repetition rate. The calculated THz peak electric field is 331 ± 4 kV/cm with a spectrum characterized by a median frequency of 0.28 THz. Given its relatively low frequency, this THz field will accelerate charged particles efficiently having very large ponderomotive energy of 15 ± 1 eV for electrons in vacuum. The scaling of the emission is studied with respect to the dimensions of the antenna, and it is observed that the capacitance of the LAPCA leads to a severe decrease in and distortion of the biasing voltage pulse, fundamentally limiting the maximum applied bias field and consequently the maximum energy of the radiated THz pulses. In order to demonstrate the advantages of this source in the strong field regime, an open-aperture Z-scan experiment was performed on n-doped InGaAs, which showed significant absorption bleaching.

High-performance etching of multilevel phase-type Fresnel zone plates with large apertures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Chengli; Zhang, Zhiyu; Xue, Donglin; Li, Longxiang; Wang, Ruoqiu; Zhou, Xiaoguang; Zhang, Feng; Zhang, Xuejun

2018-01-01

To ensure the etching depth uniformity of large-aperture Fresnel zone plates (FZPs) with controllable depths, a combination of a point source ion beam with a dwell-time algorithm has been proposed. According to the obtained distribution of the removal function, the latter can be used to optimize the etching time matrix by minimizing the root-mean-square error between the simulation results and the design value. Owing to the convolution operation in the utilized algorithm, the etching depth error is insensitive to the etching rate fluctuations of the ion beam, thereby reducing the requirement for the etching stability of the ion system. As a result, a 4-level FZP with a circular aperture of 300 mm was fabricated. The obtained results showed that the etching depth uniformity of the full aperture could be reduced to below 1%, which was sufficiently accurate for meeting the use requirements of FZPs. The proposed etching method may serve as an alternative way of etching high-precision diffractive optical elements with large apertures.

Development of large-aperture electro-optical switch for high power laser at CAEP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xiongjun; Wu, Dengsheng; Zhang, Jun; Lin, Donghui; Zheng, Jiangang; Zheng, Kuixing

2015-02-01

Large-aperture electro-optical switch based on plasma Pockels cell (PPC) is one of important components for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) laser facility. We have demonstrated a single-pulse driven 4×1 PPC with 400mm×400mm aperture for SGIII laser facility. And four 2×1 PPCs modules with 350mm×350mm aperture have been operated in SGII update laser facility. It is different to the PPC of NIF and LMJ for its simple operation to perform Pockels effect. With optimized operation parameters, the PPCs meet the SGII-U laser requirement of four-pass amplification control. Only driven by one high voltage pulser, the simplified PPC system would be provided with less associated diagnostics, and higher reliability. To farther reduce the insert loss of the PPC, research on the large-aperture PPC based on DKDP crystal driven by one pulse is developed. And several single-pulse driven PPCs with 80mm×80mm DKDP crystal have been manufactured and operated in laser facilities.

Large-aperture focusing of x rays with micropore optics using dry etching of silicon wafers.

PubMed

Ezoe, Yuichiro; Moriyama, Teppei; Ogawa, Tomohiro; Kakiuchi, Takuya; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Mitsuda, Kazuhisa; Aoki, Tatsuhiko; Morishita, Kohei; Nakajima, Kazuo

2012-03-01

Large-aperture focusing of Al K(α) 1.49 keV x-ray photons using micropore optics made from a dry-etched 4 in. (100 mm) silicon wafer is demonstrated. Sidewalls of the micropores are smoothed with high-temperature annealing to work as x-ray mirrors. The wafer is bent to a spherical shape to collect parallel x rays into a focus. Our result supports that this new type of optics allows for the manufacturing of ultralight-weight and high-performance x-ray imaging optics with large apertures at low cost. © 2012 Optical Society of America

Design quadrilateral apertures in binary computer-generated holograms of large space bandwidth product.

PubMed

Wang, Jing; Sheng, Yunlong

2016-09-20

A new approach for designing the binary computer-generated hologram (CGH) of a very large number of pixels is proposed. Diffraction of the CGH apertures is computed by the analytical Abbe transform and by considering the aperture edges as the basic diffracting elements. The computation cost is independent of the CGH size. The arbitrary-shaped polygonal apertures in the CGH consist of quadrilateral apertures, which are designed by assigning the binary phases using the parallel genetic algorithm with a local search, followed by optimizing the locations of the co-vertices with a direct search. The design results in high performance with low image reconstruction error.

An E-plane analysis of aperture-matched horn antennas using the moment method and the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heedy, D. J.; Burnside, W. D.

1984-01-01

The moment method and the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction are utilized to obtain two separate solutions for the E-plane field pattern of an aperture-matched horn antenna. This particular horn antenna consists of a standard pyramidal horn with the following modifications: a rolled edge section attached to the aperture edges and a curved throat section. The resulting geometry provides significantly better performance in terms of the pattern, impedance, and frequency characteristics than normally obtainable. The moment method is used to calculate the E-plane pattern and BSWR of the antenna. However, at higher frequencies, large amounts of computation time are required. The uniform geometrical theory of diffraction provides a quick and efficient high frequency solution for the E-plane field pattern. In fact, the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction may be used to initially design the antenna; then, the moment method may be applied to fine tune the design. This procedure has been successfully applied to a compact range feed design.

Design studies of large aperture, high-resolution Earth science microwave radiometers compatible with small launch vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schroeder, Lyle C.; Bailey, M. C.; Harrington, Richard F.; Kendall, Bruce M.; Campbell, Thomas G.

1994-01-01

High-spatial-resolution microwave radiometer sensing from space with reasonable swath widths and revisit times favors large aperture systems. However, with traditional precision antenna design, the size and weight requirements for such systems are in conflict with the need to emphasize small launch vehicles. This paper describes tradeoffs between the science requirements, basic operational parameters, and expected sensor performance for selected satellite radiometer concepts utilizing novel lightweight compactly packaged real apertures. Antenna, feed, and radiometer subsystem design and calibration are presented. Preliminary results show that novel lightweight real aperture coupled with state-of-the-art radiometer designs are compatible with small launch systems, and hold promise for high-resolution earth science measurements of sea ice, precipitation, soil moisture, sea surface temperature, and ocean wind speeds.

Research on the magnetorheological finishing of large aperture off-axis aspheric optical surfaces for zinc sulfide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yunfei; Huang, Wen; Zheng, Yongcheng; Ji, Fang; Xu, Min; Duan, Zhixin; Luo, Qing; Liu, Qian; Xiao, Hong

2016-03-01

Zinc sulfide is a kind of typical infrared optical material, commonly produced using single point diamond turning (SPDT). SPDT can efficiently produce zinc sulfide aspheric surfaces with micro-roughness and acceptable figure error. However the tool marks left by the diamond turning process cause high micro-roughness that degrades the optical performance when used in the visible region of the spectrum. Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a deterministic, sub-aperture polishing technology that is very helpful in improving both surface micro-roughness and surface figure.This paper mainly investigates the MRF technology of large aperture off-axis aspheric optical surfaces for zinc sulfide. The topological structure and coordinate transformation of a MRF machine tool PKC1200Q2 are analyzed and its kinematics is calculated, then the post-processing algorithm model of MRF for an optical lens is established. By taking the post-processing of off-axis aspheric surfacefor example, a post-processing algorithm that can be used for a raster tool path is deduced and the errors produced by the approximate treatment are analyzed. A polishing algorithm of trajectory planning and dwell time based on matrix equation and optimization theory is presented in this paper. Adopting this algorithm an experiment is performed to machining a large-aperture off-axis aspheric surface on the MRF machine developed by ourselves. After several times' polishing, the figure accuracy PV is proved from 3.3λ to 2.0λ and RMS from 0.451λ to 0.327λ. This algorithm is used to polish the other shapes including spheres, aspheres and prisms.

Advanced UVOIR Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) for Very Large Space Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Postman, Marc; Soummer, Remi; Sivramakrishnan, Annand; Macintosh, Bruce; Guyon, Olivier; Krist, John; Stahl, H. Philip; Smith, W. Scott; Mosier, Gary; Kirk, Charles;

High-Resolution X-Ray Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

ODell, Stephen L.; Brissenden, Roger J.; Davis, William; Elsner, Ronald F.; Elvis, Martin; Freeman, Mark; Gaetz, Terry; Gorenstein, Paul; Gubarev, Mikhail V.

2010-01-01

Fundamental needs for future x-ray telescopes: a) Sharp images => excellent angular resolution. b) High throughput => large aperture areas. Generation-X optics technical challenges: a) High resolution => precision mirrors & alignment. b) Large apertures => lots of lightweight mirrors. Innovation needed for technical readiness: a) 4 top-level error terms contribute to image size. b) There are approaches to controlling those errors. Innovation needed for manufacturing readiness. Programmatic issues are comparably challenging.

Wide-Field Optic for Autonomous Acquisition of Laser Link

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Page, Norman A.; Charles, Jeffrey R.; Biswas, Abhijit

2011-01-01

An innovation reported in Two-Camera Acquisition and Tracking of a Flying Target, NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 32, No. 8 (August 2008), p. 20, used a commercial fish-eye lens and an electronic imaging camera for initially locating objects with subsequent handover to an actuated narrow-field camera. But this operated against a dark-sky background. An improved solution involves an optical design based on custom optical components for the wide-field optical system that directly addresses the key limitations in acquiring a laser signal from a moving source such as an aircraft or a spacecraft. The first challenge was to increase the light collection entrance aperture diameter, which was approximately 1 mm in the first prototype. The new design presented here increases this entrance aperture diameter to 4.2 mm, which is equivalent to a more than 16 times larger collection area. One of the trades made in realizing this improvement was to restrict the field-of-view to +80 deg. elevation and 360 azimuth. This trade stems from practical considerations where laser beam propagation over the excessively high air mass, which is in the line of sight (LOS) at low elevation angles, results in vulnerability to severe atmospheric turbulence and attenuation. An additional benefit of the new design is that the large entrance aperture is maintained even at large off-axis angles when the optic is pointed at zenith. The second critical limitation for implementing spectral filtering in the design was tackled by collimating the light prior to focusing it onto the focal plane. This allows the placement of the narrow spectral filter in the collimated portion of the beam. For the narrow band spectral filter to function properly, it is necessary to adequately control the range of incident angles at which received light intercepts the filter. When this angle is restricted via collimation, narrower spectral filtering can be implemented. The collimated beam (and the filter) must be relatively large to reduce the incident angle down to only a few degrees. In the presented embodiment, the filter diameter is more than ten times larger than the entrance aperture. Specifically, the filter has a clear aperture of about 51 mm. The optical design is refractive, and is comprised of nine custom refractive elements and an interference filter. The restricted maximum angle through the narrow-band filter ensures the efficient use of a 2-nm noise equivalent bandwidth spectral width optical filter at low elevation angles (where the range is longest), at the expense of less efficiency for high elevations, which can be tolerated because the range at high elevation angles is shorter. The image circle is 12 mm in diameter, mapped to 80 x 360 of sky, centered on the zenith.

More Zernike modes' open-loop measurement in the sub-aperture of the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

PubMed

Zhu, Zhaoyi; Mu, Quanquan; Li, Dayu; Yang, Chengliang; Cao, Zhaoliang; Hu, Lifa; Xuan, Li

2016-10-17

The centroid-based Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS) treats the sampled wavefronts in the sub-apertures as planes, and the slopes of the sub-wavefronts are used to reconstruct the whole pupil wavefront. The problem is that the centroid method may fail to sense the high-order modes for strong turbulences, decreasing the precision of the whole pupil wavefront reconstruction. To solve this problem, we propose a sub-wavefront estimation method for SHWFS based on the focal plane sensing technique, by which more Zernike modes than the two slopes can be sensed in each sub-aperture. In this paper, the effects on the sub-wavefront estimation method of the related parameters, such as the spot size, the phase offset with its set amplitude and the pixels number in each sub-aperture, are analyzed and these parameters are optimized to achieve high efficiency. After the optimization, open-loop measurement is realized. For the sub-wavefront sensing, we achieve a large linearity range of 3.0 rad RMS for Zernike modes Z2 and Z3, and 2.0 rad RMS for Zernike modes Z4 to Z6 when the pixel number does not exceed 8 × 8 in each sub-aperture. The whole pupil wavefront reconstruction with the modified SHWFS is realized to analyze the improvements brought by the optimized sub-wavefront estimation method. Sixty-five Zernike modes can be reconstructed with a modified SHWFS containing only 7 × 7 sub-apertures, which could reconstruct only 35 modes by the centroid method, and the mean RMS errors of the residual phases are less than 0.2 rad², which is lower than the 0.35 rad² by the centroid method.

Imprinting continuously varying topographical structure onto large-aperture optical surfaces using magnetorheological finishing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Menapace, J A; Davis, P J; Dixit, S

2007-03-07

Over the past four years we have advanced Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF) techniques and tools to imprint complex continuously varying topographical structures onto large-aperture (430 x 430 mm) optical surfaces. These optics, known as continuous phase plates (CPPs), are important for high-power laser applications requiring precise manipulation and control of beam-shape, energy distribution, and wavefront profile. MRF's unique deterministic-sub-aperture polishing characteristics make it possible to imprint complex topographical information onto optical surfaces at spatial scale-lengths approaching 1 mm and surface peak-to-valleys as high as 22 {micro}m. During this discussion, we will present the evolution of the MRF imprinting technology and themore » MRF tools designed to manufacture large-aperture 430 x 430 mm CPPs. Our results will show how the MRF removal function impacts and limits imprint fidelity and what must be done to arrive at a high-quality surface. We also present several examples of this imprinting technology for fabrication of phase correction plates and CPPs for use in high-power laser applications.« less

Quasi-CW 110 kW AlGaAs Laser Diode Array Module for Inertial Fusion Energy Laser Driver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawashima, Toshiyuki; Kanzaki, Takeshi; Matsui, Ken; Kato, Yoshinori; Matsui, Hiroki; Kanabe, Tadashi; Yamanaka, Masanobu; Nakatsuka, Masahiro; Izawa, Yasukazu; Nakai, Sadao; Miyamoto, Masahiro; Kan, Hirofumi; Hiruma, Teruo

2001-12-01

We have successfully demonstrated a large aperture 803 nm AlGaAs diode laser module as a pump source for a 1053 nm, 10 J output Nd:glass slab laser amplifier for diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) fusion driver. Detailed performance results of the laser diode module are presented, including bar package and stack configuration, and their thermal design and analysis. A sufficiently low thermal impedance of the stack was realized by combining backplane liquid cooling configuration with modular bar package architecture. Total peak power of 110 kW and electrical to optical conversion efficiency of 46% were obtained from the module consisting of a total of 1000 laser diode bars. A peak intensity of 2.6 kW/cm2 was accomplished across an emitting area of 418 mm× 10 mm. Currently, this laser diode array module with a large two-dimensional aperture is, to our knowledge, the only operational pump source for the high output energy DPSSL.

Overview and Summary of Advanced UVOIR Mirror Technology Development (AMTD) Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahl, H. Philip

2014-01-01

ASTRO2010 Decadal Survey stated that an advanced large-aperture ultraviolet, optical, near-infrared (UVOIR) telescope is required to enable the next generation of compelling astrophysics and exoplanet science; and, that present technology is not mature enough to affordably build and launch any potential UVOIR mission concept. AMTD is a multiyear effort to develop, demonstrate and mature critical technologies to TRL-6 by 2018 so that a viable flight mission can be proposed to the 2020 Decadal Review. AMTD builds on the state of art (SOA) defined by over 30 years of monolithic & segmented ground & space-telescope mirror technology to mature six key technologies: center dotLarge-Aperture, Low Areal Density, High Stiffness Mirror Substrates: Both (4 to 8 m) monolithic and (8 to 16 m) segmented telescopes require larger and stiffer mirrors. center dotSupport System: Large-aperture mirrors require large support systems to ensure that they survive launch, deploy on orbit, and maintain a stable, undistorted shape. center dotMid/High Spatial Frequency Figure Error: Very smooth mirror is critical for producing high-quality point spread function (PSF) for high contrast imaging. center dotSegment Edges: The quality of segment edges impacts PSF for high-contrast imaging applications, contributes to stray light noise, and affects total collecting aperture. center dotSegment to Segment Gap Phasing: Segment phasing is critical for producing high-quality temporally-stable PSF. center dotIntegrated Model Validation: On-orbit performance is driven by mechanical & thermal stability. Compliance cannot be 100% tested, but relies on modeling. Because we cannot predict the future, AMTD is pursuing multiple design paths to provide the science community with options to enable either large aperture monolithic or segmented mirrors with clear engineering metrics traceable to science requirements

Design of an efficient Fresnel-type lens utilizing double total internal reflection for solar energy collection.

PubMed

Wallhead, Ian; Jiménez, Teresa Molina; Ortiz, Jose Vicente García; Toledo, Ignacio Gonzalez; Toledo, Cristóbal Gonzalez

2012-11-05

A novel of Fresnel-type lens for use as a solar collector has been designed which utilizes double total internal reflection (D-TIR) to optimize collection efficiency for high numerical aperture lenses (in the region of 0.3 to 0.6 NA). Results show that, depending on the numerical aperture and the size of the receiver, a collection efficiency theoretical improvement on the order of 20% can be expected with this new design compared with that of a conventional Fresnel lens.

A Future Large-Aperture UVOIR Space Observatory: Key Technologies and Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew Ryan; Stahle, Carl M.; Balasubramaniam, Kunjithapatham; Clampin, Mark; Feinberg, Lee D.; Mosier, Gary E.; Quijada, Manuel A.; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David C.; Rioux, Norman M.;

The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) Technology Roadmap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahle, Carl; Balasubramanian, K.; Bolcar, M.; Clampin, M.; Feinberg, L.; Hartman, K.; Mosier, C.; Quijada, M.; Rauscher, B.; Redding, D.;

Development of High-Fill-Factor Large-Aperture Micromirrors for Agile Optical Phased Arrays

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-02-28

Final Project Report Contract/Grant Title: Development of High-Fill-Factor Large-Aperture Micromirrors for Agile Optical Phased Arrays...factor (HFF) micromirror array (MMA) has been proposed, fabricated and tested. Optical-phased-array (OPA) beam steering based on the HFF MMA has also...electrically tuned to multiple 2. 1. Background High-fill-factor (HFF) micromirror arrays (MMAs) can form optical phased arrays (OPAs) for laser beam

INJECTION OPTICS FOR THE JLEIC ION COLLIDER RING

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morozov, Vasiliy; Derbenev, Yaroslav; Lin, Fanglei

2016-05-01

The Jefferson Lab Electron-Ion Collider (JLEIC) will accelerate protons and ions from 8 GeV to 100 GeV. A very low beta function at the Interaction Point (IP) is needed to achieve the required luminosity. One consequence of the low beta optics is that the beta function in the final focusing (FF) quadrupoles is extremely high. This leads to a large beam size in these magnets as well as strong sensitivity to errors which limits the dynamic aperture. These effects are stronger at injection energy where the beam size is maximum, and therefore very large aperture FF magnets are required tomore » allow a large dynamic aperture. A standard solution is a relaxed injection optics with IP beta function large enough to provide a reasonable FF aperture. This also reduces the effects of FF errors resulting in a larger dynamic aperture at injection. We describe the ion ring injection optics design as well as a beta-squeeze transition from the injection to collision optics.« less

A European mobile satellite system concept exploiting CDMA and OBP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vernucci, A.; Craig, A. D.

1993-01-01

This paper describes a novel Land Mobile Satellite System (LMSS) concept applicable to networks allowing access to a large number of gateway stations ('Hubs'), utilizing low-cost Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT's). Efficient operation of the Forward-Link (FL) repeater can be achieved by adopting a synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technique, whereby inter-code interference (self-noise) is virtually eliminated by synchronizing orthogonal codes. However, with a transparent FL repeater, the requirements imposed by the highly decentralized ground segment can lead to significant efficiency losses. The adoption of a FL On-Board Processing (OBP) repeater is proposed as a means of largely recovering this efficiency impairment. The paper describes the network architecture, the system design and performance, the OBP functions and impact on implementation. The proposed concept, applicable to a future generation of the European LMSS, was developed in the context of a European Space Agency (ESA) study contract.

Signal-to-noise ratio of Singer product apertures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shutler, Paul M. E.; Byard, Kevin

2017-09-01

Formulae for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Singer product apertures are derived, allowing optimal Singer product apertures to be identified, and the CPU time required to decode them is quantified. This allows a systematic comparison to be made of the performance of Singer product apertures against both conventionally wrapped Singer apertures, and also conventional product apertures such as square uniformly redundant arrays. For very large images, equivalently for images at very high resolution, the SNR of Singer product apertures is asymptotically as good as the best conventional apertures, but Singer product apertures decode faster than any conventional aperture by at least a factor of ten for image sizes up to several megapixels. These theoretical predictions are verified using numerical simulations, demonstrating that coded aperture video is for the first time a realistic possibility.

Space Fed Subarray Synthesis Using Displaced Feed Location

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mailloux, Robert J.

2002-01-01

Wideband space-fed subarray systems are often proposed for large airborne or spaceborne scanning array applications. These systems allow the introduction of time delay devices at the subarray input terminals while using phase shifters in the array face. This can sometimes reduce the number of time delayed controls by an order of magnitude or more. The implementation of this technology has been slowed because the feed network, usually a Rotman Lens or Butler Matrix, is bulky, heavy and often has significant RF loss. In addition, the large lens aperture is necessarily filled with phase shifters, and so it introduces further loss, weight, and perhaps unacceptable phase shifter control power. These systems are currently viewed with increased interest because combination of low loss, low power MEMS phase shifters in the main aperture and solid state T/R modules in the feed might lead to large scanning arrays with much higher efficiency then previously realizable. Unfortunately, the conventional system design imposes an extremely large dynamic range requirement when used in the transmit mode, and requires very high output power from the T/R modules. This paper presents one possible solution to this problem using a modified feed geometry.

Opto-electronic pulsed THz systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planken, P. C. M.; van Rijmenam, C. E. W. M.; Schouten, R. N.

2005-07-01

We present an overview of pulsed THz emission and detection schemes and give results of a highly efficient, water-cooled, semi-large aperture THz emitter. Using electro-optic detection we obtain a dynamic range of more than 5000 in a total measurement time of 20 ms, which represents the highest dynamic range for THz emitters centred around femtosecond laser oscillators to date. We find that the detection sensitivity is completely determined by the photon shot-noise of the probe laser beam. As an application of our efficient THz emitter, we present the first measurement of a phonon resonance in a THz apertureless scanning near-field optical microscopy measurement.

Fiber optic light collection system for scanning-tunneling-microscope-induced light emission.

PubMed

Watkins, Neil J; Long, James P; Kafafi, Zakya H; Mäkinen, Antti J

2007-05-01

We report a compact light collection scheme suitable for retrofitting a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) for STM-induced light emission experiments. The approach uses a pair of optical fibers with large core diameters and high numerical apertures to maximize light collection efficiency and to moderate the mechanical precision required for alignment. Bench tests indicate that efficiency reduction is almost entirely due to reflective losses at the fiber ends, while losses due to fiber misalignment have virtually been eliminated. Photon-map imaging with nanometer features is demonstrated on a stepped Au(111) surface with signal rates exceeding 10(4) counts/s.

Single-frequency 3D synthetic aperture imaging with dynamic metasurface antennas.

PubMed

Boyarsky, Michael; Sleasman, Timothy; Pulido-Mancera, Laura; Diebold, Aaron V; Imani, Mohammadreza F; Smith, David R

2018-05-20

Through aperture synthesis, an electrically small antenna can be used to form a high-resolution imaging system capable of reconstructing three-dimensional (3D) scenes. However, the large spectral bandwidth typically required in synthetic aperture radar systems to resolve objects in range often requires costly and complex RF components. We present here an alternative approach based on a hybrid imaging system that combines a dynamically reconfigurable aperture with synthetic aperture techniques, demonstrating the capability to resolve objects in three dimensions (3D), with measurements taken at a single frequency. At the core of our imaging system are two metasurface apertures, both of which consist of a linear array of metamaterial irises that couple to a common waveguide feed. Each metamaterial iris has integrated within it a diode that can be biased so as to switch the element on (radiating) or off (non-radiating), such that the metasurface antenna can produce distinct radiation profiles corresponding to different on/off patterns of the metamaterial element array. The electrically large size of the metasurface apertures enables resolution in range and one cross-range dimension, while aperture synthesis provides resolution in the other cross-range dimension. The demonstrated imaging capabilities of this system represent a step forward in the development of low-cost, high-performance 3D microwave imaging systems.

Prototype development of a Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer, GeoSTAR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanner, A. B.; Wilson, W. J.; Kangaslahti, P. P.; Lambrigsten, B. H.; Dinardo, S. J.; Piepmeier, J. R.; Ruf, C. S.; Rogacki, S.; Gross, S. M.; Musko, S.

2004-01-01

Preliminary details of a 2-D synthetic aperture radiometer prototype operating from 50 to 55 GHz will be presented. The laboratory prototype is being developed to demonstrate the technologies and system design needed to do millimeter-wave atmospheric soundings with high spatial resolution from Geostationary orbit. The concept is to deploy a large thinned aperture Y-array on a geostationary satellite, and to use aperture synthesis to obtain images of the Earth without the need for a large mechanically scanned antenna. The laboratory prototype consists of a Y-array of 24 horn antennas, MMIC receivers, and a digital cross-correlation sub-system.

High-efficiency K-band tracking antenna feed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beavin, R. L.; Simanyi, A. I.

1975-01-01

Antenna feed features high aperture efficiency of multimode near-field horn and develops tracking signals without conventional monopulse bridge. Feed assembly is relatively simple and very compact. However, feed is sensitive to cross-polarized energy which couples into orthogonal error channel.

Tethered Formation Configurations: Meeting the Scientific Objectives of Large Aperture and Interferometric Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farley, Rodger E.; Quinn, David A.; Brodeur, Stephen J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

With the success of the Hubble Space Telescope, it has become apparent that new frontiers of science and discovery are made every time an improvement in imaging resolution is made. For the HST working primarily in the visible and near-visible spectrum, this meant designing, building, and launching a primary mirror approximately three meters in diameter. Conventional thinking tells us that accomplishing a comparable improvement in resolution at longer wavelengths for Earth and Space Science applications requires a corresponding increase in the size of the primary mirror. For wavelengths in the sub-millimeter range, a very large telescope with an effective aperture in excess of one kilometer in diameter would be needed to obtain high quality angular resolution. Realistically a single aperture this large is practically impossible. Fortunately such large apertures can be constructed synthetically. Possibly as few as three 34 meter diameter mirrors flying in precision formation could be used to collect light at these longer wavelengths permitting not only very large virtual aperture science to be carried out, but high-resolution interferometry as well. To ensure the longest possible mission duration, a system of tethered spacecraft will be needed to mitigate the need for a great deal of propellant. A spin-stabilized, tethered formation will likely meet these requirements. Several configurations have been proposed which possibly meet the needs of the Space Science community. This paper discusses two of them, weighing the relative pros and cons of each concept. The ultimate goal being to settle on a configuration which combines the best features of structure, tethers, and formation flying to meet the ambitious requirements necessary to make future large synthetic aperture and interferometric science missions successful.

Tethered Formation Configurations: Meeting the Scientific Objectives of Large Aperture and Interferometric Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farley, Rodger E.; Quinn, David A.

2004-01-01

With the success of the Hubble Space Telescope, it has become apparent that new frontiers of science and discovery are made every time an improvement in imaging resolution is made. For the HST working primarily in the visible and near-visible spectrum, this meant designing, building and launching a primary mirror approximately three meters in diameter. Conventional thinking tells us that accomplishing a comparable improvement in resolution at longer wavelengths for Earth and Space Science applications requires a corresponding increase in the size of the primary mirror. For wavelengths in the sub-millimeter range, a very large telescope with an effective aperture in excess of one kilometer in diameter would be needed to obtain high quality angular resolution. Realistically a single aperture this large is practically impossible. Fortunately such large apertures can be constructed synthetically. Possibly as few as three 3 - 4 meter diameter mirrors flying in precision formation could be used to collect light at these longer wavelengths permitting not only very large virtual aperture science to be carried out, but high-resolution interferometry as well. To ensure the longest possible mission duration, a system of tethered spacecraft will be needed to mitigate the need for a great deal of propellant. A spin-stabilized, tethered formation will likely meet these requirements. Several configurations have been proposed which possibly meet the needs of the Space Science community. This paper discusses two of them, weighing the relative pros and cons of each concept. The ultimate goal being to settle on a configuration which combines the best features of structure, tethers and formation flying to meet the ambitious requirements necessary to make future large synthetic aperture and interferometric science missions successful.

Array feed synthesis for correction of reflector distortion and Vernier Beamsteering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blank, S. J.; Imbriale, W. A.

1986-01-01

An algorithmic procedure for the synthesis of planar array feeds for paraboloidal reflectors is described which simultaneously provides electronic correction of systematic reflector surface distortions as well as a Vernier electronic beamsteering capability. Simple rules of thumb for the optimum choice of planar array feed configuration (i.e., number and type of elements) are derived from a parametric study made using the synthesis procedure. A number of f/D ratios and distortion models were examined that are typical of large paraboloidal reflectors. Numerical results are presented showing that, for the range of distortion models considered, good on-axis gain restoration can be achieved with as few as seven elements. For beamsteering to +/- 1 beamwidth (BW), 19 elements are required. For arrays with either 7 or 19 elements, the results indicate that the use of high-aperture-efficiency elements (e.g., disk-on-rod and short backfire) in the array yields higher system gain than can be obtained with elements having lower aperture efficiency (e.g., open-ended waveguides). With 37 elements, excellent gain and beamsteering performance to +/- 1.5 BW are obtained independent of the assumed effective aperture of the array element. An approximate expression is derived for the focal-plane field distribution of the distorted reflector. Contour plots of the focal-plane fields are also presented for various distortion and beam scan angle cases. The results obtained show the effectiveness of the array feed approach.

The silane depletion fraction as an indicator for the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Descoeudres, A.; Barraud, L.; Bartlome, R.; Choong, G.; De Wolf, Stefaan; Zicarelli, F.; Ballif, C.

2010-11-01

In silicon heterojunction solar cells, thin amorphous silicon layers passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. By using in situ diagnostics during plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the authors report how the passivation quality of such layers directly relate to the plasma conditions. Good interface passivation is obtained from highly depleted silane plasmas. Based upon this finding, layers deposited in a large-area very high frequency (40.68 MHz) PECVD reactor were optimized for heterojunction solar cells, yielding aperture efficiencies up to 20.3% on 4 cm2 cells.

Numerical Analysis of Combined Well and Open-Closed Loops Geothermal (CWG) Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Yu-Chul

2016-04-01

Open-loop geothermal heat pump (GHP) system and closed-loop heat pump systems have been used in Korea to reduce emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). The GHP systems have the pros and cons, for example, the open-loop GHP system is good energy-efficient and the closed-loop GHP system requires minimum maintenance costs. The open-loop GHP system can be used practically only with large amount of groundwater supply. The closed-loop GHP system can be used with high costs of initial installation. The performance and efficiency of the GHP system depend on the characteristics of the GHP system itself in addition to the geologic conditions. To overcome the cons of open-loop or closed-loop GHP system, the combined well and open-closed loops geothermal (CWG) system was designed. The open-loop GHP system is surrounded with closed-loop GHP systems in the CWG system. The geothermal energy in closed-loop GHP systems is supplied by the groundwater pumped by the open-loop GHP system. In this study, 2 different types of the CWG systems (small aperture hybrid CWG system and large aperture CWG system) are estimated using numerical simulation models in the aspect of energy efficiency. This work was supported by the New & Renewable Energy Core Technology Program of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea. (No.20153030111120).

Microwave sensing technology issues related to a global change technology architecture trade study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Thomas G.; Shiue, Jim; Connolly, Denis; Woo, Ken

1991-01-01

The objectives are to enable the development of lighter and less power consuming, high resolution microwave sensors which will operate at frequencies from 1 to 200 GHz. These systems will use large aperture antenna systems (both reflector and phased arrays) capable of wide scan angle, high polarization purity, and utilize sidelobe suppression techniques as required. Essentially, the success of this technology program will enable high resolution microwave radiometers from geostationary orbit, lightweight and more efficient radar systems from low Earth orbit, and eliminate mechanical scanning methods to the fullest extent possible; a main source of platform instability in large space systems. The Global Change Technology Initiative (GCTI) will develop technology which will enable the use of satellite systems for Earth observations on a global scale.

Reflex ring laser amplifier system

DOEpatents

Summers, M.A.

1983-08-31

The invention is a method and apparatus for providing a reflex ring laser system for amplifying an input laser pulse. The invention is particularly useful in laser fusion experiments where efficient production of high-energy and high power laser pulses is required. The invention comprises a large aperture laser amplifier in an unstable ring resonator which includes a combination spatial filter and beam expander having a magnification greater than unity. An input pulse is injected into the resonator, e.g., through an aperture in an input mirror. The injected pulse passes through the amplifier and spatial filter/expander components on each pass around the ring. The unstable resonator is designed to permit only a predetermined number of passes before the amplified pulse exits the resonator. On the first pass through the amplifier, the beam fills only a small central region of the gain medium. On each successive pass, the beam has been expanded to fill the next concentric non-overlapping region of the gain medium.

Impulse Response Shaping for Ultra Wide Band SAR in a Circular Flight Path

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jin, Michael Y.

1996-01-01

An ultra wide band SAR (synthetic aperture radar) has potential applications on imaging underground objects. Flying this SAR in a circular flight path is an efficient way to acquire high resolution images from a localized area. This paper characterizes the impulse response of sucha system. The results indicate that to achieve an image with a more uniformed resolution over the entire imaged area, proper weighting coeficients should be applied to both the principle aperture and the complimentary aperture.

Gain and Polarization Properties of a Large Radio Telescope from Calculation and Measurement: The John A. Galt Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, X.; Landecker, T. L.; Robishaw, T.; Gray, A. D.; Douglas, K. A.; Wolleben, M.

2016-11-01

Measurement of the brightness temperature of extended radio emission demands knowledge of the gain (or aperture efficiency) of the telescope and measurement of the polarized component of the emission requires correction for the conversion of unpolarized emission from sky and ground to apparently polarized signal. Radiation properties of the John A. Galt Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory were studied through analysis and measurement in order to provide absolute calibration of a survey of polarized emission from the entire northern sky from 1280 to 1750 MHz, and to understand the polarization performance of the telescope. Electromagnetic simulation packages CST and GRASP-10 were used to compute complete radiation patterns of the telescope in all Stokes parameters, and thereby to establish gain and aperture efficiency. Aperture efficiency was also evaluated using geometrical optics and ray tracing analysis and was measured based on the known flux density of Cyg A. Measured aperture efficiency varied smoothly with frequency between values of 0.49 and 0.54; GRASP-10 yielded values 6.5% higher but with closely similar variation with frequency. Overall error across the frequency band is 3%, but values at any two frequencies are relatively correct to ˜1%. Dominant influences on aperture efficiency are the illumination taper of the feed radiation pattern and the shadowing of the reflector from the feed by the feed-support struts. A model of emission from the ground was developed based on measurements and on empirical data obtained from remote sensing of the Earth from satellite-borne telescopes. This model was convolved with the computed antenna response to estimate conversion of ground emission into spurious polarized signal. The computed spurious signal is comparable to measured values, but is not accurate enough to be used to correct observations. A simpler model, in which the ground is considered as an unpolarized emitter with a brightness temperature of ˜240 K, is shown to have useful accuracy when compared to measurements.

Low-stress mounting configuration design for large aperture laser transport mirror

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zheng; Quan, Xusong; Yao, Chao; Wang, Hui

2016-10-01

TM1-6S1 large aperture laser transport mirror is a crucial optical unit of high power solid-state laser in the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) facility. This article focuses on the low-stress and precise mounting method of large-aperture mirror. Based on the engineering practice of SG-III, the state-of-the-art and key problems of current mounting configuration are clarified firstly. Subsequently, a brand new low-stress mounting configuration with flexure supports is proposed. Opto-mechanical model of the mirror under mounting force is built up with elastic mechanics theory. Further, numerical methods and field tests are employed to verify the favorable load uniform capacity and load adjust capacity of flexure supports. With FEM, the relation between the mounting force from new configuration and the mirror surface distortion (wavefront error) is clarified. The novel mounting method of large aperture optics could be not only used on this laser transport mirror, but also on the other transmission optics and large crystals in ICF facilities.

Large aperture diffractive space telescope

DOEpatents

Hyde, Roderick A.

2001-01-01

A large (10's of meters) aperture space telescope including two separate spacecraft--an optical primary objective lens functioning as a magnifying glass and an optical secondary functioning as an eyepiece. The spacecraft are spaced up to several kilometers apart with the eyepiece directly behind the magnifying glass "aiming" at an intended target with their relative orientation determining the optical axis of the telescope and hence the targets being observed. The objective lens includes a very large-aperture, very-thin-membrane, diffractive lens, e.g., a Fresnel lens, which intercepts incoming light over its full aperture and focuses it towards the eyepiece. The eyepiece has a much smaller, meter-scale aperture and is designed to move along the focal surface of the objective lens, gathering up the incoming light and converting it to high quality images. The positions of the two space craft are controlled both to maintain a good optical focus and to point at desired targets which may be either earth bound or celestial.

Edge detection based on adaptive threshold b-spline wavelet for optical sub-aperture measuring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Shiqi; Hui, Mei; Liu, Ming; Zhao, Zhu; Dong, Liquan; Liu, Xiaohua; Zhao, Yuejin

2015-08-01

In the research of optical synthetic aperture imaging system, phase congruency is the main problem and it is necessary to detect sub-aperture phase. The edge of the sub-aperture system is more complex than that in the traditional optical imaging system. And with the existence of steep slope for large-aperture optical component, interference fringe may be quite dense when interference imaging. Deep phase gradient may cause a loss of phase information. Therefore, it's urgent to search for an efficient edge detection method. Wavelet analysis as a powerful tool is widely used in the fields of image processing. Based on its properties of multi-scale transform, edge region is detected with high precision in small scale. Longing with the increase of scale, noise is reduced in contrary. So it has a certain suppression effect on noise. Otherwise, adaptive threshold method which sets different thresholds in various regions can detect edge points from noise. Firstly, fringe pattern is obtained and cubic b-spline wavelet is adopted as the smoothing function. After the multi-scale wavelet decomposition of the whole image, we figure out the local modulus maxima in gradient directions. However, it also contains noise, and thus adaptive threshold method is used to select the modulus maxima. The point which greater than threshold value is boundary point. Finally, we use corrosion and expansion deal with the resulting image to get the consecutive boundary of image.

A new polishing process for large-aperture and high-precision aspheric surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nie, Xuqing; Li, Shengyi; Dai, Yifan; Song, Ci

2013-07-01

The high-precision aspheric surface is hard to be achieved due to the mid-spatial frequency error in the finishing step. The influence of mid-spatial frequency error is studied through the simulations and experiments. In this paper, a new polishing process based on magnetorheological finishing (MRF), smooth polishing (SP) and ion beam figuring (IBF) is proposed. A 400mm aperture parabolic surface is polished with this new process. The smooth polishing (SP) is applied after rough machining to control the MSF error. In the middle finishing step, most of low-spatial frequency error is removed by MRF rapidly, then the mid-spatial frequency error is restricted by SP, finally ion beam figuring is used to finish the surface. The surface accuracy is improved from the initial 37.691nm (rms, 95% aperture) to the final 4.195nm. The results show that the new polishing process is effective to manufacture large-aperture and high-precision aspheric surface.

Thin-film sparse boundary array design for passive acoustic mapping during ultrasound therapy.

PubMed

Coviello, Christian M; Kozick, Richard J; Hurrell, Andrew; Smith, Penny Probert; Coussios, Constantin-C

2012-10-01

A new 2-D hydrophone array for ultrasound therapy monitoring is presented, along with a novel algorithm for passive acoustic mapping using a sparse weighted aperture. The array is constructed using existing polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrasound sensor technology, and is utilized for its broadband characteristics and its high receive sensitivity. For most 2-D arrays, high-resolution imagery is desired, which requires a large aperture at the cost of a large number of elements. The proposed array's geometry is sparse, with elements only on the boundary of the rectangular aperture. The missing information from the interior is filled in using linear imaging techniques. After receiving acoustic emissions during ultrasound therapy, this algorithm applies an apodization to the sparse aperture to limit side lobes and then reconstructs acoustic activity with high spatiotemporal resolution. Experiments show verification of the theoretical point spread function, and cavitation maps in agar phantoms correspond closely to predicted areas, showing the validity of the array and methodology.

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar phase unwrapping based on sparse Markov random fields by graph cuts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Lifan; Chai, Dengfeng; Xia, Yu; Ma, Peifeng; Lin, Hui

2018-01-01

Phase unwrapping (PU) is one of the key processes in reconstructing the digital elevation model of a scene from its interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data. It is known that two-dimensional (2-D) PU problems can be formulated as maximum a posteriori estimation of Markov random fields (MRFs). However, considering that the traditional MRF algorithm is usually defined on a rectangular grid, it fails easily if large parts of the wrapped data are dominated by noise caused by large low-coherence area or rapid-topography variation. A PU solution based on sparse MRF is presented to extend the traditional MRF algorithm to deal with sparse data, which allows the unwrapping of InSAR data dominated by high phase noise. To speed up the graph cuts algorithm for sparse MRF, we designed dual elementary graphs and merged them to obtain the Delaunay triangle graph, which is used to minimize the energy function efficiently. The experiments on simulated and real data, compared with other existing algorithms, both confirm the effectiveness of the proposed MRF approach, which suffers less from decorrelation effects caused by large low-coherence area or rapid-topography variation.

High-numerical-aperture-based virtual point detectors for photoacoustic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Changhui; Wang, Lihong V.

2008-07-01

The focal point of a high-numerical-aperture (NA) ultrasonic transducer can be used as a virtual point detector. This virtual point detector detects omnidirectionally over a wide acceptance angle. It also combines a large active transducer surface and a small effective virtual detector size. Thus the sensitivity is high compared with that of a real point detector, and the aperture effect is small compared with that of a finite size transducer. We present two kinds of high-NA-based virtual point detectors and their successful application in photoacoustic tomography. They can also be applied in other ultrasound-related fields.

Deposition of high quality YBa2Cu3O(7-delta) thin films over large areas by pulsed laser ablation with substrate scanning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, M. F.; Wosik, J.; Forster, K.; Deshmukh, S. C.; Rampersad, H. R.

1991-01-01

The paper describes thin films deposited in a system where substrates are scanned over areas up to 3.5 x 3.5 cm through the stationary plume of an ablated material defined by an aperture. These YBCO films are deposited on LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates with the thickness of 90 and 160 nm. Attention is focused on the main features of the deposition system: line focusing of the laser beam on the target; an aperture defining the area of the plume; computerized stepper motor-driven X-Y stage translating the heated sampler holder behind the plume-defining aperture in programmed patterns; and substrate mounting block with uniform heating at high temperatures over large areas. It is noted that the high degree of uniformity of the properties in each film batch illustrates that the technique of pulsed laser deposition can be applied to produce large YBCO films of high quality.

Wide-aperture aspherical lens for high-resolution terahertz imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chernomyrdin, Nikita V.; Frolov, Maxim E.; Lebedev, Sergey P.; Reshetov, Igor V.; Spektor, Igor E.; Tolstoguzov, Viktor L.; Karasik, Valeriy E.; Khorokhorov, Alexei M.; Koshelev, Kirill I.; Schadko, Aleksander O.; Yurchenko, Stanislav O.; Zaytsev, Kirill I.

2017-01-01

In this paper, we introduce wide-aperture aspherical lens for high-resolution terahertz (THz) imaging. The lens has been designed and analyzed by numerical methods of geometrical optics and electrodynamics. It has been made of high-density polyethylene by shaping at computer-controlled lathe and characterized using a continuous-wave THz imaging setup based on a backward-wave oscillator and Golay detector. The concept of image contrast has been implemented to estimate image quality. According to the experimental data, the lens allows resolving two points spaced at 0.95λ distance with a contrast of 15%. To highlight high resolution in the THz images, the wide-aperture lens has been employed for studying printed electronic circuit board containing sub-wavelength-scale elements. The observed results justify the high efficiency of the proposed lens design.

Maximizing fluorescence collection efficiency in multiphoton microscopy

PubMed Central

Zinter, Joseph P.; Levene, Michael J.

2011-01-01

Understanding fluorescence propagation through a multiphoton microscope is of critical importance in designing high performance systems capable of deep tissue imaging. Optical models of a scattering tissue sample and the Olympus 20X 0.95NA microscope objective were used to simulate fluorescence propagation as a function of imaging depth for physiologically relevant scattering parameters. The spatio-angular distribution of fluorescence at the objective back aperture derived from these simulations was used to design a simple, maximally efficient post-objective fluorescence collection system. Monte Carlo simulations corroborated by data from experimental tissue phantoms demonstrate collection efficiency improvements of 50% – 90% over conventional, non-optimized fluorescence collection geometries at large imaging depths. Imaging performance was verified by imaging layer V neurons in mouse cortex to a depth of 850 μm. PMID:21934897

A precise method for adjusting the optical system of laser sub-aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Xing; Zhang, Xue-min; Yang, Jianfeng; Xue, Li

2018-02-01

In order to adapt to the requirement of modern astronomical observation and warfare, the resolution of the space telescope is needed to improve, sub-aperture stitching imaging technique is one method to improve the resolution, which could be used not only the foundation and space-based large optical systems, also used in laser transmission and microscopic imaging. A large aperture main mirror of sub-aperture stitching imaging system is composed of multiple sub-mirrors distributed according to certain laws. All sub-mirrors are off-axis mirror, so the alignment of sub-aperture stitching imaging system is more complicated than a single off-axis optical system. An alignment method based on auto-collimation imaging and interferometric imaging is introduced in this paper, by using this alignment method, a sub-aperture stitching imaging system which is composed of 12 sub-mirrors was assembled with high resolution, the beam coincidence precision is better than 0.01mm, and the system wave aberration is better than 0.05λ.

An analysis of beamed wireless power transfer in the Fresnel zone using a dynamic, metasurface aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, David R.; Gowda, Vinay R.; Yurduseven, Okan; Larouche, Stéphane; Lipworth, Guy; Urzhumov, Yaroslav; Reynolds, Matthew S.

2017-01-01

Wireless power transfer (WPT) has been an active topic of research, with a number of WPT schemes implemented in the near-field (coupling) and far-field (radiation) regimes. Here, we consider a beamed WPT scheme based on a dynamically reconfigurable source aperture transferring power to receiving devices within the Fresnel region. In this context, the dynamic aperture resembles a reconfigurable lens capable of focusing power to a well-defined spot, whose dimension can be related to a point spread function. The necessary amplitude and phase distribution of the field imposed over the aperture can be determined in a holographic sense, by interfering a hypothetical point source located at the receiver location with a plane wave at the aperture location. While conventional technologies, such as phased arrays, can achieve the required control over phase and amplitude, they typically do so at a high cost; alternatively, metasurface apertures can achieve dynamic focusing with potentially lower cost. We present an initial tradeoff analysis of the Fresnel region WPT concept assuming a metasurface aperture, relating the key parameters such as spot size, aperture size, wavelength, and focal distance, as well as reviewing system considerations such as the availability of sources and power transfer efficiency. We find that approximate design formulas derived from the Gaussian optics approximation provide useful estimates of system performance, including transfer efficiency and coverage volume. The accuracy of these formulas is confirmed through numerical studies.

Large-aperture, tapered fiber-coupled, 10-kHz particle-image velocimetry.

PubMed

Hsu, Paul S; Roy, Sukesh; Jiang, Naibo; Gord, James R

2013-02-11

We demonstrate the design and implementation of a fiber-optic beam-delivery system using a large-aperture, tapered step-index fiber for high-speed particle-image velocimetry (PIV) in turbulent combustion flows. The tapered fiber in conjunction with a diffractive-optical-element (DOE) fiber-optic coupler significantly increases the damage threshold of the fiber, enabling fiber-optic beam delivery of sufficient nanosecond, 532-nm, laser pulse energy for high-speed PIV measurements. The fiber successfully transmits 1-kHz and 10-kHz laser pulses with energies of 5.3 mJ and 2 mJ, respectively, for more than 25 min without any indication of damage. It is experimentally demonstrated that the tapered fiber possesses the high coupling efficiency (~80%) and moderate beam quality for PIV. Additionally, the nearly uniform output-beam profile exiting the fiber is ideal for PIV applications. Comparative PIV measurements are made using a conventionally (bulk-optic) delivered light sheet, and a similar order of measurement accuracy is obtained with and without fiber coupling. Effective use of fiber-coupled, 10-kHz PIV is demonstrated for instantaneous 2D velocity-field measurements in turbulent reacting flows. Proof-of-concept measurements show significant promise for the performance of fiber-coupled, high-speed PIV using a tapered optical fiber in harsh laser-diagnostic environments such as those encountered in gas-turbine test beds and the cylinder of a combustion engine.

SU-E-T-666: Radionuclides and Activity of the Patient Apertures Used in a Proton Beam of Wobbling System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, B.Y.; Chen, H.H.; Tsai, H.Y.

2015-06-15

Purpose: To identify the radionuclides and quantify the activity of the patient apertures used in a 190-MeV proton beam of wobbling system. Methods: A proton beam of wobbling system in the first proton center in Taiwan, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, was used to bombard the patient apertures. The patient aperture was composed of 60.5 % copper, 39.4 % Zinc, 0.05 % iron, 0.05 % lead. A protable high-purity germanium (HPGe) coaxial detector was used to measure the spectra of the induced nuclides of patient apertures. The analysis of the spectra and the identification of the radionuclides were preliminarilymore » operated by the Nuclide Navigator III Master Library. On the basis of the results by Nuclide Navigator III Master Library, we manually selected the reliable nuclides by the gamma-ray energies, branching ratio, and half life. In the spectra, we can quantify the activity of radionuclides by the Monte Carlo efficiency transfer method. Results: In this study, the radioisotopes activated in patient apertures by the 190-MeV proton beam were divided into two categories. The first category is long half-life radionuclides, such as Co-56 (half life, 77.3 days). Other radionuclides of Cu-60, Cu-61, Cu-62, Cu-66, and Zn-62 have shorter half life. The radionuclide of Cu-60 had the highest activity. From calculation with the efficiency transfer method, the deviations between the computed results and the measured efficiencies were mostly within 10%. Conclusion: To identify the radionuclides and quantify the activity helps us to estimate proper time intervals for cooling the patient apertures. This study was supported by the grants from the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CMRPD1C0682)« less

High throughput screening using acoustic droplet ejection to combine protein crystals and chemical libraries on crystallization plates at high density

DOE PAGES

Teplitsky, Ella; Joshi, Karan; Ericson, Daniel L.; ...

2015-07-01

We describe a high throughput method for screening up to 1728 distinct chemicals with protein crystals on a single microplate. Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) was used to co-position 2.5 nL of protein, precipitant, and chemicals on a MiTeGen in situ-1 crystallization plate™ for screening by co-crystallization or soaking. ADE-transferred droplets follow a precise trajectory which allows all components to be transferred through small apertures in the microplate lid. The apertures were large enough for 2.5 nL droplets to pass through them, but small enough so that they did not disrupt the internal environment created by the mother liquor. Using thismore » system, thermolysin and trypsin crystals were efficiently screened for binding to a heavy-metal mini-library. Fluorescence and X-ray diffraction were used to confirm that each chemical in the heavy-metal library was correctly paired with the intended protein crystal. Moreover, a fragment mini-library was screened to observe two known lysozyme We describe a high throughput method for screening up to 1728 distinct chemicals with protein crystals on a single microplate. Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) was used to co-position 2.5 nL of protein, precipitant, and chemicals on a MiTeGen in situ-1 crystallization plate™ for screening by co-crystallization or soaking. ADE-transferred droplets follow a precise trajectory which allows all components to be transferred through small apertures in the microplate lid. The apertures were large enough for 2.5 nL droplets to pass through them, but small enough so that they did not disrupt the internal environment created by the mother liquor. Using this system, thermolysin and trypsin crystals were efficiently screened for binding to a heavy-metal mini-library. Fluorescence and X-ray diffraction were used to confirm that each chemical in the heavy-metal library was correctly paired with the intended protein crystal. A fragment mini-library was screened to observe two known lysozyme ligands using both co-crystallization and soaking. A similar approach was used to identify multiple, novel thaumatin binding sites for ascorbic acid. This technology pushes towards a faster, automated, and more flexible strategy for high throughput screening of chemical libraries (such as fragment libraries) using as little as 2.5 nL of each component.ds using both co-crystallization and soaking. We used a A similar approach to identify multiple, novel thaumatin binding sites for ascorbic acid. This technology pushes towards a faster, automated, and more flexible strategy for high throughput screening of chemical libraries (such as fragment libraries) using as little as 2.5 nL of each component.« less

High-Efficiency, Near-Diffraction Limited, Dielectric Metasurface Lenses Based on Crystalline Titanium Dioxide at Visible Wavelengths.

PubMed

Liang, Yaoyao; Liu, Hongzhan; Wang, Faqiang; Meng, Hongyun; Guo, Jianping; Li, Jinfeng; Wei, Zhongchao

2018-04-28

Metasurfaces are planar optical elements that hold promise for overcoming the limitations of refractive and conventional diffractive optics. Previous metasurfaces have been limited to transparency windows at infrared wavelengths because of significant optical absorption and loss at visible wavelengths. Here we report a polarization-insensitive, high-contrast transmissive metasurface composed of crystalline titanium dioxide pillars in the form of metalens at the wavelength of 633 nm. The focal spots are as small as 0.54 λ d , which is very close to the optical diffraction limit of 0.5 λ d . The simulation focusing efficiency is up to 88.5%. A rigorous method for metalens design, the phase realization mechanism and the trade-off between high efficiency and small spot size (or large numerical aperture) are discussed. Besides, the metalenses can work well with an imaging point source up to ±15° off axis. The proposed design is relatively systematic and can be applied to various applications such as visible imaging, ranging and sensing systems.

Direct aperture optimization: a turnkey solution for step-and-shoot IMRT.

PubMed

Shepard, D M; Earl, M A; Li, X A; Naqvi, S; Yu, C

2002-06-01

IMRT treatment plans for step-and-shoot delivery have traditionally been produced through the optimization of intensity distributions (or maps) for each beam angle. The optimization step is followed by the application of a leaf-sequencing algorithm that translates each intensity map into a set of deliverable aperture shapes. In this article, we introduce an automated planning system in which we bypass the traditional intensity optimization, and instead directly optimize the shapes and the weights of the apertures. We call this approach "direct aperture optimization." This technique allows the user to specify the maximum number of apertures per beam direction, and hence provides significant control over the complexity of the treatment delivery. This is possible because the machine dependent delivery constraints imposed by the MLC are enforced within the aperture optimization algorithm rather than in a separate leaf-sequencing step. The leaf settings and the aperture intensities are optimized simultaneously using a simulated annealing algorithm. We have tested direct aperture optimization on a variety of patient cases using the EGS4/BEAM Monte Carlo package for our dose calculation engine. The results demonstrate that direct aperture optimization can produce highly conformal step-and-shoot treatment plans using only three to five apertures per beam direction. As compared with traditional optimization strategies, our studies demonstrate that direct aperture optimization can result in a significant reduction in both the number of beam segments and the number of monitor units. Direct aperture optimization therefore produces highly efficient treatment deliveries that maintain the full dosimetric benefits of IMRT.

The Beam Forming Numerical Simulation for High Power Neutral Injector

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sorokin, A.; Deichuli, P.; Ivanov, A.

2005-01-15

High power neutral beam injector START-4 for plasma heating has been described. The distinctive features of the injector are comparatively large initial beam aperture (200 mm) and multi holes grids with the large numbers of the holes (more than 3000). A significant focusing is realized to a beam diameter 50 mm at a length 1.2 m. The disadvantage of the multi holes optic is low transparency, which decreases the efficiency of plasma source and makes worse vacuum conditions in the source. The possible decisions of these problems are using ion-optical systems (IOS) with enlarged diameter of holes and, also, applicationmore » IOS with the azimuthal-slit holes structure. Numerical simulation and test experiments have been carried out for investigation of the ability such IOS geometries.« less

High-energy D/sub 2/O submillimeter laser for plasma diagnostics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Semet, A.; Johnson, L.C.; Mansfield, D.K.

1983-01-01

A narrow line optically pumped D/sub 2/O laser operating at 385 ..mu..m has delivered more than 5 J in pulses longer than 3 ..mu..sec using a large aperture unstable resonator cavity design. Pulse levels which are > 1 J and 1 ..mu..sec are necessary for a single shot ion temperature measurement by Thomson scattering in large tokamaks. Experiments have, for the most part, been conducted at a 360 J, 5 ..mu..sec CO/sub 2/ laser pump level where high efficiency (approx. 2.5 J at 385 ..mu..m) has been obtained. These are the highest energies reported to date in the far infrared.more » In addition, the pulse length has been extended beyond the vibrational relaxation time.« less

Array feed synthesis for correction of reflector distortion and Vernier beamsteering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blank, Stephen J.; Imbriale, William A.

1988-01-01

An algorithmic procedure for the synthesis of planar array feeds for paraboloidal reflectors is described which simultaneously provides electronic correction of systematic reflector surface distortions as well as a Vernier electronic beamsteering capability. Simple rules of thumb for the optimum chioce of planar array feed configuration (i.e., the number and type of elements) are derived from a parametric study made using the synthesis procedure. A number of f/D ratios and distortion models were examined that are typical of large paraboloidal reflectors. Numerical results are presented showing that, for the range of distortion models considered, good on-axis gain restoration can be achieved with as few as seven elements. For beamsteering to +/- 1 beamwidth (BW), 19 elements are required. For arrays with either 7 or 19 elements, the results indicate that the use of high-aperture-efficiency elements (e.g., disk-on-rod and short backfire) in the array yields higher system gain than can be obtained with elements having lower aperture efficiency (e.g., open-ended waveguides). With 37 elements, excellent gain and beamsteering performance to +/- 1.5 BW are obtained independent of the assumed effective aperture of the array element. An approximate expression is derived for the focal-plane field distribution of the distorted reflector. Contour plots of the focal-plane fields are also presented for various distortion and beam scan angle cases. The results obtained show the effectiveness of the array feed approach.

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST): Science Drivers and Technology Developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Postman, Marc; Brown, Tom; Sembach, Kenneth; Giavalisco, Mauro; Traub, Wesley; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Calzetti, Daniela; Oegerle, William; Rich, R. Michael; Stahl, H. Phillip;

High efficiency laser spectrum conditioner

DOEpatents

Greiner, Norman R.

1980-01-01

A high efficiency laser spectrum conditioner for generating a collinear parallel output beam containing a predetermined set of frequencies from a multifrequency laser. A diffraction grating and spherical mirror are used in combination, to disperse the various frequencies of the input laser beam and direct these frequencies along various parallel lines spatially separated from one another to an apertured mask. Selection of the desired frequencies is accomplished by placement of apertures at locations on the mask where the desired frequencies intersect the mask. A recollimated parallel output beam with the desired set of frequencies is subsequently generated utilizing a mirror and grating matched and geometrically aligned in the same manner as the input grating and mirror.

Bulk silica NIR blazed transmission gratings made by Silios technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caillat, Amandine; Pascal, Sandrine; Tisserand, Stéphane; Dohlen, Kjetil; Grange, Robert; Sauget, Vincent; Gautier, Sophie

2017-11-01

In order to study the dark universe (energy and matter), EUCLID space mission will collect near infrared spectra and images of millions of galaxies. This massive measurement survey requires a slitless spectroscopic channel including GRISMs (for "Grating pRISMs") in NISP (Near Infrared SpectroPhotometer). Very special technical specifications are required for the grating manufacturing: large aperture, low groove frequency and blaze angle, line curvature. In addition, it has to withstand space environment. Therefore, in the frame of a R&D project funded by the CNES, we developed bulk silica gratings in close collaboration with the French company SILIOS Technologies. SILIOS delivered two resin-free blazed gratings with curved lines engraved directly into the fused silica substrate of 80mm and 108mm useful aperture. At LAM, we measured very high optical performances of these prototypes: <80% transmitted efficiency, <30nm RMS wavefront error, groove shape and roughness very close to theory and uniform over the useful aperture. In this paper, we give specifications of these gratings, we describe the manufacturing process developed by SILIOS Technologies, we present briefly optical setups and models allowing optical performances verifications at LAM and we show very encouraging results obtained on the two gratings.

Feasibility of Very Large Sparse Aperture Deployable Antennas

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-27

FEASIBILITY OF VERY LARGE SPARSE APERTURE DEPLOYABLE ANTENNAS THESIS Jason C. Heller, Captain...States. AFIT-ENY-14-M-24 FEASIBILITY OF VERY LARGE SPARSE APERTURE DEPLOYABLE ANTENNAS THESIS Presented to the Faculty...UNLIMITED AFIT-ENY-14-M-24 FEASIBILITY OF VERY LARGE SPARSE APERTURE DEPLOYABLE ANTENNAS Jason C. Heller, B.S., Aerospace

An efficient implementation of 3D high-resolution imaging for large-scale seismic data with GPU/CPU heterogeneous parallel computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Jincheng; Liu, Wei; Wang, Jin; Liu, Linong; Zhang, Jianfeng

2018-02-01

De-absorption pre-stack time migration (QPSTM) compensates for the absorption and dispersion of seismic waves by introducing an effective Q parameter, thereby making it an effective tool for 3D, high-resolution imaging of seismic data. Although the optimal aperture obtained via stationary-phase migration reduces the computational cost of 3D QPSTM and yields 3D stationary-phase QPSTM, the associated computational efficiency is still the main problem in the processing of 3D, high-resolution images for real large-scale seismic data. In the current paper, we proposed a division method for large-scale, 3D seismic data to optimize the performance of stationary-phase QPSTM on clusters of graphics processing units (GPU). Then, we designed an imaging point parallel strategy to achieve an optimal parallel computing performance. Afterward, we adopted an asynchronous double buffering scheme for multi-stream to perform the GPU/CPU parallel computing. Moreover, several key optimization strategies of computation and storage based on the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) were adopted to accelerate the 3D stationary-phase QPSTM algorithm. Compared with the initial GPU code, the implementation of the key optimization steps, including thread optimization, shared memory optimization, register optimization and special function units (SFU), greatly improved the efficiency. A numerical example employing real large-scale, 3D seismic data showed that our scheme is nearly 80 times faster than the CPU-QPSTM algorithm. Our GPU/CPU heterogeneous parallel computing framework significant reduces the computational cost and facilitates 3D high-resolution imaging for large-scale seismic data.

CAVE: the design of a precision metrology instrument for studying performance of KDP crystals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hibbard, R.L., LLNL

1998-03-30

A device has been developed to measure the frequency conversion performance of large aperture potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals. Third harmonic generation using ICDP is critical to the function of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser. The crystals in the converter can be angularly or thermally tuned but are subject to larger aperture inhomogeneities that are functions of growth manufacturing and - mounting. The CAVE (Crystal Alignment Verification Equipment) instrument scans the crystals in a thermally and mechanically controlled environment to determine the local peak tuning angles. The CAVE can then estimate the optimum tuning angle and conversion efficiency overmore » the entire aperture. Coupled with other metrology techniques, the CAVE will help determine which crystal life-cycle components most affect harmonic conversion.« less

Yb-doped large-mode-area laser fiber fabricated by halide-gas-phase-doping technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Kun; Wang, Yuying; Ni, Li; Wang, Zhen; Gao, Cong; Zhan, Huan; Wang, Jianjun; Jing, Feng; Lin, Aoxiang

2015-06-01

In this manuscript, we designed a rare-earth-halide gas-phase-doping setup to fabricate a large-mode-area fiber for high power laser applications. YbCl3 and AlCl3 halides are evaporated, carried respectively and finally mixed with usual host gas material SiCl4 at the hot zone of MCVD system. Owing to the all-gas-phasing reaction process and environment, the home-made Yb-doped fiber preform has a homogeneous large core and modulated refractive index profile to keep high beam quality. The drawn fiber core has a small numerical aperture of 0.07 and high Yb concentration of 9500 ppm. By using a master oscillator power amplifier system, nearly kW-level (951 W) laser output power was obtained with a slope efficiency of 83.3% at 1063.8 nm, indicating the competition and potential of the halide-gas-phase-doping technique for high power laser fiber fabrication.

Broadband and chiral binary dielectric meta-holograms.

PubMed

Khorasaninejad, Mohammadreza; Ambrosio, Antonio; Kanhaiya, Pritpal; Capasso, Federico

2016-05-01

Subwavelength structured surfaces, known as meta-surfaces, hold promise for future compact and optically thin devices with versatile functionalities. By revisiting the concept of detour phase, we demonstrate high-efficiency holograms with broadband and chiral imaging functionalities. In our devices, the apertures of binary holograms are replaced by subwavelength structured microgratings. We achieve broadband operation from the visible to the near infrared and efficiency as high as 75% in the 1.0 to 1.4 μm range by compensating for the inherent dispersion of the detour phase with that of the subwavelength structure. In addition, we demonstrate chiral holograms that project different images depending on the handedness of the reference beam by incorporating a geometric phase. Our devices' compactness, lightness, and ability to produce images even at large angles have significant potential for important emerging applications such as wearable optics.

Broadband and chiral binary dielectric meta-holograms

PubMed Central

Khorasaninejad, Mohammadreza; Ambrosio, Antonio; Kanhaiya, Pritpal; Capasso, Federico

2016-01-01

Subwavelength structured surfaces, known as meta-surfaces, hold promise for future compact and optically thin devices with versatile functionalities. By revisiting the concept of detour phase, we demonstrate high-efficiency holograms with broadband and chiral imaging functionalities. In our devices, the apertures of binary holograms are replaced by subwavelength structured microgratings. We achieve broadband operation from the visible to the near infrared and efficiency as high as 75% in the 1.0 to 1.4 μm range by compensating for the inherent dispersion of the detour phase with that of the subwavelength structure. In addition, we demonstrate chiral holograms that project different images depending on the handedness of the reference beam by incorporating a geometric phase. Our devices’ compactness, lightness, and ability to produce images even at large angles have significant potential for important emerging applications such as wearable optics. PMID:27386518

An overview of the Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System (NEXIS) program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Polk, Jay E.; Goebel, Don; Brophy, John R.; Beatty, John; Monheiser, J.; Giles, D.; Hobson, D.; Wilson, F.; Christensen, J.; De Pano, M.;

The Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) I: Overview and Air-side System Description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hicks, Brian A.; Lyon, Richard G.; Petrone, Peter, III; Bolcar, Matthew R.; Bolognese, Jeff; Clampin, Mark; Dogoda, Peter; Dworzanski, Daniel; Helmbrecht, Michael A.; Koca, Corina;

Advanced UVOIR Mirror Technology Development for Very Large Space Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahl, H. Philip

2011-01-01

Objective of this work is to define and initiate a long-term program to mature six inter-linked critical technologies for future UVOIR space telescope mirrors to TRL6 by 2018 so that a viable flight mission can be proposed to the 2020 Decadal Review. (1) Large-Aperture, Low Areal Density, High Stiffness Mirrors: 4 to 8 m monolithic & 8 to 16 m segmented primary mirrors require larger, thicker, stiffer substrates. (2) Support System:Large-aperture mirrors require large support systems to ensure that they survive launch and deploy on orbit in a stress-free and undistorted shape. (3) Mid/High Spatial Frequency Figure Error:A very smooth mirror is critical for producing a high-quality point spread function (PSF) for high-contrast imaging. (4) Segment Edges:Edges impact PSF for high-contrast imaging applications, contributes to stray light noise, and affects the total collecting aperture. (5) Segment-to-Segment Gap Phasing:Segment phasing is critical for producing a high-quality temporally stable PSF. (6) Integrated Model Validation:On-orbit performance is determined by mechanical and thermal stability. Future systems require validated performance models. We are pursuing multiple design paths give the science community the option to enable either a future monolithic or segmented space telescope.

the Large Aperture GRB Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bertou, Xavier

2009-04-30

The Large Aperture GRB Observatory (LAGO) aims at the detection of high energy photons from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) using the single particle technique (SPT) in ground based water Cherenkov detectors (WCD). To reach a reasonable sensitivity, high altitude mountain sites have been selected in Mexico (Sierra Negra, 4550 m a.s.l.), Bolivia (Chacaltaya, 5300 m a.s.l.) and Venezuela (Merida, 4765 m a.s.l.). We report on the project progresses and the first operation at high altitude, search for bursts in 6 months of preliminary data, as well as search for signal at ground level when satellites report a burst.

An all-optronic synthetic aperture lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turbide, Simon; Marchese, Linda; Terroux, Marc; Babin, François; Bergeron, Alain

2012-09-01

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a mature technology that overcomes the diffraction limit of an imaging system's real aperture by taking advantage of the platform motion to coherently sample multiple sections of an aperture much larger than the physical one. Synthetic Aperture Lidar (SAL) is the extension of SAR to much shorter wavelengths (1.5 μm vs 5 cm). This new technology can offer higher resolution images in day or night time as well as in certain adverse conditions. It could be a powerful tool for Earth monitoring (ship detection, frontier surveillance, ocean monitoring) from aircraft, unattended aerial vehicle (UAV) or spatial platforms. A continuous flow of high-resolution images covering large areas would however produce a large amount of data involving a high cost in term of post-processing computational time. This paper presents a laboratory demonstration of a SAL system complete with image reconstruction based on optronic processing. This differs from the more traditional digital approach by its real-time processing capability. The SAL system is discussed and images obtained from a non-metallic diffuse target at ranges up to 3m are shown, these images being processed by a real-time optronic SAR processor origiinally designed to reconstruct SAR images from ENVISAT/ASAR data.

Energy, momentum and propagation of non-paraxial high-order Gaussian beams in the presence of an aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stilgoe, Alexander B.; Nieminen, Timo A.; Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina

2015-12-01

Non-paraxial theories of wave propagation are essential to model the interaction of highly focused light with matter. Here we investigate the energy, momentum and propagation of the Laguerre-, Hermite- and Ince-Gaussian solutions (LG, HG, and IG) of the paraxial wave equation in an apertured non-paraxial regime. We investigate the far-field relationships between the LG, HG, and IG solutions and the vector spherical wave function (VSWF) solutions of the vector Helmholtz wave equation. We investigate the convergence of the VSWF and the various Gaussian solutions in the presence of an aperture. Finally, we investigate the differences in linear and angular momentum evaluated in the paraxial and non-paraxial regimes. The non-paraxial model we develop can be applied to calculations of the focusing of high-order Gaussian modes in high-resolution microscopes. We find that the addition of an aperture in high numerical aperture optical systems does not greatly affect far-field properties except when the beam is significantly clipped by an aperture. Diffraction from apertures causes large distortions in the near-field and will influence light-matter interactions. The method is not limited to a particular solution of the paraxial wave equation. Our model is constructed in a formalism that is commonly used in scattering calculations. It is thus applicable to optical trapping and other optical investigations of matter.

Design of free space optical omnidirectional transceivers for indoor applications using non-imaging optical devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agrawal, Navik; Davis, Christopher C.

2008-08-01

Omnidirectional free space optical communication receivers can employ multiple non-imaging collectors, such as compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs), in an array-like fashion to increase the amount of possible light collection. CPCs can effectively channel light collected over a large aperture to a small area photodiode. The aperture to length ratio of such devices can increase the overall size of the transceiver unit, which may limit the practicality of such systems, especially when small size is desired. New non-imaging collector designs with smaller sizes, larger field of view (FOV), and comparable transmission curves to CPCs, offer alternative transceiver designs. This paper examines how transceiver performance is affected by the use of different non-imaging collector shapes that are designed for wide FOV with reduced efficiency compared with shapes such as the CPC that are designed for small FOV with optimal efficiency. Theoretical results provide evidence indicating that array-like transceiver designs using various non-imaging collector shapes with less efficient transmission curves, but a larger FOV will be an effective means for the design of omnidirectional optical transceiver units. The results also incorporate the effects of Fresnel loss at the collector exit aperture-photodiode interface, which is an important consideration for indoor omnidirectional FSO systems.

Bridgman growth of large-aperture yttrium calcium oxyborate crystal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Anhua, E-mail: wuanhua@mail.sic.ac.cn; Jiang, Linwen; Qian, Guoxing

2012-09-15

Highlights: ► YCOB is a novel non-linear optical crystal possessing good thermal, mechanical and nonlinear optical properties. ► Large size crystal growth is key technology question for YCOB crystal. ► YCOB crystals 3 in. in diameter were grown with modified vertical Bridgman method. ► It is a more effective growth method to obtain large size and high quality YCOB crystal. -- Abstract: Large-aperture yttrium calcium oxyborate YCa{sub 4}O(BO{sub 3}){sub 3} (YCOB) crystals with 3 in. in diameter were grown with modified vertical Bridgman method, and the large crystal plate (63 mm × 68 mm × 20 mm) was harvested formore » high-average power frequency conversion system. The crack, facet growth and spiral growth can be effectively controlled in the as-grown crystal, and Bridgman method displays more effective in obtain large size and high quality YCOB crystal plate than Czochralski technique.« less

A novel DWDM method to design a 100-kW Laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Santanu

2010-02-01

In this paper, I will present the design analysis of a novel concept that may be used to generate a diffraction-limited beam from an aperture so that as much as 450 kW of laser power can be efficiently deposited on a diffraction-limited spot at a range. The laser beam will be comprised of many closely spaced wavelength channels as in a DWDM. The technique relies on the ability of an angular dispersion amplifier to multiplex a large number of high power narrow frequency lasers, wavelengths of which may be as close as 0.4 nm.

Application of identifying transmission spheres for spherical surface testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Christopher B.; Ye, Xin; Li, Xueyuan; Wang, Quanzhao; Tang, Shouhong; Han, Sen

2017-06-01

We developed a new application on Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) to identify correct transmission spheres (TS) for Spherical Surface Testing (SST). Spherical surfaces are important optical surfaces, and the wide application and high production rate of spherical surfaces necessitates an accurate and highly reliable measuring device. A Fizeau Interferometer is an appropriate tool for SST due to its subnanometer accuracy. It measures the contour of a spherical surface using a common path, which is insensitive to the surrounding circumstances. The Fizeau Interferometer transmits a wide laser beam, creating interference fringes from re-converging light from the transmission sphere and the test surface. To make a successful measurement, the application calculates and determines the appropriate transmission sphere for the test surface. There are 3 main inputs from the test surfaces that are utilized to determine the optimal sizes and F-numbers of the transmission spheres: (1) the curvatures (concave or convex), (2) the Radii of Curvature (ROC), and (3) the aperture sizes. The application will firstly calculate the F-numbers (i.e. ROC divided by aperture) of the test surface, secondly determine the correct aperture size of a convex surface, thirdly verify that the ROC of the test surface must be shorter than the reference surface's ROC of the transmission sphere, and lastly calculate the percentage of area that the test surface will be measured. However, the amount of interferometers and transmission spheres should be optimized when measuring large spherical surfaces to avoid requiring a large amount of interferometers and transmission spheres for each test surface. Current measuring practices involve tedious and potentially inaccurate calculations. This smart application eliminates human calculation errors, optimizes the selection of transmission spheres (including the least number required) and interferometer sizes, and increases efficiency.

Reflector antennas with low sidelobes, low cross polarization, and high aperture efficiency

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Faigen, I. M.; Reichert, C. F.; Sletten, C. J.; Shore, R. A.

1984-01-01

Techniques are presented for computing the horn near field patterns on the subreflectors and for correcting the phase center errors of the horn pattern by shaping the subreflector surface. The diffraction pattern computations for scanned beams are described. The effects of dish aperture diffraction on pattern bandwidth are investigated. A model antenna consisting of a reflector, shaped subreflector, and corrugated feed horn is described.

Aperture efficiency of integrated-circuit horn antennas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, Yong; Lee, Karen; Stimson, Philip; Potter, Kent; Rutledge, David

1991-01-01

The aperture efficiency of silicon integrated-circuit horn antennas has been improved by optimizing the length of the dipole probes and by coating the entire horn walls with gold. To make these measurements, a new thin-film power-density meter was developed for measuring power density with accuracies better than 5 percent. The measured aperture efficiency improved from 44 percent to 72 percent at 93 GHz. This is sufficient for use in many applications which now use machined waveguide horns.

Potentials of the acousto-optical spectral data processing on a basis of a novel algorithm of the collinear wave heterodyning in a large-aperture KRS-5 crystalline cell

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shcherbakov, Alexandre S.; Maximov, Jewgemij; Sanchez Lucero, Daniel

2010-02-01

Recently proposed modern technique of a precise spectrum analysis within an algorithm of the collinear wave heterodyning implies a two-stage integrated processing, namely, the wave heterodyning of a signal in a square-law nonlinear medium and then the optical processing in the same cell. Technical advantage of this approach is in providing a direct processing of ultra-high-frequency radio-wave signals with essentially improved frequency resolution. This algorithm can be realized on a basis of various physical principles, and we consider an opportunity of involving the potentials of modern acousto-optics for these purposes. From this viewpoint, one needs a large-aperture effective acousto-optical cell, which operates in the Bragg regime and performs the ultra-high-frequency co-directional collinear acoustic wave heterodyning. The technique under consideration imposes specific requirements on the cell's material, namely, a high optical quality of large-size crystalline boules, high-efficient acousto-optical and acoustic interactions, and low group velocity of acoustic waves together with square-low dispersive acoustic losses. We focus our attention on the solid solutions of thallium chalcogenides and take the TlBr-TlI (thallium bromine - thallium iodine) solution, which forms KRS-5 cubic-symmetry crystals with the mass-ratio 58% of TlBr to 42% of TlI. Analysis shows that the acousto-optical cell made of a KRS-5 crystal oriented along the [111] -axis and the corresponding longitudinal elastic mode for producing the dynamic diffractive grating in that crystal can be exploited. With the acoustic velocity of about 1.92 mm/μs and attenuation of approximately 10 dB/(cm GHz2), similar cell is capable to provide an optical aperture of 50 mm and one of the highest figures of acousto-optical merit in solid states in the visible range. Such a cell is rather desirable for applications to direct parallel multi-channel optical spectrum analysis with substantially improved frequency resolution.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Teplitsky, Ella; Joshi, Karan; Ericson, Daniel L.

We describe a high throughput method for screening up to 1728 distinct chemicals with protein crystals on a single microplate. Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) was used to co-position 2.5 nL of protein, precipitant, and chemicals on a MiTeGen in situ-1 crystallization plate™ for screening by co-crystallization or soaking. ADE-transferred droplets follow a precise trajectory which allows all components to be transferred through small apertures in the microplate lid. The apertures were large enough for 2.5 nL droplets to pass through them, but small enough so that they did not disrupt the internal environment created by the mother liquor. Using thismore » system, thermolysin and trypsin crystals were efficiently screened for binding to a heavy-metal mini-library. Fluorescence and X-ray diffraction were used to confirm that each chemical in the heavy-metal library was correctly paired with the intended protein crystal. Moreover, a fragment mini-library was screened to observe two known lysozyme We describe a high throughput method for screening up to 1728 distinct chemicals with protein crystals on a single microplate. Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) was used to co-position 2.5 nL of protein, precipitant, and chemicals on a MiTeGen in situ-1 crystallization plate™ for screening by co-crystallization or soaking. ADE-transferred droplets follow a precise trajectory which allows all components to be transferred through small apertures in the microplate lid. The apertures were large enough for 2.5 nL droplets to pass through them, but small enough so that they did not disrupt the internal environment created by the mother liquor. Using this system, thermolysin and trypsin crystals were efficiently screened for binding to a heavy-metal mini-library. Fluorescence and X-ray diffraction were used to confirm that each chemical in the heavy-metal library was correctly paired with the intended protein crystal. A fragment mini-library was screened to observe two known lysozyme ligands using both co-crystallization and soaking. A similar approach was used to identify multiple, novel thaumatin binding sites for ascorbic acid. This technology pushes towards a faster, automated, and more flexible strategy for high throughput screening of chemical libraries (such as fragment libraries) using as little as 2.5 nL of each component.ds using both co-crystallization and soaking. We used a A similar approach to identify multiple, novel thaumatin binding sites for ascorbic acid. This technology pushes towards a faster, automated, and more flexible strategy for high throughput screening of chemical libraries (such as fragment libraries) using as little as 2.5 nL of each component.« less

Large Coded Aperture Mask for Spaceflight Hard X-ray Images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vigneau, Danielle N.; Robinson, David W.

2002-01-01

The 2.6 square meter coded aperture mask is a vital part of the Burst Alert Telescope on the Swift mission. A random, but known pattern of more than 50,000 lead tiles, each 5 mm square, was bonded to a large honeycomb panel which projects a shadow on the detector array during a gamma ray burst. A two-year development process was necessary to explore ideas, apply techniques, and finalize procedures to meet the strict requirements for the coded aperture mask. Challenges included finding a honeycomb substrate with minimal gamma ray attenuation, selecting an adhesive with adequate bond strength to hold the tiles in place but soft enough to allow the tiles to expand and contract without distorting the panel under large temperature gradients, and eliminating excess adhesive from all untiled areas. The largest challenge was to find an efficient way to bond the > 50,000 lead tiles to the panel with positional tolerances measured in microns. In order to generate the desired bondline, adhesive was applied and allowed to cure to each tile. The pre-cured tiles were located in a tool to maintain positional accuracy, wet adhesive was applied to the panel, and it was lowered to the tile surface with synchronized actuators. Using this procedure, the entire tile pattern was transferred to the large honeycomb panel in a single bond. The pressure for the bond was achieved by enclosing the entire system in a vacuum bag. Thermal vacuum and acoustic tests validated this approach. This paper discusses the methods, materials, and techniques used to fabricate this very large and unique coded aperture mask for the Swift mission.

Light-efficient photography.

PubMed

Hasinoff, Samuel W; Kutulakos, Kiriakos N

2011-11-01

In this paper, we consider the problem of imaging a scene with a given depth of field at a given exposure level in the shortest amount of time possible. We show that by 1) collecting a sequence of photos and 2) controlling the aperture, focus, and exposure time of each photo individually, we can span the given depth of field in less total time than it takes to expose a single narrower-aperture photo. Using this as a starting point, we obtain two key results. First, for lenses with continuously variable apertures, we derive a closed-form solution for the globally optimal capture sequence, i.e., that collects light from the specified depth of field in the most efficient way possible. Second, for lenses with discrete apertures, we derive an integer programming problem whose solution is the optimal sequence. Our results are applicable to off-the-shelf cameras and typical photography conditions, and advocate the use of dense, wide-aperture photo sequences as a light-efficient alternative to single-shot, narrow-aperture photography.

High numerical aperture large-core photonic crystal fiber for a broadband infrared transmission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pniewski, J.; Stepniewski, G.; Kasztelanic, R.; Siwicki, B.; Pierscinska, D.; Pierscinski, K.; Pysz, D.; Borzycki, K.; Stepien, R.; Bugajski, M.; Buczynski, R.

2016-11-01

In this paper we present a large mode area photonic crystal fiber made of the heavy metal oxide glass CS-740, dedicated for a broadband light guidance in the visible, near- and mid-infrared regions of wavelengths from 0.4 to 4.7 μm. The fiber is effectively multi-mode in the considered wavelength range. It is composed of a ring of air-holes surrounding the core, with a high linear filling factor of 0.97. The fiber was made using a standard stack-and-draw technique. Each hole has a size of approx. 2.5 × 3.0 μm and diameter of core is 80 μm. Fiber attenuation is below 3 dB/m in the 0.9-1.7 μm wavelength range, while at 4.4 μm (mid-IR) it is approx. 5 dB/cm. Bending loss at the 1.55 μm wavelength is 0.45 dB per loop of 8 mm radius. Fiber numerical aperture is 0.53 at 1.55 μm. The effective mode area of the fundamental mode is approx. 2400 μm2 in the wavelength range of 0.8-1.7 μm. We present a proof-of-concept demonstration that our large core photonic crystal fiber is able to efficiently collect light directly from a mid-IR quantum cascade laser without use of additional optics and can be used for pigtailing mid-IR sources and detectors.

Enhanced middle-infrared light transmission through Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au aperture arrays.

PubMed

Xiao, Gongli; Yao, Xiang; Ji, Xinming; Zhou, Jia; Bao, Zongming; Huang, Yiping

2011-12-01

The enhanced middle-infrared light transmission through Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au aperture arrays by changing the refractive index and the thickness of a dielectric layer was studied experimentally. The results indicated that the transmission spectra was highly dependent on the refractive index and the thickness of SiO(x)N(y). We found that the transmission peaks redshifted regularly along with the refractive index from 1.6 to 1.8, owing to the role of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) coupling in the Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au cascaded metallic structure. Simultaneously, a higher transmission efficiency and narrower transmission peak was obtained in Au/SiO2.1N0.3/Au cascaded metallic structure with small refractive index (1.6) than in Au/SiO0.6N1/Au cascaded metallic structure with large refractive index (1.8). When the thickness of SiO(x)N(y) changes from 0.2 to 0.4 microm, the shape of transmission spectra exhibits a large change. It was found that a higher transmission efficiency and narrower transmission peak was obtained in Au/SiO(x)N(y)/Au cascaded metallic structure with a thin dielectric film (0.2 microm), with the increase of SiO(x)N(y) film's thickness, the transmission peak gradually widened and disappeared finally. This effect is useful in applications of biochemical sensing and tunable integrated plasmonic devices in the middle-infrared region.

Initial Technology Assessment for the Large-Aperture UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Feinberg, Lee; France, Kevin; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Schiminovich, David

2016-01-01

The NASA Astrophysics Division's 30-Year Roadmap prioritized a future large-aperture space telescope operating in the ultra-violet/optical/infrared wavelength regime. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy envisioned a similar observatory, the High Definition Space Telescope. And a multi-institution group also studied the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope. In all three cases, a broad science case is outlined, combining general astrophysics with the search for biosignatures via direct-imaging and spectroscopic characterization of habitable exoplanets. We present an initial technology assessment that enables such an observatory that is currently being studied for the 2020 Decadal Survey by the Large UV/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor Science and Technology Definition Team. We present here the technology prioritization for the 2016 technology cycle and define the required technology capabilities and current state-of-the-art performance. Current, planned, and recommended technology development efforts are also reported.

Broadband metamaterial lens antennas with special properties by controlling both refractive-index distribution and feed directivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Qian; Shi, Chuan Bo; Chen, Tian Yi; Qing Qi, Mei; Li, Yun Bo; Cui, Tie Jun

2018-04-01

A new method is proposed to design gradient refractive-index metamaterial lens antennas by optimizing both the refractive-index distribution of the lens and the feed directivity. Comparing to the conventional design methods, source optimization provides a new degree of freedom to control aperture fields effectively. To demonstrate this method, two lenses with special properties based on this method are designed, to emit high-efficiency plane waves and fan-shaped beams, respectively. Both lenses have good performance and wide frequency band from 12 to 18 GHz, verifying the validity of the proposed method. The plane-wave emitting lens realized a high aperture efficiency of 75%, and the fan-beam lens achieved a high gain of 15 dB over board bandwidth. The experimental results have good agreement with the design targets and full-wave simulations.

High quality adaptive optics zoom with adaptive lenses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quintavalla, M.; Santiago, F.; Bonora, S.; Restaino, S.

2018-02-01

We present the combined use of large aperture adaptive lens with large optical power modulation with a multi actuator adaptive lens. The Multi-actuator Adaptive Lens (M-AL) can correct up to the 4th radial order of Zernike polynomials, without any obstructions (electrodes and actuators) placed inside its clear aperture. We demonstrated that the use of both lenses together can lead to better image quality and to the correction of aberrations of adaptive optics optical systems.

A technology demonstrator for development of ultra-lightweight, large aperture, deployable telescope for space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuccaro Marchi, Alessandro; Gambicorti, Lisa; Simonetti, Francesca; Salinari, Piero; Lisi, Franco; Bursi, Alessandro; Olivier, Massimiliano; Gallieni, Daniele

2017-11-01

This work presents the latest results of new technological concepts for large aperture, lightweight telescopes using thin deployable active mirrors. The study is originally addressed to a spaceborne DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) at 935.5 nm for the measurement of water vapour profile in atmosphere, as an output of an ESA contract (whose preliminary results were presented at ICSO 2006). The high versatility of these concepts allows to exploit the presented technology for any project willing to consider large aperture, segmented lightweight telescopes. A possible scientific application is for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays detection through the fluorescence traces in atmosphere and diffused Cerenkov signals observation via a Schmidt-like spaceborne LEO telescope with large aperture, wide Field of View (FOV) and low f/#. A technology demonstrator has been manufactured and tested in order to investigate two project critical areas identified during the preliminary design: the performances of the long-stroke actuators used to implement the mirror active control and the mirror survivability to launch. In particular, this breadboard demonstrates at first that the mirror actuators are able to control with the adequate accuracy the surface shape and to recover a deployment error with their long stroke; secondly, the mirror survivability has been demonstrated using an electrostatic locking between mirror and backplane able to withstand without failure a vibration test representative of the launch environment.

The Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT) I: overview and air-side system description

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hicks, Brian A.; Lyon, Richard G.; Petrone, Peter; Ballard, Marlin; Bolcar, Matthew R.; Bolognese, Jeff; Clampin, Mark; Dogoda, Peter; Dworzanski, Daniel; Helmbrecht, Michael A.; Koca, Corina; Shiri, Ron

2016-07-01

This work presents an overview of the Segmented Aperture Interferometric Nulling Testbed (SAINT), a project that will pair an actively-controlled macro-scale segmented mirror with the Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC). SAINT will incorporate the VNC's demonstrated wavefront sensing and control system to refine and quantify end-to-end high-contrast starlight suppression performance. This pathfinder testbed will be used as a tool to study and refine approaches to mitigating instabilities and complex diffraction expected from future large segmented aperture telescopes.

Three-dimensional digital holographic aperture synthesis for rapid and highly-accurate large-volume metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crouch, Stephen; Kaylor, Brant M.; Barber, Zeb W.; Reibel, Randy R.

2015-09-01

Currently large volume, high accuracy three-dimensional (3D) metrology is dominated by laser trackers, which typically utilize a laser scanner and cooperative reflector to estimate points on a given surface. The dependency upon the placement of cooperative targets dramatically inhibits the speed at which metrology can be conducted. To increase speed, laser scanners or structured illumination systems can be used directly on the surface of interest. Both approaches are restricted in their axial and lateral resolution at longer stand-off distances due to the diffraction limit of the optics used. Holographic aperture ladar (HAL) and synthetic aperture ladar (SAL) can enhance the lateral resolution of an imaging system by synthesizing much larger apertures by digitally combining measurements from multiple smaller apertures. Both of these approaches only produce two-dimensional imagery and are therefore not suitable for large volume 3D metrology. We combined the SAL and HAL approaches to create a swept frequency digital holographic 3D imaging system that provides rapid measurement speed for surface coverage with unprecedented axial and lateral resolution at longer standoff ranges. The technique yields a "data cube" of Fourier domain data, which can be processed with a 3D Fourier transform to reveal a 3D estimate of the surface. In this paper, we provide the theoretical background for the technique and show experimental results based on an ultra-wideband frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) chirped heterodyne ranging system showing ~100 micron lateral and axial precisions at >2 m standoff distances.

Efficient creation of electron vortex beams for high resolution STEM imaging.

PubMed

Béché, A; Juchtmans, R; Verbeeck, J

2017-07-01

The recent discovery of electron vortex beams carrying quantised angular momentum in the TEM has led to an active field of research, exploring a variety of potential applications including the possibility of mapping magnetic states at the atomic scale. A prerequisite for this is the availability of atomic sized electron vortex beams at high beam current and mode purity. In this paper we present recent progress showing that by making use of the Aharonov-Bohm effect near the tip of a long single domain ferromagnetic Nickel needle, a very efficient aperture for the production of electron vortex beams can be realised. The aperture transmits more than 99% of all electrons and provides a vortex mode purity of up to 92%. Placing this aperture in the condenser plane of a state of the art Cs corrected microscope allows us to demonstrate atomic resolution HAADF STEM images with spatial resolution better than 1 Angström, in agreement with theoretical expectations and only slightly inferior to the performance of a non-vortex probe on the same instrument. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prototype Development of a Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer, GeoSTAR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanner, Alan B.; Wilson, William J.; Kangaslahti, Pekka P.; Lambrigsten, Bjorn H.; Dinardo, Steven J.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Ruf, Christopher S.; Rogacki, Steven; Gross, S. M.; Musko, Steve

2004-01-01

Preliminary details of a 2-D synthetic aperture radiometer prototype operating from 50 to 58 GHz will be presented. The instrument is being developed as a laboratory testbed, and the goal of this work is to demonstrate the technologies needed to do atmospheric soundings with high spatial resolution from Geostationary orbit. The concept is to deploy a large sparse aperture Y-array from a geostationary satellite, and to use aperture synthesis to obtain images of the earth without the need for a large mechanically scanned antenna. The laboratory prototype consists of a Y-array of 24 horn antennas, MMIC receivers, and a digital cross-correlation sub-system. System studies are discussed, including an error budget which has been derived from numerical simulations. The error budget defines key requirements, such as null offsets, phase calibration, and antenna pattern knowledge. Details of the instrument design are discussed in the context of these requirements.

Correcting Gravitational Deformation at the Tianma Radio Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Jian; Zhong, Weiye; Wang, Jinqing; Liu, Qinghui; Shen, Zhiqiang

2018-04-01

The primary reflector of the Tianma Radio Telescope (TMRT) distorts due to gravity, which dramatically reduces the aperture efficiency of high-frequency observations. A technique known as outof-focus holography (OOF) has been developed to measure gravitational deformation. However, the TMRT has a shaped dual-reflector optical system, so the OOF technique cannot be used directly. An extended OOF (e-OOF) technique that can be used for a shaped telescope is proposed. A new calculation method is developed to calculate the extra phase and illumination. A new measurement strategy is proposed that uses only one feed, reduces the length of the scan pattern, and allows the telescope to scan smoothly at low speed. At the TMRT, the time required for each measurement is under 20 min, the achieved accuracy is approximately 50 μm, and the repeatability is sufficient. We have acquired a model for the gravitational deformation of the TMRT. After applying the model, there is a 150%-400% improvement in the aperture efficiency at low and high elevations. The model flattens the gain curve between 15°-80° elevations with an aperture efficiency of approximately 52%. The final weighted root-mean-square error is approximately 270 μm. The e-OOF technique reduces the constraints on the telescopes.

Quench protection challenges in long nb3sn accelerator magnets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salmi, Tiina-Mari; Ambrosio, G.; Caspi, S.; Chlachidze, Guram; Dhallé, Marc; Felice, Helene; Ferracin, Paolo; Marchevsky, M.; Sabbi, G. L.; ten Kate, H. H. J.

2012-06-01

The quench protection of the several meter long, large aperture high-field Nb3Sn quadrupoles that the LARP collaboration is developing for the LHC interaction region upgrade, requires efficient protection heaters to quickly generate large resistive segments across the windings. To support the protection design, experiments in the recently tested LARP R&D magnets are aimed to characterize the coil response to different protection schemes. In particular, the delay to quench and the final hotspot temperatures are evaluated after firing the heaters at different powering regimes and coverage. Also, the contribution of external energy extraction is investigated. Based on the performed studies and computer simulations, it seems that if the same protection efficiency per unit length that is measured in a 1 m long model magnet can be scaled to a 3.6 m long magnet, and the heater coverage can be improved, about 1 MJ/m of stored energy can be absorbed in the magnet after a quench. However, significant technology developments are needed to scale the protection heater efficiency to longer magnets and to increase the coverage.

Grating-flanked plasmonic coaxial apertures for efficient fiber optical tweezers.

PubMed

Saleh, Amr A E; Sheikhoelislami, Sassan; Gastelum, Steven; Dionne, Jennifer A

2016-09-05

Subwavelength plasmonic apertures have been foundational for direct optical manipulation of nanoscale specimens including sub-100 nm polymeric beads, metallic nanoparticles and proteins. While most plasmonic traps result in two-dimensional localization, three-dimensional manipulation has been demonstrated by integrating a plasmonic aperture on an optical fiber tip. However, such 3D traps are usually inefficient since the optical mode of the fiber and the subwavelength aperture only weakly couple. In this paper we design more efficient optical-fiber-based plasmonic tweezers combining a coaxial plasmonic aperture with a plasmonic grating coupler at the fiber tip facet. Using full-field finite difference time domain analysis, we optimize the grating design for both gold and silver fiber-based coaxial tweezers such that the optical transmission through the apertures is maximized. With the optimized grating, we show that the maximum transmission efficiency increases from 2.5% to 19.6% and from 1.48% to 16.7% for the gold and silver structures respectively. To evaluate their performance as optical tweezers, we calculate the optical forces and the corresponding trapping potential on dielectric particles interacting with the apertures. We demonstrate that the enahncement in the transmission translates into an equivalent increase in the optical forces. Consequently, the optical power required to achieve stable optical trapping is significantly reduced allowing for efficient localization and 3D manipulation of sub-30 nm dielectric particles.

Research on large-aperture primary mirror supporting way of vehicle-mounted laser communication system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Lixin; Meng, Lingchen; Zhang, Yiqun; Zhang, Lizhong; Liu, Ming; Li, Xiaoming

2018-01-01

In the satellite to earth laser communication link, large-aperture ground laser communication terminals usually are used in order to realize the requirement of high rate and long distance communication and restrain the power fluctuation by atmospheric scintillation. With the increasing of the laser communication terminal caliber, the primary mirror weight should also be increased, and selfweight, thermal deformation and environment will affect the surface accuracy of the primary mirror surface. A high precision vehicular laser communication telescope unit with an effective aperture of 600mm was considered in this paper. The primary mirror is positioned with center hole, which back is supported by 9 floats and the side is supported by a mercury band. The secondary mirror adopts a spherical adjusting mechanism. Through simulation analysis, the system wave difference is better than λ/20 when the primary mirror is in different dip angle, which meets the requirements of laser communication.

End-to-End Assessment of a Large Aperture Segmented Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (UVOIR) Telescope Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feinberg, Lee; Rioux, Norman; Bolcar, Matthew; Liu, Alice; Guyon, Oliver; Stark, Chris; Arenberg, Jon

2016-01-01

Key challenges of a future large aperture, segmented Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (UVOIR) Telescope capable of performing a spectroscopic survey of hundreds of Exoplanets will be sufficient stability to achieve 10^-10 contrast measurements and sufficient throughput and sensitivity for high yield Exo-Earth spectroscopic detection. Our team has collectively assessed an optimized end to end architecture including a high throughput coronagraph capable of working with a segmented telescope, a cost-effective and heritage based stable segmented telescope, a control architecture that minimizes the amount of new technologies, and an Exo-Earth yield assessment to evaluate potential performance. These efforts are combined through integrated modeling, coronagraph evaluations, and Exo-Earth yield calculations to assess the potential performance of the selected architecture. In addition, we discusses the scalability of this architecture to larger apertures and the technological tall poles to enabling it.

Deployment of a Secondary Concentrator to Increase the Intercept Factor of a Dish with Large Slope Errors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ortabasi, U.; Gray, E.; Ogallagher, J. J.

1984-01-01

The testing of a hyperbolic trumpet non-imaging secondary concentrator with a parabolic dish having slope errors of about 10 mrad is reported. The trumpet, which has a concentration ratio of 2.1, increased the flux through a 141-mm focal aperture by 72%, with an efficiency of 96%, thus demonstrating its potential for use in tandem with cheap dishes having relatively large slope errors.

Joint synthetic aperture radar plus ground moving target indicator from single-channel radar using compressive sensing

DOEpatents

Thompson, Douglas; Hallquist, Aaron; Anderson, Hyrum

2017-10-17

The various embodiments presented herein relate to utilizing an operational single-channel radar to collect and process synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and ground moving target indicator (GMTI) imagery from a same set of radar returns. In an embodiment, data is collected by randomly staggering a slow-time pulse repetition interval (PRI) over a SAR aperture such that a number of transmitted pulses in the SAR aperture is preserved with respect to standard SAR, but many of the pulses are spaced very closely enabling movers (e.g., targets) to be resolved, wherein a relative velocity of the movers places them outside of the SAR ground patch. The various embodiments of image reconstruction can be based on compressed sensing inversion from undersampled data, which can be solved efficiently using such techniques as Bregman iteration. The various embodiments enable high-quality SAR reconstruction, and high-quality GMTI reconstruction from the same set of radar returns.

Single-mode large-mode-area laser fiber with ultralow numerical aperture and high beam quality.

PubMed

Peng, Kun; Zhan, Huan; Ni, Li; Wang, Xiaolong; Wang, Yuying; Gao, Cong; Li, Yuwei; Wang, Jianjun; Jing, Feng; Lin, Aoxiang

2016-12-10

By using the chelate precursor doping technique, we report on an ytterbium-doped aluminophosphosilicate (APS) large-mode-area fiber with ultralow numerical aperture of 0.036 and effective fundamental mode area of ∼550  μm². With a bend diameter of 600 mm, the bending loss of fundamental mode LP₀₁ was measured to be <10^-3  dB/m, in agreement with the corresponding simulation results, while that of higher order mode LP₁₁ is >100  dB/m at 1080 nm. Measured in an all-fiber oscillator laser cavity, 592 W single-mode laser output was obtained at 1079.64 nm with high-beam quality M² of 1.12. The results indicate that the chelate precursor doping technique is a competitive method for ultralow numerical aperture fiber fabrication, which is very suitable for developing single-mode seed lasers for high power laser systems.

Iterative simulated quenching for designing irregular-spot-array generators.

PubMed

Gillet, J N; Sheng, Y

2000-07-10

We propose a novel, to our knowledge, algorithm of iterative simulated quenching with temperature rescaling for designing diffractive optical elements, based on an analogy between simulated annealing and statistical thermodynamics. The temperature is iteratively rescaled at the end of each quenching process according to ensemble statistics to bring the system back from a frozen imperfect state with a local minimum of energy to a dynamic state in a Boltzmann heat bath in thermal equilibrium at the rescaled temperature. The new algorithm achieves much lower cost function and reconstruction error and higher diffraction efficiency than conventional simulated annealing with a fast exponential cooling schedule and is easy to program. The algorithm is used to design binary-phase generators of large irregular spot arrays. The diffractive phase elements have trapezoidal apertures of varying heights, which fit ideal arbitrary-shaped apertures better than do trapezoidal apertures of fixed heights.

Astronomical telescope with holographic primary objective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ditto, Thomas D.; Friedman, Jeffrey F.; Content, David A.

2011-09-01

A dual dispersion telescope with a plane grating primary objective was previously disclosed that can overcome intrinsic chromatic aberration of dispersive optics while allowing for unprecedented features such as million object spectroscopy, extraordinary étendue, flat primary objective with a relaxed figure tolerance, gossamer membrane substrate stowable as an unsegmented roll inside a delivery vehicle, and extensibility past 100 meter aperture at optical wavelengths. The novel design meets many criteria for space deployment. Other embodiments are suitable for airborne platforms as well as terrestrial and lunar sites. One problem with this novel telescope is that the grazing exodus configuration necessary to achieve a large aperture is traded for throughput efficiency. Now we show how the hologram of a point source used in place of the primary objective plane grating can improve efficiency by lowering the diffraction angle below grazing exodus. An intermediate refractive element is used to compensate for wavelength dependent focal lengths of the holographic primary objective.

Finite element area and line integral transforms for generalization of aperture function and geometry in Kirchhoff scalar diffraction theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kraus, Hal G.

1993-02-01

Two finite element-based methods for calculating Fresnel region and near-field region intensities resulting from diffraction of light by two-dimensional apertures are presented. The first is derived using the Kirchhoff area diffraction integral and the second is derived using a displaced vector potential to achieve a line integral transformation. The specific form of each of these formulations is presented for incident spherical waves and for Gaussian laser beams. The geometry of the two-dimensional diffracting aperture(s) is based on biquadratic isoparametric elements, which are used to define apertures of complex geometry. These elements are also used to build complex amplitude and phase functions across the aperture(s), which may be of continuous or discontinuous form. The finite element transform integrals are accurately and efficiently integrated numerically using Gaussian quadrature. The power of these methods is illustrated in several examples which include secondary obstructions, secondary spider supports, multiple mirror arrays, synthetic aperture arrays, apertures covered by screens, apodization, phase plates, and off-axis apertures. Typically, the finite element line integral transform results in significant gains in computational efficiency over the finite element Kirchhoff transform method, but is also subject to some loss in generality.

High-contrast imaging with an arbitrary aperture: active correction of aperture discontinuities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pueyo, Laurent; Norman, Colin; Soummer, Rémi; Perrin, Marshall; N'Diaye, Mamadou; Choquet, Elodie

2013-09-01

We present a new method to achieve high-contrast images using segmented and/or on-axis telescopes. Our approach relies on using two sequential Deformable Mirrors to compensate for the large amplitude excursions in the telescope aperture due to secondary support structures and/or segment gaps. In this configuration the parameter landscape of Deformable Mirror Surfaces that yield high contrast Point Spread Functions is not linear, and non-linear methods are needed to find the true minimum in the optimization topology. We solve the highly non-linear Monge-Ampere equation that is the fundamental equation describing the physics of phase induced amplitude modulation. We determine the optimum configuration for our two sequential Deformable Mirror system and show that high-throughput and high contrast solutions can be achieved using realistic surface deformations that are accessible using existing technologies. We name this process Active Compensation of Aperture Discontinuities (ACAD). We show that for geometries similar to JWST, ACAD can attain at least 10-7 in contrast and an order of magnitude higher for future Extremely Large Telescopes, even when the pupil features a missing segment" . We show that the converging non-linear mappings resulting from our Deformable Mirror shapes actually damp near-field diffraction artifacts in the vicinity of the discontinuities. Thus ACAD actually lowers the chromatic ringing due to diffraction by segment gaps and strut's while not amplifying the diffraction at the aperture edges beyond the Fresnel regime and illustrate the broadband properties of ACAD in the case of the pupil configuration corresponding to the Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets. Since details about these telescopes are not yet available to the broader astronomical community, our test case is based on a geometry mimicking the actual one, to the best of our knowledge.

SU-E-T-295: Simultaneous Beam Sampling and Aperture Shape Optimization for Station Parameter Optimized Radiation Therapy (SPORT)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zarepisheh, M; Li, R; Xing, L

Purpose: Station Parameter Optimized Radiation Therapy (SPORT) was recently proposed to fully utilize the technical capability of emerging digital LINACs, in which the station parameters of a delivery system, (such as aperture shape and weight, couch position/angle, gantry/collimator angle) are optimized altogether. SPORT promises to deliver unprecedented radiation dose distributions efficiently, yet there does not exist any optimization algorithm to implement it. The purpose of this work is to propose an optimization algorithm to simultaneously optimize the beam sampling and aperture shapes. Methods: We build a mathematical model whose variables are beam angles (including non-coplanar and/or even nonisocentric beams) andmore » aperture shapes. To solve the resulting large scale optimization problem, we devise an exact, convergent and fast optimization algorithm by integrating three advanced optimization techniques named column generation, gradient method, and pattern search. Column generation is used to find a good set of aperture shapes as an initial solution by adding apertures sequentially. Then we apply the gradient method to iteratively improve the current solution by reshaping the aperture shapes and updating the beam angles toward the gradient. Algorithm continues by pattern search method to explore the part of the search space that cannot be reached by the gradient method. Results: The proposed technique is applied to a series of patient cases and significantly improves the plan quality. In a head-and-neck case, for example, the left parotid gland mean-dose, brainstem max-dose, spinal cord max-dose, and mandible mean-dose are reduced by 10%, 7%, 24% and 12% respectively, compared to the conventional VMAT plan while maintaining the same PTV coverage. Conclusion: Combined use of column generation, gradient search and pattern search algorithms provide an effective way to optimize simultaneously the large collection of station parameters and significantly improves quality of resultant treatment plans as compared with conventional VMAT or IMRT treatments.« less

Ionospheric effects on synthetic aperture radar at VHF

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fitzgerald, T.J.

1997-02-01

Synthetic aperture radars (SAR) operated from airplanes have been used at VHF because of their enhanced foliage and ground penetration compared to radars operated at UHF. A satellite-borne VHF SAR would have considerable utility but in order to operate with high resolution it would have to use both a large relative bandwidth and a large aperture. The presence of the ionosphere in the propagation path of the radar will cause a deterioration of the imaging because of dispersion over the bandwidth and group path changes in the imaged area over the collection aperture. In this paper we present calculations ofmore » the effects of a deterministic ionosphere on SAR imaging for a radar operated with a 100 MHz bandwidth centered at 250 MHz and over an angular aperture of 23{degrees}. The ionosphere induces a point spread function with an approximate half-width of 150 m in the slant-range direction and of 25 m in the cross-range direction compared to the nominal resolution of 1.5 m in both directions.« less

Design of compact off-axis four-mirror anastigmatic system for space communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Fa-cai; Sun, Quan-she; Chen, Kun-feng; Zhu, Xing-bang; Wang, Shao-shui; Wang, Guo-quan; Zheng, Xiang-liang

2013-08-01

The deployment of advanced hyperspectral imaging and other Earth sensing instruments onboard Earth observing satellites is driving the demand for high-data rate communications. Space laser communications technology offers the potential for significantly increasing in data return capability from space to Earth. Compared to the current state of the art radio frequency communications links, lasercom links operate at much higher carrier frequencies. The use of higher carrier frequencies implies a much smaller diffraction loss, which in turn, results in a much higher efficiency in delivering the signal energy. Optical communications meet the required data rates with small, low-mass, and low-power communications packages. The communications optical system assembly typically consists of a front aperture, reflection or refraction type telescope, with or without a solar rejection filter, aft optics, fine-pointing mirrors, and array detectors. Optical system used in space laser communications usually has long focal length, large aperture compared with common optical systems. So the reflective optical system is widely used. An unobstructed four-mirror anastigmatic telescope system was proposed, which was modified based on the theory about geometry optics of common-axis three-mirror systems. Intermediate image was between secondary and tertiary mirror. In order to fold the optical path, four-mirror was designed by adding the plane reflective mirror at intermediate image. The design was analyzed, then a system with effective aperture of 200mm and field of view of 1.0°x1.0° was designed, total length and magnification are 700mm and 20, respectively. The system has advantages of large magnification, relative short physical size and loose manufacturing tolerances.

Optimization of Dish Solar Collectors with and without Secondary Concentrators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jaffe, L. D.

1982-01-01

Methods for optimizing parabolic dish solar collectors and the consequent effects of various optical, thermal, mechanical, and cost variables are examined. The most important performance optimization is adjusting the receiver aperture to maximize collector efficiency. Other parameters that can be adjusted to optimize efficiency include focal length, and, if a heat engine is used, the receiver temperature. The efficiency maxima associated with focal length and receiver temperature are relatively broad; it may, accordingly, be desirable to design somewhat away from the maxima. Performance optimization is sensitive to the slope and specularity errors of the concentrator. Other optical and thermal variables affecting optimization are the reflectance and blocking factor of the concentrator, the absorptance and losses of the receiver, and, if a heat engine is used, the shape of the engine efficiency versus temperature curve. Performance may sometimes be improved by use of an additional optical element (a secondary concentrator) or a receiver window if the errors of the primary concentrator are large or the receiver temperature is high.

Optical antenna for a visible light communications receiver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valencia-Estrada, Juan Camilo; García-Márquez, Jorge; Topsu, Suat; Chassagne, Luc

2018-01-01

Visible Light Communications (VLC) receivers adapted to be used in high transmission rates will eventually use either, high aperture lenses or non-linear optical elements capable of converting light arriving to the receiver into an electric signal. The high aperture lens case, reveals a challenge from an optical designers point-of-view. As a matter of fact, the lens must collect a wide aperture intensity flux using a limited aperture as its use is intended to portable devices. This last also limits both, lens thickness and its focal length. Here, we show a first design to be adapted to a VLC receiver that take these constraints into account. This paper describes a method to design catadioptric and monolithic lenses to be used as an optical collector of light entering from a near point light source as a spherical fan L with a wide acceptance angle α° and high efficiency. These lenses can be mass produced and therefore one can find many practical applications in VLC equipped devices. We show a first design for a near light source without magnification, and second one with a detector's magnification in a meridional section. We utilize rigorous geometric optics, vector analysis and ordinary differential equations.

A Novel Multi-Aperture Based Sun Sensor Based on a Fast Multi-Point MEANSHIFT (FMMS) Algorithm

PubMed Central

You, Zheng; Sun, Jian; Xing, Fei; Zhang, Gao-Fei

2011-01-01

With the current increased widespread interest in the development and applications of micro/nanosatellites, it was found that we needed to design a small high accuracy satellite attitude determination system, because the star trackers widely used in large satellites are large and heavy, and therefore not suitable for installation on micro/nanosatellites. A Sun sensor + magnetometer is proven to be a better alternative, but the conventional sun sensor has low accuracy, and cannot meet the requirements of the attitude determination systems of micro/nanosatellites, so the development of a small high accuracy sun sensor with high reliability is very significant. This paper presents a multi-aperture based sun sensor, which is composed of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mask with 36 apertures and an active pixels sensor (APS) CMOS placed below the mask at a certain distance. A novel fast multi-point MEANSHIFT (FMMS) algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy and reliability, the two key performance features, of an APS sun sensor. When the sunlight illuminates the sensor, a sun spot array image is formed on the APS detector. Then the sun angles can be derived by analyzing the aperture image location on the detector via the FMMS algorithm. With this system, the centroid accuracy of the sun image can reach 0.01 pixels, without increasing the weight and power consumption, even when some missing apertures and bad pixels appear on the detector due to aging of the devices and operation in a harsh space environment, while the pointing accuracy of the single-aperture sun sensor using the conventional correlation algorithm is only 0.05 pixels. PMID:22163770

Precise Aperture-Dependent Motion Compensation with Frequency Domain Fast Back-Projection Algorithm.

PubMed

Zhang, Man; Wang, Guanyong; Zhang, Lei

2017-10-26

Precise azimuth-variant motion compensation (MOCO) is an essential and difficult task for high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. In conventional post-filtering approaches, residual azimuth-variant motion errors are generally compensated through a set of spatial post-filters, where the coarse-focused image is segmented into overlapped blocks concerning the azimuth-dependent residual errors. However, image domain post-filtering approaches, such as precise topography- and aperture-dependent motion compensation algorithm (PTA), have difficulty of robustness in declining, when strong motion errors are involved in the coarse-focused image. In this case, in order to capture the complete motion blurring function within each image block, both the block size and the overlapped part need necessary extension leading to degeneration of efficiency and robustness inevitably. Herein, a frequency domain fast back-projection algorithm (FDFBPA) is introduced to deal with strong azimuth-variant motion errors. FDFBPA disposes of the azimuth-variant motion errors based on a precise azimuth spectrum expression in the azimuth wavenumber domain. First, a wavenumber domain sub-aperture processing strategy is introduced to accelerate computation. After that, the azimuth wavenumber spectrum is partitioned into a set of wavenumber blocks, and each block is formed into a sub-aperture coarse resolution image via the back-projection integral. Then, the sub-aperture images are straightforwardly fused together in azimuth wavenumber domain to obtain a full resolution image. Moreover, chirp-Z transform (CZT) is also introduced to implement the sub-aperture back-projection integral, increasing the efficiency of the algorithm. By disusing the image domain post-filtering strategy, robustness of the proposed algorithm is improved. Both simulation and real-measured data experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposal.

End-to-End Assessment of a Large Aperture Segmented Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (UVOIR) Telescope Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feinberg, Lee; Bolcar, Matt; Liu, Alice; Guyon, Olivier; Stark,Chris; Arenberg, Jon

2016-01-01

Key challenges of a future large aperture, segmented Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (UVOIR) Telescope capable of performing a spectroscopic survey of hundreds of Exoplanets will be sufficient stability to achieve 10-10 contrast measurements and sufficient throughput and sensitivity for high yield Exo-Earth spectroscopic detection. Our team has collectively assessed an optimized end to end architecture including a high throughput coronagraph capable of working with a segmented telescope, a cost-effective and heritage based stable segmented telescope, a control architecture that minimizes the amount of new technologies, and an Exo-Earth yield assessment to evaluate potential performance.

Wavefront Control Testbed (WCT) Experiment Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, Laura A.; Basinger, Scott A.; Campion, Scott D.; Faust, Jessica A.; Feinberg, Lee D.; Hayden, William L.; Lowman, Andrew E.; Ohara, Catherine M.; Petrone, Peter P., III

2004-01-01

The Wavefront Control Testbed (WCT) was created to develop and test wavefront sensing and control algorithms and software for the segmented James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Last year, we changed the system configuration from three sparse aperture segments to a filled aperture with three pie shaped segments. With this upgrade we have performed experiments on fine phasing with line-of-sight and segment-to-segment jitter, dispersed fringe visibility and grism angle;. high dynamic range tilt sensing; coarse phasing with large aberrations, and sampled sub-aperture testing. This paper reviews the results of these experiments.

FLaapLUC: A pipeline for the generation of prompt alerts on transient Fermi-LAT γ-ray sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenain, J.-P.

2018-01-01

The large majority of high energy sources detected with Fermi-LAT are blazars, which are known to be very variable sources. High cadence long-term monitoring simultaneously at different wavelengths being prohibitive, the study of their transient activities can help shedding light on our understanding of these objects. The early detection of such potentially fast transient events is the key for triggering follow-up observations at other wavelengths. A Python tool, FLaapLUC, built on top of the Science Tools provided by the Fermi Science Support Center and the Fermi-LAT collaboration, has been developed using a simple aperture photometry approach. This tool can effectively detect relative flux variations in a set of predefined sources and alert potential users. Such alerts can then be used to trigger target of opportunity observations with other facilities. It is shown that FLaapLUC is an efficient tool to reveal transient events in Fermi-LAT data, providing quick results which can be used to promptly organise follow-up observations. Results from this simple aperture photometry method are also compared to full likelihood analyses. The FLaapLUC package is made available on GitHub and is open to contributions by the community.

Adaptive optics using a MEMS deformable mirror for a segmented mirror telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyamura, Norihide

2017-09-01

For small satellite remote sensing missions, a large aperture telescope more than 400mm is required to realize less than 1m GSD observations. However, it is difficult or expensive to realize the large aperture telescope using a monolithic primary mirror with high surface accuracy. A segmented mirror telescope should be studied especially for small satellite missions. Generally, not only high accuracy of optical surface but also high accuracy of optical alignment is required for large aperture telescopes. For segmented mirror telescopes, the alignment is more difficult and more important. For conventional systems, the optical alignment is adjusted before launch to achieve desired imaging performance. However, it is difficult to adjust the alignment for large sized optics in high accuracy. Furthermore, thermal environment in orbit and vibration in a launch vehicle cause the misalignments of the optics. We are developing an adaptive optics system using a MEMS deformable mirror for an earth observing remote sensing sensor. An image based adaptive optics system compensates the misalignments and wavefront aberrations of optical elements using the deformable mirror by feedback of observed images. We propose the control algorithm of the deformable mirror for a segmented mirror telescope by using of observed image. The numerical simulation results and experimental results show that misalignment and wavefront aberration of the segmented mirror telescope are corrected and image quality is improved.

Absolute flux density calibrations of radio sources: 2.3 GHz

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freiley, A. J.; Batelaan, P. D.; Bathker, D. A.

1977-01-01

A detailed description of a NASA/JPL Deep Space Network program to improve S-band gain calibrations of large aperture antennas is reported. The program is considered unique in at least three ways; first, absolute gain calibrations of high quality suppressed-sidelobe dual mode horns first provide a high accuracy foundation to the foundation to the program. Second, a very careful transfer calibration technique using an artificial far-field coherent-wave source was used to accurately obtain the gain of one large (26 m) aperture. Third, using the calibrated large aperture directly, the absolute flux density of five selected galactic and extragalactic natural radio sources was determined with an absolute accuracy better than 2 percent, now quoted at the familiar 1 sigma confidence level. The follow-on considerations to apply these results to an operational network of ground antennas are discussed. It is concluded that absolute gain accuracies within + or - 0.30 to 0.40 db are possible, depending primarily on the repeatability (scatter) in the field data from Deep Space Network user stations.

GaAs/AlOx high-contrast grating mirrors for mid-infrared VCSELs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almuneau, G.; Laaroussi, Y.; Chevallier, C.; Genty, F.; Fressengeas, N. s.; Cerutti, L.; Gauthier-Lafaye, Olivier

2015-02-01

Mid-infrared Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (MIR-VCSEL) are very attractive compact sources for spectroscopic measurements above 2μm, relevant for molecules sensing in various application domains. A long-standing issue for long wavelength VCSEL is the large structure thickness affecting the laser properties, added for the MIR to the tricky technological implementation of the antimonide alloys system. In this paper, we propose a new geometry for MIR-VCSEL including both a lateral confinement by an oxide aperture, and a high-contrast sub-wavelength grating mirror (HCG mirror) formed by the high contrast combination AIOx/GaAs in place of GaSb/A|AsSb top Bragg reflector. In addition to drastically simplifying the vertical stack, HCG mirror allows to control through its design the beam properties. The robust design of the HCG has been ensured by an original method of optimization based on particle swarm optimization algorithm combined with an anti-optimization one, thus allowing large error tolerance for the nano-fabrication. Oxide-based electro-optical confinement has been adapted to mid-infrared lasers, byusing a metamorphic approach with (Al) GaAs layer directly epitaxially grown on the GaSb-based VCSEL bottom structure. This approach combines the advantages of the will-controlled oxidation of AlAs layer and the efficient gain media of Sb-based for mid-infrared emission. We finally present the results obtained on electrically pumped mid-IR-VCSELs structures, for which we included oxide aperturing for lateral confinement and HCG as high reflectivity output mirrors, both based on AlxOy/GaAs heterostructures.

Spatially variant apodization for squinted synthetic aperture radar images.

PubMed

Castillo-Rubio, Carlos F; Llorente-Romano, Sergio; Burgos-García, Mateo

2007-08-01

Spatially variant apodization (SVA) is a nonlinear sidelobe reduction technique that improves sidelobe level and preserves resolution at the same time. This method implements a bidimensional finite impulse response filter with adaptive taps depending on image information. Some papers that have been previously published analyze SVA at the Nyquist rate or at higher rates focused on strip synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper shows that traditional SVA techniques are useless when the sensor operates with a squint angle. The reasons for this behaviour are analyzed, and a new implementation that largely improves the results is presented. The algorithm is applied to simulated SAR images in order to demonstrate the good quality achieved along with efficient computation.

A Comparative Study of Automated Infrasound Detectors - PMCC and AFD with Analyst Review.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Park, Junghyun; Hayward, Chris; Zeiler, Cleat

Automated detections calculated by the progressive multi-channel correlation (PMCC) method (Cansi, 1995) and the adaptive F detector (AFD) (Arrowsmith et al., 2009) are compared to the signals identified by five independent analysts. Each detector was applied to a four-hour time sequence recorded by the Korean infrasound array CHNAR. This array was used because it is composed of both small (<100 m) and large (~1000 m) aperture element spacing. The four hour time sequence contained a number of easily identified signals under noise conditions that have average RMS amplitudes varied from 1.2 to 4.5 mPa (1 to 5 Hz), estimated withmore » running five-minute window. The effectiveness of the detectors was estimated for the small aperture, large aperture, small aperture combined with the large aperture, and full array. The full and combined arrays performed the best for AFD under all noise conditions while the large aperture array had the poorest performance for both detectors. PMCC produced similar results as AFD under the lower noise conditions, but did not produce as dramatic an increase in detections using the full and combined arrays. Both automated detectors and the analysts produced a decrease in detections under the higher noise conditions. Comparing the detection probabilities with Estimated Receiver Operating Characteristic (EROC) curves we found that the smaller value of consistency for PMCC and the larger p-value for AFD had the highest detection probability. These parameters produced greater changes in detection probability than estimates of the false alarm rate. The detection probability was impacted the most by noise level, with low noise (average RMS amplitude of 1.7 mPa) having an average detection probability of ~40% and high noise (average RMS amplitude of 2.9 mPa) average detection probability of ~23%.« less

High throughput fabrication of large-area plasmonic color filters by soft-X-ray interference lithography.

PubMed

Sun, Libin; Hu, Xiaolin; Wu, Qingjun; Wang, Liansheng; Zhao, Jun; Yang, Shumin; Tai, Renzhong; Fecht, Hans-Jorg; Zhang, Dong-Xian; Wang, Li-Qiang; Jiang, Jian-Zhong

2016-08-22

Plasmonic color filters in mass production have been restricted from current fabrication technology, which impede their applications. Soft-X-ray interference lithography (XIL) has recently generated considerable interest as a newly developed technique for the production of periodic nano-structures with resolution theoretically below 4 nm. Here we ameliorate XIL by adding an order sorting aperture and designing the light path properly to achieve perfect-stitching nano-patterns and fast fabrication of large-area color filters. The fill factor of nanostructures prepared on ultrathin Ag films can largely affect the transmission minimum of plasmonic color filters. By changing the fill factor, the color can be controlled flexibly, improving the utilization efficiency of the mask in XIL simultaneously. The calculated data agree well with the experimental results. Finally, an underlying mechanism has been uncovered after systematically analyzing the localized surface plasmon polaritons (LSPPs) coupling in electric field distribution.

A difference-matrix metaheuristic for intensity map segmentation in step-and-shoot IMRT delivery.

PubMed

Gunawardena, Athula D A; D'Souza, Warren D; Goadrich, Laura D; Meyer, Robert R; Sorensen, Kelly J; Naqvi, Shahid A; Shi, Leyuan

2006-05-21

At an intermediate stage of radiation treatment planning for IMRT, most commercial treatment planning systems for IMRT generate intensity maps that describe the grid of beamlet intensities for each beam angle. Intensity map segmentation of the matrix of individual beamlet intensities into a set of MLC apertures and corresponding intensities is then required in order to produce an actual radiation delivery plan for clinical use. Mathematically, this is a very difficult combinatorial optimization problem, especially when mechanical limitations of the MLC lead to many constraints on aperture shape, and setup times for apertures make the number of apertures an important factor in overall treatment time. We have developed, implemented and tested on clinical cases a metaheuristic (that is, a method that provides a framework to guide the repeated application of another heuristic) that efficiently generates very high-quality (low aperture number) segmentations. Our computational results demonstrate that the number of beam apertures and monitor units in the treatment plans resulting from our approach is significantly smaller than the corresponding values for treatment plans generated by the heuristics embedded in a widely use commercial system. We also contrast the excellent results of our fast and robust metaheuristic with results from an 'exact' method, branch-and-cut, which attempts to construct optimal solutions, but, within clinically acceptable time limits, generally fails to produce good solutions, especially for intensity maps with more than five intensity levels. Finally, we show that in no instance is there a clinically significant change of quality associated with our more efficient plans.

Landscape Characterization of Arctic Ecosystems Using Data Mining Algorithms and Large Geospatial Datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langford, Z. L.; Kumar, J.; Hoffman, F. M.

2015-12-01

Observations indicate that over the past several decades, landscape processes in the Arctic have been changing or intensifying. A dynamic Arctic landscape has the potential to alter ecosystems across a broad range of scales. Accurate characterization is useful to understand the properties and organization of the landscape, optimal sampling network design, measurement and process upscaling and to establish a landscape-based framework for multi-scale modeling of ecosystem processes. This study seeks to delineate the landscape at Seward Peninsula of Alaska into ecoregions using large volumes (terabytes) of high spatial resolution satellite remote-sensing data. Defining high-resolution ecoregion boundaries is difficult because many ecosystem processes in Arctic ecosystems occur at small local to regional scales, which are often resolved in by coarse resolution satellites (e.g., MODIS). We seek to use data-fusion techniques and data analytics algorithms applied to Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), Satellite for Observation of Earth (SPOT), WorldView-2, WorldView-3, and QuickBird-2 to develop high-resolution (˜5m) ecoregion maps for multiple time periods. Traditional analysis methods and algorithms are insufficient for analyzing and synthesizing such large geospatial data sets, and those algorithms rarely scale out onto large distributed- memory parallel computer systems. We seek to develop computationally efficient algorithms and techniques using high-performance computing for characterization of Arctic landscapes. We will apply a variety of data analytics algorithms, such as cluster analysis, complex object-based image analysis (COBIA), and neural networks. We also propose to use representativeness analysis within the Seward Peninsula domain to determine optimal sampling locations for fine-scale measurements. This methodology should provide an initial framework for analyzing dynamic landscape trends in Arctic ecosystems, such as shrubification and disturbances, and integration of ecoregions into multi-scale models.

Lithium ion beam divergence on SABRE extraction ion diode experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hanson, D.L.; Cuneo, M.E.; Johnson, D.J.

Intense lithium beams are of particular interest for light ion inertial confinement fusion applications because lithium ions can be accelerated at high voltage in a single charge state (Li{sup +}) with a high mass-to-charge ratio and appropriate range for efficient focusing and heating of a hohlraum ICF target. Scaling to ion power densities adequate to drive high gain pellet implosions (600 TW at 30 MeV) will require a large number of beams transported, temporally bunched, and focused onto a target, with the necessary target standoff to ensure survival of the driver modules. For efficient long distance transport and focusing tomore » a small pellet, lithium beam divergence must be reduced to about 12 mrad or less (depending on the transport scheme). To support the eventual development of a light ion driver module for ICF applications, the authors are currently working to improve the composition, uniformity, and divergence of lithium ion beams produced by both passive LiF and active laser-generated lithium ion sources on extraction applied-B ion diodes on the SABRE accelerator (1 TW, 5 MV, 250 kA). While lithium beam divergence accounting and control are an essential goal of these experiments, divergence measurements for lithium beams present some unique problems not encountered to the same degree in divergence measurements on proton sources. To avoid these difficulties, the authors have developed a large aperture ion imaging diagnostic for time-resolved lithium divergence measurements. The authors will report on the operation of this lithium beam divergence diagnostic and on results of time-resolved divergence measurements in progress for passive LiF ion sources and laser-produced active lithium sources operated in diode configurations designed to control divergence growth. Comparisons will also be made with time-integrated divergence results obtained with small entrance aperture ultracompact pinhole cameras.« less

Preferential pathways in complex fracture systems and their influence on large scale transport

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willmann, M.; Mañé, R.; Tyukhova, A.

2017-12-01

Many subsurface applications in complex fracture systems require large-scale predictions. Precise predictions are difficult because of the existence of preferential pathways at different scales. The intrinsic complexity of fracture systems increases within fractured sedimentary formations, because also the coupling of fractures and matrix has to be taken into account. This interplay of fracture system and the sedimentary matrix is strongly controlled by the actual fracture aperture of an individual fracture. And an effective aperture cannot be easily be determined because of the preferential pathways along the fracture plane. We investigate the influence of these preferential pathways on large scale solute transport and upscale the aperture. By explicitly modeling flow and particle tracking in individual fractures, we develop a new effective transport aperture, which is weighted by the aperture along the preferential paths, a Lagrangian aperture. We show that this new aperture is consistently larger than existing definitions of effective flow and transport apertures. Finally, we apply our results to a fractured sedimentary formation in Northern Switzerland.

Terahertz-wave near-field imaging with subwavelength resolution using surface-wave-assisted bow-tie aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishihara, Kunihiko; Ohashi, Keishi; Ikari, Tomofumi; Minamide, Hiroaki; Yokoyama, Hiroyuki; Shikata, Jun-ichi; Ito, Hiromasa

2006-11-01

We demonstrate the terahertz-wave near-field imaging with subwavelength resolution using a bow-tie shaped aperture surrounded by concentric periodic structures in a metal film. A subwavelength aperture with concentric periodic grooves, which are known as a bull's eye structure, shows extremely large enhanced transmission beyond the diffraction limit caused by the resonant excitation of surface waves. Additionally, a bow-tie aperture exhibits extraordinary field enhancement at the sharp tips of the metal, which enhances the transmission and the subwavelength spatial resolution. We introduced a bow-tie aperture to the bull's eye structure and achieved high spatial resolution (˜λ/17) in the near-field region. The terahertz-wave near-field image of the subwavelength metal pattern (pattern width=20μm) was obtained for the wavelength of 207μm.

Annular Focused Electron/Ion Beams for Combining High Spatial Resolution with High Probe Current.

PubMed

Khursheed, Anjam; Ang, Wei Kean

2016-10-01

This paper presents a proposal for reducing the final probe size of focused electron/ion beam columns that are operated in a high primary beam current mode where relatively large final apertures are used, typically required in applications such as electron beam lithography, focused ion beams, and electron beam spectroscopy. An annular aperture together with a lens corrector unit is used to replace the conventional final hole-aperture, creating an annular ring-shaped primary beam. The corrector unit is designed to eliminate the first- and second-order geometric aberrations of the objective lens, and for the same probe current, the final geometric aberration limited spot size is predicted to be around a factor of 50 times smaller than that of the corresponding conventional hole-aperture beam. Direct ray tracing simulation is used to illustrate how a three-stage core lens corrector can be used to eliminate the first- and second-order geometric aberrations of an electric Einzel objective lens.

Design and prototype tests of a large-aperture 37-53 MHz ferrite-tuned booster synchrotron cavity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mark S. Champion et al.

The Booster synchrotron at Fermilab employs eighteen 37-53 MHz ferrite-tuned double-gap coaxial radiofrequency cavities for acceleration of protons from 400 MeV to 8 GeV. The cavities have an aperture of 2.25 inches and operate at 55 kV per cavity. Future high duty factor operation of the Booster will be problematic due to unavoidable beam loss at the cavities resulting in excessive activation. The power amplifiers, high maintenance items, are mounted directly to the cavities in the tunnel. A proposed replacement for the Booster, the Proton Driver, will utilize the Booster radiofrequency cavities and requires not only a larger aperture, butmore » also higher voltage. A research and development program is underway at Fermilab to modify the Booster cavities to provide a 5-inch aperture and a 20% voltage increase. A prototype has been constructed and high power tests have bee completed. The cavity design and test results is presented.« less

Design and analysis of a sub-aperture scanning machine for the transmittance measurements of large-aperture optical system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Yingwei; Li, Ping; Feng, Guojin; Cheng, Li; Wang, Yu; Wu, Houping; Liu, Zilong; Zheng, Chundi; Sha, Dingguo

2010-11-01

For measuring large-aperture optical system transmittance, a novel sub-aperture scanning machine with double-rotating arms (SSMDA) was designed to obtain sub-aperture beam spot. Optical system full-aperture transmittance measurements can be achieved by applying sub-aperture beam spot scanning technology. The mathematical model of the SSMDA based on a homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix is established to develop a detailed methodology for analyzing the beam spot scanning errors. The error analysis methodology considers two fundamental sources of scanning errors, namely (1) the length systematic errors and (2) the rotational systematic errors. As the systematic errors of the parameters are given beforehand, computational results of scanning errors are between -0.007~0.028mm while scanning radius is not lager than 400.000mm. The results offer theoretical and data basis to the research on transmission characteristics of large optical system.

Improved Resolution Optical Time Stretch Imaging Based on High Efficiency In-Fiber Diffraction.

PubMed

Wang, Guoqing; Yan, Zhijun; Yang, Lei; Zhang, Lin; Wang, Chao

2018-01-12

Most overlooked challenges in ultrafast optical time stretch imaging (OTSI) are sacrificed spatial resolution and higher optical loss. These challenges are originated from optical diffraction devices used in OTSI, which encode image into spectra of ultrashort optical pulses. Conventional free-space diffraction gratings, as widely used in existing OTSI systems, suffer from several inherent drawbacks: limited diffraction efficiency in a non-Littrow configuration due to inherent zeroth-order reflection, high coupling loss between free-space gratings and optical fibers, bulky footprint, and more importantly, sacrificed imaging resolution due to non-full-aperture illumination for individual wavelengths. Here we report resolution-improved and diffraction-efficient OTSI using in-fiber diffraction for the first time to our knowledge. The key to overcome the existing challenges is a 45° tilted fiber grating (TFG), which serves as a compact in-fiber diffraction device offering improved diffraction efficiency (up to 97%), inherent compatibility with optical fibers, and improved imaging resolution owning to almost full-aperture illumination for all illumination wavelengths. 50 million frames per second imaging of fast moving object at 46 m/s with improved imaging resolution has been demonstrated. This conceptually new in-fiber diffraction design opens the way towards cost-effective, compact and high-resolution OTSI systems for image-based high-throughput detection and measurement.

Hubble Space Telescope faint object spectrograph instrument handbook, version 5.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kinney, A. L. (Editor)

1994-01-01

This version of the FOS Instrument Handbook is for the refurbished telescope, which is affected by an increase in throughput, especially for the smaller apertures, a decrease in efficiency due to the extra reflections of the COSTAR optics, and a change in focal length. The improved PSF affects all exposure time calculations due to better aperture throughputs and increases the spectral resolution. The extra reflections of COSTAR decrease the efficiency by 10-20 percent. The change in focal length affects the aperture sizes as projected on the sky. The aperture designations that are already in use both in the exposure logsheets and in the project data base (PDB) have not been changed. Apertures are referred to here by their size, followed by the designation used on the exposure logsheet.

Improved moving source photometry with TRIPPy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandersen, Mike; Fraser, Wesley Cristopher

2017-10-01

Photometry of moving sources is more complicated than for stationary sources, because the sources trail their signal out over more pixels than a point source of the same magnitude. Using a circular aperture of same size as would be appropriate for point sources can cut out a large amount of flux if a moving source moves substantially relative to the size of the aperture during the exposure, resulting in underestimated fluxes. Using a large circular aperture can mitigate this issue at the cost of a significantly reduced signal to noise compared to a point source, as a result of the inclusion of a larger background region within the aperture.Trailed Image Photometry in Python (TRIPPy) solves this problem by using a pill-shaped aperture: the traditional circular aperture is sliced in half perpendicular to the direction of motion and separated by a rectangle as long as the total motion of the source during the exposure. TRIPPy can also calculate the appropriate aperture correction (which will depend both on the radius and trail length of the pill-shaped aperture), and has features for selecting good PSF stars, creating a PSF model (convolved moffat profile + lookup table) and selecting a custom sky-background area in order to ensure no other sources contribute to the background estimate.In this poster, we present an overview of the TRIPPy features and demonstrate the improvements resulting from using TRIPPy compared to photometry obtained by other methods with examples from real projects where TRIPPy has been implemented in order to obtain the best-possible photometric measurements of Solar System objects. While TRIPPy has currently mainly been used for Trans-Neptunian Objects, the improvement from using the pill-shaped aperture increases with source motion, making TRIPPy highly relevant for asteroid and centaur photometry as well.

A Large Sparse Aperture Densified Pupil Hypertelescope Concept for Ground Based Detection of Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gezari, D.; Lyon, R.; Woodruff, R.; Labeyrie, A.; Oegerle, William (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A concept is presented for a large (10 - 30 meter) sparse aperture hyper telescope to image extrasolar earth-like planets from the ground in the presence of atmospheric seeing. The telescope achieves high dynamic range very close to bright stellar sources with good image quality using pupil densification techniques. Active correction of the perturbed wavefront is simplified by using 36 small flat mirrors arranged in a parabolic steerable array structure, eliminating the need for large delat lines and operating at near-infrared (1 - 3 Micron) wavelengths with flats comparable in size to the seeing cells.

High-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging for large rotation angle targets based on segmented processing algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Hao; Zhang, Xinggan; Bai, Yechao; Tang, Lan

2017-01-01

In inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging, the migration through resolution cells (MTRCs) will occur when the rotation angle of the moving target is large, thereby degrading image resolution. To solve this problem, an ISAR imaging method based on segmented preprocessing is proposed. In this method, the echoes of large rotating target are divided into several small segments, and every segment can generate a low-resolution image without MTRCs. Then, each low-resolution image is rotated back to the original position. After image registration and phase compensation, a high-resolution image can be obtained. Simulation and real experiments show that the proposed algorithm can deal with the radar system with different range and cross-range resolutions and significantly compensate the MTRCs.

Single-event transient imaging with an ultra-high-speed temporally compressive multi-aperture CMOS image sensor.

PubMed

Mochizuki, Futa; Kagawa, Keiichiro; Okihara, Shin-ichiro; Seo, Min-Woong; Zhang, Bo; Takasawa, Taishi; Yasutomi, Keita; Kawahito, Shoji

2016-02-22

In the work described in this paper, an image reproduction scheme with an ultra-high-speed temporally compressive multi-aperture CMOS image sensor was demonstrated. The sensor captures an object by compressing a sequence of images with focal-plane temporally random-coded shutters, followed by reconstruction of time-resolved images. Because signals are modulated pixel-by-pixel during capturing, the maximum frame rate is defined only by the charge transfer speed and can thus be higher than those of conventional ultra-high-speed cameras. The frame rate and optical efficiency of the multi-aperture scheme are discussed. To demonstrate the proposed imaging method, a 5×3 multi-aperture image sensor was fabricated. The average rising and falling times of the shutters were 1.53 ns and 1.69 ns, respectively. The maximum skew among the shutters was 3 ns. The sensor observed plasma emission by compressing it to 15 frames, and a series of 32 images at 200 Mfps was reconstructed. In the experiment, by correcting disparities and considering temporal pixel responses, artifacts in the reconstructed images were reduced. An improvement in PSNR from 25.8 dB to 30.8 dB was confirmed in simulations.

Research on the magnetorheological finishing (MRF) technology with dual polishing heads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Wen; Zhang, Yunfei; He, Jianguo; Zheng, Yongcheng; Luo, Qing; Hou, Jing; Yuan, Zhigang

2014-08-01

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a key polishing technique capable of rapidly converging to the required surface figure. Due to the deficiency of general one-polishing-head MRF technology, a dual polishing heads MRF technology was studied and a dual polishing heads MRF machine with 8 axes was developed. The machine has the ability to manufacture large aperture optics with high figure accuracy. The large polishing head is suitable for polishing large aperture optics, controlling large spatial length's wave structures, correcting low-medium frequency errors with high removal rates. While the small polishing head has more advantages in manufacturing small aperture optics, controlling small spatial wavelength's wave structures, correcting mid-high frequency and removing nanoscale materials. Material removal characteristic and figure correction ability for each of large and small polishing head was studied. Each of two polishing heads respectively acquired stable and valid polishing removal function and ultra-precision flat sample. After a single polishing iteration using small polishing head, the figure error in 45mm diameter of a 50 mm diameter plano optics was significantly improved from 0.21λ to 0.08λ by PV (RMS 0.053λ to 0.015λ). After three polishing iterations using large polishing head , the figure error in 410mm×410mm of a 430mm×430mm large plano optics was significantly improved from 0.40λ to 0.10λ by PV (RMS 0.068λ to 0.013λ) .This results show that the dual polishing heads MRF machine not only have good material removal stability, but also excellent figure correction capability.

Fresnel Lenses for Wide-Aperture Optical Receivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemmati, Hamid

2004-01-01

Wide-aperture receivers for freespace optical communication systems would utilize Fresnel lenses instead of conventional telescope lenses, according to a proposal. Fresnel lenses weigh and cost much less than conventional lenses having equal aperture widths. Plastic Fresnel lenses are commercially available in diameters up to 5 m large enough to satisfy requirements for aperture widths of the order of meters for collecting sufficient light in typical long-distance free-space optical communication systems. Fresnel lenses are not yet suitable for high-quality diffraction-limited imaging, especially in polychromatic light. However, optical communication systems utilize monochromatic light, and there is no requirement for high-quality imaging; instead, the basic requirement for an optical receiver is to collect the incoming monochromatic light over a wide aperture and concentrate the light onto a photodetector. Because of lens aberrations and diffraction, the light passing through any lens is focused to a blur circle rather than to a point. Calculations for some representative cases of wide-aperture non-diffraction-limited Fresnel lenses have shown that it should be possible to attain blur-circle diameters of less than 2 mm. Preferably, the blur-circle diameter should match the width of the photodetector. For most high-bandwidth communication applications, the required photodetector diameters would be about 1 mm. In a less-preferable case in which the blur circle was wider than a single photodetector, it would be possible to occupy the blur circle with an array of photodetectors. As an alternative to using a single large Fresnel lens, one could use an array of somewhat smaller lenses to synthesize the equivalent aperture area. Such a configuration might be preferable in a case in which a single Fresnel lens of the requisite large size would be impractical to manufacture, and the blur circle could not be made small enough. For example one could construct a square array of four 5-m-diameter Fresnel lenses to obtain the same light-collecting area as that of a single 10-m-diameter lens. In that case (see figure), the light collected by each Fresnel lens could be collimated, the collimated beams from the four Fresnel lenses could be reflected onto a common offaxis paraboloidal reflector, and the paraboloidal reflector would focus the four beams onto a single photodetector. Alternatively, detected signal from each detector behind each lens would be digitized before summing the signals.

Eyeglass: A Very Large Aperture Diffractive Space Telescope

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hyde, R; Dixit, S; Weisberg, A

2002-07-29

Eyeglass is a very large aperture (25-100 meter) space telescope consisting of two distinct spacecraft, separated in space by several kilometers. A diffractive lens provides the telescope's large aperture, and a separate, much smaller, space telescope serves as its mobile eyepiece. Use of a transmissive diffractive lens solves two basic problems associated with very large aperture space telescopes; it is inherently fieldable (lightweight and flat, hence packagable and deployable) and virtually eliminates the traditional, very tight, surface shape tolerances faced by reflecting apertures. The potential drawback to use of a diffractive primary (very narrow spectral bandwidth) is eliminated by correctivemore » optics in the telescope's eyepiece. The Eyeglass can provide diffraction-limited imaging with either single-band, multiband, or continuous spectral coverage. Broadband diffractive telescopes have been built at LLNL and have demonstrated diffraction-limited performance over a 40% spectral bandwidth (0.48-0.72 {micro}m). As one approach to package a large aperture for launch, a foldable lens has been built and demonstrated. A 75 cm aperture diffractive lens was constructed from 6 panels of 1 m thick silica; it achieved diffraction-limited performance both before and after folding. This multiple panel, folding lens, approach is currently being scaled-up at LLNL. We are building a 5 meter aperture foldable lens, involving 72 panels of 700 {micro}m thick glass sheets, diffractively patterned to operate as coherent f/50 lens.« less

Quasi-linearly polarized hybrid modes in tapered and metal-coated tips with circular apertures: understanding the functionality of aperture tips

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tugchin, B. N.; Janunts, N.; Steinert, M.; Dietrich, K.; Kley, E. B.; Tünnermann, A.; Pertsch, T.

2017-06-01

In this study, we investigate analytically and experimentally the roles of quasi-linearly polarized (LP), hybrid, plasmonic and photonic modes in optical detection and excitation with aperture tips in scanning near-field optical microscopy. Aperture tips are tapered and metal-coated optical fibers where small circular apertures are made at the apex. In aperture tips, there exist plasmonic modes that are bound at the interface of the metal cladding to the inner dielectric fiber and photonic modes that are guided in the area of the increased index in the dielectric fiber core. The fundamental photonic mode, although excited by the free-space Gaussian beam, experiences cutoff and turns into an evanescent mode. The photonic mode also becomes lossier than the plasmonic mode toward the tip aperture, and its power decay due to absorption and reflection is expected to be at least 10-9. In contrast, the fundamental plasmonic mode has no cutoff and thus reaches all the way to the tip aperture. Due to the non-adiabaticity of both modes’ propagations through the taper below a core radius of 600 nm, there occurs coupling between the modes. The transmission efficiency of the plasmonic mode, including the coupling efficiency and the propagation loss, is expected to be about 10-6 that is at least 3 orders of magnitude larger than that of the photonic mode. Toward the tip aperture, the longitudinal field of the photonic mode becomes stronger than the transverse ones while the transverse fields always dominate for the plasmonic mode. Experimentally, we obtain polarization resolved images of the near-field at the tip aperture and compare with the x- and y-components of the fundamental quasi-LP plasmonic and photonic modes. The results show that not only the pattern but also the intensity ratios of the x- and y-components of the aperture near-field match with that of the fundamental plasmonic mode. Consequently, we conclude that only the plasmonic mode reaches the tip aperture and thus governs the near-field interaction outside the tip aperture. Our conclusion remains valid for all aperture tips regardless of the cladding metal type that mainly influences the total transmission efficiency of the aperture tip.

Low-Cost Large Aperture Telescopes for Optical Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemmati, Hamid

2006-01-01

Low-cost, 0.5-1 meter ground apertures are required for near-Earth laser communications. Low-cost ground apertures with equivalent diameters greater than 10 meters are desired for deep-space communications. This presentation focuses on identifying schemes to lower the cost of constructing networks of large apertures while continuing to meet the requirements for laser communications. The primary emphasis here is on the primary mirror. A slumped glass spherical mirror, along with passive secondary mirror corrector and active adaptive optic corrector show promise as a low-cost alternative to large diameter monolithic apertures. To verify the technical performance and cost estimate, development of a 1.5-meter telescope equipped with gimbal and dome is underway.

An Oil-Bath-Based 293 K to 473 K Blackbody Source

PubMed Central

Fowler, Joel B.

1996-01-01

A high temperature oil-bath-based-black-body source has been designed and constructed in the Radiometric Physics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. The goal of this work was to design a large aperture blackbody source with highly uniform radiance across the aperture, good temporal stability, and good reproducibility. This blackbody source operates in the 293 K to 473 K range with blackbody temperature combined standard uncertainties of 7.2 mK to 30.9 mK. The calculated emissivity of this source is 0.9997 with a standard uncertainty of 0.0003. With a 50 mm limiting aperture at the cavity entrance, the emissivity increases to 0.99996. PMID:27805082

Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Chemical (THC) Modeling of Hypogene Karst Evolution in a Prototype Mountain Hydrologic System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaudhuri, A.; Rajaram, H.; Viswanathan, H. S.; Zyvoloski, G.

2011-12-01

Hypogene karst systems are believed to develop when water flowing upward against the geothermal gradient dissolves limestone as it cools. We present a comprehensive THC model incorporating time-evolving fluid flow, heat transfer, buoyancy effects, multi-component reactive transport and aperture/permeability change to investigate the origin of hypogene karst systems. Our model incorporates the temperature and pressure dependence of the solubility and dissolution kinetics of calcite. It also allows for rigorous representation of temperature-dependent fluid density and its influence on buoyancy forces at various stages of karstification. The model is applied to investigate karstification over geological time scales in a prototype mountain hydrologic system. In this system, a high water table maintained by mountain recharge, drives flow downward through the country rock and upward via a high-permeability fault/fracture. The pressure boundary conditions are maintained constant in time. The fluid flux through the fracture remains nearly constant even though the fracture aperture and permeability increase by dissolution, largely because the permeability of the country rock is not altered significantly due to slower dissolution rates. However, karstification by fracture dissolution is not impeded even though the fluid flux stays nearly constant. Forced and buoyant convection effects arise due to the increased permeability of the evolving fracture system. Since in reality the aperture varies significantly within the fracture plane, the initial fracture aperture is modeled as a heterogeneous random field. In such a heterogeneous aperture field, the water initially flows at a significant rate mainly through preferential flow paths connecting the relatively large aperture zones. Dissolution is more prominent at early time along these flow paths, and the aperture grows faster within these paths. With time, the aperture within small sub-regions of these preferential flow paths grows to a point where the permeability is large enough for the onset of buoyant convection. As a result, a multitude of buoyant convection cells form that take on a two-dimensional (2D) maze-like appearance, which could represent a 2D analog of the three-dimensional (3D) mazework pattern widely thought to be characteristic of hypogene cave systems. Although computational limitations limited us to 2D, we suggest that similar process interactions in a 3D network of fractures and faults could produce a 3D mazework.

Robust optical wireless links over turbulent media using diversity solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moradi, Hassan

Free-space optic (FSO) technology, i.e., optical wireless communication (OWC), is widely recognized as superior to radio frequency (RF) in many aspects. Visible and invisible optical wireless links solve first/last mile connectivity problems and provide secure, jam-free communication. FSO is license-free and delivers high-speed data rates in the order of Gigabits. Its advantages have fostered significant research efforts aimed at utilizing optical wireless communication, e.g. visible light communication (VLC), for high-speed, secure, indoor communication under the IEEE 802.15.7 standard. However, conventional optical wireless links demand precise optical alignment and suffer from atmospheric turbulence. When compared with RF, they suffer a low degree of reliability and lack robustness. Pointing errors cause optical transceiver misalignment, adversely affecting system reliability. Furthermore, atmospheric turbulence causes irradiance fluctuations and beam broadening of transmitted light. Innovative solutions to overcome limitations on the exploitation of high-speed optical wireless links are greatly needed. Spatial diversity is known to improve RF wireless communication systems. Similar diversity approaches can be adapted for FSO systems to improve its reliability and robustness; however, careful diversity design is needed since FSO apertures typically remain unbalanced as a result of FSO system sensitivity to misalignment. Conventional diversity combining schemes require persistent aperture monitoring and repetitive switching, thus increasing FSO implementation complexities. Furthermore, current RF diversity combining schemes may not be optimized to address the issue of unbalanced FSO receiving apertures. This dissertation investigates two efficient diversity combining schemes for multi-receiving FSO systems: switched diversity combining and generalized selection combining. Both can be exploited to reduce complexity and improve combining efficiency. Unlike maximum ratio combing, equal gain combining, and selective combining, switched diversity simplifies receiver design by avoiding unnecessary switching among receiving apertures. The most significant advantage of generalized combining is its ability to exclude apertures with low quality that could potentially affect the resultant output signal performance. This dissertation also investigates mobile FSO by considering a multi-receiving system in which all receiving FSO apertures are circularly placed on a platform. System mobility and performance are analyzed. Performance results confirm improvements when using angular diversity and generalized selection combining. The precis of this dissertation establishes the foundation of reliable FSO communications using efficient diversity-based solutions. Performance parameters are analyzed mathematically, and then evaluated using computer simulations. A testbed prototype is developed to facilitate the evaluation of optical wireless links via lab experiments.

Synthetic aperture radar target detection, feature extraction, and image formation techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Jian

1994-01-01

This report presents new algorithms for target detection, feature extraction, and image formation with the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology. For target detection, we consider target detection with SAR and coherent subtraction. We also study how the image false alarm rates are related to the target template false alarm rates when target templates are used for target detection. For feature extraction from SAR images, we present a computationally efficient eigenstructure-based 2D-MODE algorithm for two-dimensional frequency estimation. For SAR image formation, we present a robust parametric data model for estimating high resolution range signatures of radar targets and for forming high resolution SAR images.

Large aperture and wide field of view space telescope for the detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzinghi, Piero; Bratina, Vojko; Gambicorti, Lisa; Simonetti, Francesca; Zuccaro Marchi, Alessandro

2017-11-01

New technologies are proposed for large aperture and wide Field of View (FOV) space telescopes dedicated to detection of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos flux, through observation of fluorescence traces in atmosphere and diffused Cerenkov signals. The presented advanced detection system is a spaceborne LEO telescope, with better performance than ground-based observatories, detecting up to 103 - 104 events/year. Different design approaches are implemented, all with very large FOV and focal surface detectors with sufficient segmentation and time resolution to allow precise reconstructions of the arrival direction. In particular, two Schmidt cameras are suggested as an appropriate solution to match most of the optical and technical requirements: large FOV, low f/#, reduction of stray light, optionally flat focal surface, already proven low-cost construction technologies. Finally, a preliminary proposal of a wideFOV retrofocus catadioptric telescope is explained.

Technology development for the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) as a candidate large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Postman, Marc; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman; Shaklan, Stuart; Stahl, H. Philip; Stahle, Carl; Thronson, Harley

2015-09-01

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) team has identified five key technologies to enable candidate architectures for the future large-aperture ultraviolet/optical/infrared (LUVOIR) space observatory envisioned by the NASA Astrophysics 30-year roadmap, Enduring Quests, Daring Visions. The science goals of ATLAST address a broad range of astrophysical questions from early galaxy and star formation to the processes that contributed to the formation of life on Earth, combining general astrophysics with direct-imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets. The key technologies are: internal coronagraphs, starshades (or external occulters), ultra-stable large-aperture telescopes, detectors, and mirror coatings. Selected technology performance goals include: 1x10-10 raw contrast at an inner working angle of 35 milli-arcseconds, wavefront error stability on the order of 10 pm RMS per wavefront control step, autonomous on-board sensing and control, and zero-read-noise single-photon detectors spanning the exoplanet science bandpass between 400 nm and 1.8 μm. Development of these technologies will provide significant advances over current and planned observatories in terms of sensitivity, angular resolution, stability, and high-contrast imaging. The science goals of ATLAST are presented and flowed down to top-level telescope and instrument performance requirements in the context of a reference architecture: a 10-meter-class, segmented aperture telescope operating at room temperature (~290 K) at the sun-Earth Lagrange-2 point. For each technology area, we define best estimates of required capabilities, current state-of-the-art performance, and current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) - thus identifying the current technology gap. We report on current, planned, or recommended efforts to develop each technology to TRL 5.

Technology Development for the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) as a Candidate Large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatha; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Postman, Marc; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman;

Visible light high-resolution imaging system for large aperture telescope by liquid crystal adaptive optics with phase diversity technique.

PubMed

Xu, Zihao; Yang, Chengliang; Zhang, Peiguang; Zhang, Xingyun; Cao, Zhaoliang; Mu, Quanquan; Sun, Qiang; Xuan, Li

2017-08-30

There are more than eight large aperture telescopes (larger than eight meters) equipped with adaptive optics system in the world until now. Due to the limitations such as the difficulties of increasing actuator number of deformable mirror, most of them work in the infrared waveband. A novel two-step high-resolution optical imaging approach is proposed by applying phase diversity (PD) technique to the open-loop liquid crystal adaptive optics system (LC AOS) for visible light high-resolution adaptive imaging. Considering the traditional PD is not suitable for LC AOS, the novel PD strategy is proposed which can reduce the wavefront estimating error caused by non-modulated light generated by liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC SLM) and make the residual distortions after open-loop correction to be smaller. Moreover, the LC SLM can introduce any aberration which realizes the free selection of phase diversity. The estimating errors are greatly reduced in both simulations and experiments. The resolution of the reconstructed image is greatly improved on both subjective visual effect and the highest discernible space resolution. Such technique can be widely used in large aperture telescopes for astronomical observations such as terrestrial planets, quasars and also can be used in other applications related to wavefront correction.

High aperture efficiency symmetric reflector antennas with up to 60 deg field of view

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rappaport, Carey M.; Craig, William P.

1991-03-01

A microwave single-reflector scanning antenna derived from an ellipse (rather than the usual parabola) which gives a much greater field of view is presented. This reflector combines reasonable scanning in one plane with good focusing in the other, and its scanning ability is superior to the torus and other single reflectors because it has much greater aperture efficiency and is thus smaller while having the same performance. The reflector surface is derived in two steps: a fourth-order even polynomial profile curve in the scan plane is found using least squares to minimize the scanned ray errors; then even polynomial terms in x and y that minimize astigmatism for both the unscanned and maximally scanned beams are added to form the three-dimensional surface. Numerical simulations of radiation patterns for a variety of antenna diameter and field-of-view cases give excellent results. The 60 deg scan case with 30-lambda-diameter aperture has only 0.2-dB peak gain deviation from ideal and first sidelobe levels below 14 dB down from peak gain. The 17 deg, 500-lambda case has only 0.8-dB gain variation and -14 to -11 dB sidelobe levels for approximately +/-68 beamwidths of scan, with focal length to aperture diameter ratio equal to about one.

Hybrid Electrostatic/Flextensional Mirror for Lightweight, Large-Aperture, and Cryogenic Space Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patrick, Brian; Moore, James; Hackenberger, Wesley; Jiang, Xiaoning

2013-01-01

A lightweight, cryogenically capable, scalable, deformable mirror has been developed for space telescopes. This innovation makes use of polymer-based membrane mirror technology to enable large-aperture mirrors that can be easily launched and deployed. The key component of this innovation is a lightweight, large-stroke, cryogenic actuator array that combines the high degree of mirror figure control needed with a large actuator influence function. The latter aspect of the innovation allows membrane mirror figure correction with a relatively low actuator density, preserving the lightweight attributes of the system. The principal components of this technology are lightweight, low-profile, high-stroke, cryogenic-capable piezoelectric actuators based on PMN-PT (piezoelectric lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate) single-crystal configured in a flextensional actuator format; high-quality, low-thermal-expansion polymer membrane mirror materials developed by NeXolve; and electrostatic coupling between the membrane mirror and the piezoelectric actuator assembly to minimize problems such as actuator print-through.

Towards coherent combination of 61 fiber amplifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heilmann, Anke; Le Dortz, Jérémy; Daniault, Louis; Fsaifes, Ihsan; Bellanger, Séverine; Antier, Marie; Bourderionnet, Jérôme; Larat, Christian; Lallier, Eric; Durand, Eric; Brignon, Arnaud; Simon-Boisson, Christophe; Chanteloup, Jean-Christophe

2018-02-01

The XCAN project aims at the coherent combination of 61 fiber amplifiers in the femtosecond regime. An important intermediate step towards this goal is the implementation of a seven fiber test setup, which allows to address key scientific and technical challenges which might occur in the scaled version of 61 fibers. This work includes the design and characterization of a support unit able to hold 61 fibers with the high precision required for an efficient coherent combination in tiled aperture configuration. This configuration, in combination with an interferometric phase measurement and active phase control, is particularly well suited for the coherent combination of a very large number of beams. Our first preliminary results with seven fibers include a combination efficiency of 30 % and a residual phase error between two fibers as low as λ/40 rms. Experiments conducted with three fibers in order to evaluate technical improvements revealed an increase of efficiency to 54 %. The combined beam was temporally compressed to 225 fs, which is Fourier transform limited with respect to the measured spectrum.

Optical aperture synthesis: limitations and interest for the earth observation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brouard, Laurent; Safa, Frederic; Crombez, Vincent; Laubier, David

2017-11-01

For very large telescope diameters, typically above 4 meters, monolithic telescopes can hardly be envisaged for space applications. Optical aperture synthesis can be envisaged in the future for improving the image resolution from high altitude orbits by co-phasing several individual telescopes of smaller size and reconstituting an aperture of large surface. The telescopes can be deployed on a single spacecraft or distributed on several spacecrafts in free flying formation. Several future projects are based on optical aperture synthesis for science or earth observation. This paper specifically discusses the limitations and interest of aperture synthesis technique for Earth observation from high altitude orbits, in particular geostationary orbit. Classical Fizeau and Michelson configurations are recalled, and system design aspects are investigated: synthesis of the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), integration time and imaging procedure are first discussed then co-phasing strategies and instrument metrology are developed. The discussion is supported by specific designs made at EADS Astrium. As example, a telescope design is presented with a surface of only 6.6 m2 for the primary mirror for an external diameter of 10.6 m allowing a theoretical resolution of 1.2 m from geostationary orbit with a surface lower than 10% of the overall surface. The impact is that the integration time is increasing leading to stringent satellite attitude requirements. Image simulation results are presented. The practical implementation of the concept is evaluated in terms of system impacts in particular spacecraft attitude control, spacecraft operations and imaging capability limitations.

Large aperture wide field multi-object spectroscopy for the 2020s: the science and status of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Devost, Daniel; McConnachie, Alan; Chambers, Kenneth; Gallagher, Sarah; Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Project office, MSE Science Advisory group, MSE Science Team

2018-01-01

Numerous international reports have recently highlighted the need for fully dedicated, large aperture, highly multiplexed spectroscopy at a range of spectral resolutions in the OIR wavelength range. Such a facility is the most obvious missing link in the emerging network of international multi-wavelength, astronomy facilities, and enables science from reverberation mapping of black holes to the nucleosynthetic history of the Galaxy, and will follow-up discoveries from the optical through to the radio with facilities such as LSST. The only fully dedicated large aperture MOS facility that is in the design phase is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE), an 11.4m segmented mirror prime focus telescope with a 1.5 square degree field of view that has 3200 fibers at low (R~2500) and moderate (R~6000) resolution, and 1000 fibers at high (R=20/40000) resolution. I will provide an overview of MSE, describing the science drivers and the current design status, as well as the international partnership, and the results of multiple, newly completed, external reviews for the system and subsystems. The anticipated cost and timeline to first light will also be presented.

The DART Cylindrical, Infrared, 1 Meter Membrane Reflector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Rhonda M.; Agnes, Greg S.; Barber, Dan; Dooley, Jennifer; Dragovan, Mark; Hatheway, Al E.; Marcin, Marty

2004-01-01

The Dual Anamorphic Reflector Telescopes (DART) is an architecture for large aperture space telescopes that enables the use of membranes. A membrane can be readily shaped in one direction of curvature using a combination of boundary control and tensioning, yielding a cylindrical reflector. Two cylindrical reflectors (orthogonal and confocal) comprise the 'primary mirror' of the telescope system. The aperture is completely unobstructed and ideal for infrared and high contrast observations.

High resolution beamforming on large aperture vertical line arrays: Processing synthetic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Jean-Marie Q.; Hodgkiss, William S.

1990-09-01

This technical memorandum studies the beamforming of large aperture line arrays deployed vertically in the water column. The work concentrates on the use of high resolution techniques. Two processing strategies are envisioned: (1) full aperture coherent processing which offers in theory the best processing gain; and (2) subaperture processing which consists in extracting subapertures from the array and recombining the angular spectra estimated from these subarrays. The conventional beamformer, the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) processor, the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm and the minimum norm method are used in this study. To validate the various processing techniques, the ATLAS normal mode program is used to generate synthetic data which constitute a realistic signals environment. A deep-water, range-independent sound velocity profile environment, characteristic of the North-East Pacific, is being studied for two different 128 sensor arrays: a very long one cut for 30 Hz and operating at 20 Hz; and a shorter one cut for 107 Hz and operating at 100 Hz. The simulated sound source is 5 m deep. The full aperture and subaperture processing are being implemented with curved and plane wavefront replica vectors. The beamforming results are examined and compared to the ray-theory results produced by the generic sonar model.

Coupled Effects of non-Newtonian Rheology and Aperture Variability on Flow in a Single Fracture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Federico, V.; Felisa, G.; Lauriola, I.; Longo, S.

2017-12-01

Modeling of non-Newtonian flow in fractured media is essential in hydraulic fracturing and drilling operations, EOR, environmental remediation, and to understand magma intrusions. An important step in the modeling effort is a detailed understanding of flow in a single fracture, as the fracture aperture is spatially variable. A large bibliography exists on Newtonian and non-Newtonian flow in variable aperture fractures. Ultimately, stochastic or deterministic modeling leads to the flowrate under a given pressure gradient as a function of the parameters describing the aperture variability and the fluid rheology. Typically, analytical or numerical studies are performed adopting a power-law (Oswald-de Waele) model. Yet the power-law model, routinely used e.g. for hydro-fracturing modeling, does not characterize real fluids at low and high shear rates. A more appropriate rheological model is provided by e.g. the four-parameter Carreau constitutive equation, which is in turn approximated by the more tractable truncated power-law model. Moreover, fluids of interest may exhibit yield stress, which requires the Bingham or Herschel-Bulkely model. This study employs different rheological models in the context of flow in variable aperture fractures, with the aim of understanding the coupled effect of rheology and aperture spatial variability with a simplified model. The aperture variation, modeled within a stochastic or deterministic framework, is taken to be one-dimensional and i) perpendicular; ii) parallel to the flow direction; for stochastic modeling, the influence of different distribution functions is examined. Results for the different rheological models are compared with those obtained for the pure power-law. The adoption of the latter model leads to overestimation of the flowrate, more so for large aperture variability. The presence of yield stress also induces significant changes in the resulting flowrate for assigned external pressure gradient.

Advanced Solar Receivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Owen, W. A.

1984-01-01

Low thermal efficiencies in solar receivers are discussed in terms of system design. It is recommended that careful attention be given to the overall thermal systems design, especially to conductive losses about the window and areas of relatively thin insulation. If the cavity design is carefully managed to insure a small, minimally reradiating aperture, the goal of a very high efficiency cavity receiver is a realistic one.

The Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) report of the Science Coordination Group

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

The Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) is a telescope designed to carry out high-angular resolution, high-sensitivity observations at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. The scientific rationale for the LDR is discussed in light of the recent Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) results and the several new ground-based observatories planned for the late 1980s. The importance of high sensitivity and high angular resolution observations from space in the submillimeter region is stressed. The scientific and technical problems of using the LDR in a light bucket mode at approx. less than 5 microns and in designing the LDR as an unfilled aperture with subarcsecond resolution are also discussed. The need for an aperture as large as 20 m is established, along with the requirements of beam-shape stability, spatial chopping, thermal control, and surface figure stability. The instrument complement required to cover the wavelength-spectral resolution region of interest to the LDR is defined.

Multi-slice ptychography with large numerical aperture multilayer Laue lenses

DOE PAGES

Ozturk, Hande; Yan, Hanfei; He, Yan; ...

2018-05-09

Here, the highly convergent x-ray beam focused by multilayer Laue lenses with large numerical apertures is used as a three-dimensional (3D) probe to image layered structures with an axial separation larger than the depth of focus. Instead of collecting weakly scattered high-spatial-frequency signals, the depth-resolving power is provided purely by the intense central cone diverged from the focused beam. Using the multi-slice ptychography method combined with the on-the-fly scan scheme, two layers of nanoparticles separated by 10 μm are successfully reconstructed with 8.1 nm lateral resolution and with a dwell time as low as 0.05 s per scan point. Thismore » approach obtains high-resolution images with extended depth of field, which paves the way for multi-slice ptychography as a high throughput technique for high-resolution 3D imaging of thick samples.« less

Multi-slice ptychography with large numerical aperture multilayer Laue lenses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ozturk, Hande; Yan, Hanfei; He, Yan

Here, the highly convergent x-ray beam focused by multilayer Laue lenses with large numerical apertures is used as a three-dimensional (3D) probe to image layered structures with an axial separation larger than the depth of focus. Instead of collecting weakly scattered high-spatial-frequency signals, the depth-resolving power is provided purely by the intense central cone diverged from the focused beam. Using the multi-slice ptychography method combined with the on-the-fly scan scheme, two layers of nanoparticles separated by 10 μm are successfully reconstructed with 8.1 nm lateral resolution and with a dwell time as low as 0.05 s per scan point. Thismore » approach obtains high-resolution images with extended depth of field, which paves the way for multi-slice ptychography as a high throughput technique for high-resolution 3D imaging of thick samples.« less

Laser diode stack beam shaping for efficient and compact long-range laser illuminator design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lutz, Y.; Poyet, J. M.

2014-04-01

Laser diode stacks are interesting laser sources for active imaging illuminators. They allow the accumulation of large amounts of energy in multi-pulse mode, which is best suited for long-range image recording. Even when the laser diode stacks are equipped with fast-axis collimation (FAC) and slow-axis collimation (SAC) micro-lenses, their beam parameter products BPP are not compatible with direct use in highly efficient and compact illuminators. This is particularly true when narrow divergences are required such as for long-range applications. A solution to overcome these difficulties is to enhance the poor slow-axis BPP by virtually restacking the laser diode stack. We present a beam shaping and homogenization method that is low-cost and efficient and has low alignment sensitivity. After conducting simulations, we have realized and characterized the illuminator. A compact long-range laser illuminator has been set up with a divergence of 3.5×2.6 mrad and a global efficiency of 81%. Here, a projection lens with a clear aperture of 62 mm and a focal length of 571 mm was used.

Improved particle impactor assembly for size selective high volume air sampler

DOEpatents

Langer, G.

1987-03-23

Air containing entrained particulate matter is directed through a plurality of parallel, narrow, vertically oriented apertures of an inlet element toward an adjacently located, relatively large, dust impaction surface preferably covered with an adhesive material. The air flow turns over the impaction surface, leaving behind, the relatively larger particles and passes through two elongate apertures defining the outer bounds of the impaction collection surface to pass through divergent passages which slow down and distribute the air flow, with entrained smaller particles, over a fine filter element that separates the fine particles from the air. By appropriate selection of dimensions and the number of inlet apertures air flow through the inlet element is provided a nonuniform velocity distribution with the lower velocities being obtained near the center of the inlet apertures, to separate out particles larger than a certain predetermined size on the impaction collection surface. The impaction collection surface, even in a moderately sized apparatus, is thus relatively large and permits the prolonged sampling of air for periods extending to four weeks. 6 figs.

Multibeam interferometric illumination as the primary source of resolution in optical microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryu, J.; Hong, S. S.; Horn, B. K. P.; Freeman, D. M.; Mermelstein, M. S.

2006-04-01

High-resolution images of a fluorescent target were obtained using a low-resolution optical detector by illuminating the target with interference patterns produced with 31 coherent beams. The beams were arranged in a cone with 78° half angle to produce illumination patterns consistent with a numerical aperture of 0.98. High-resolution images were constructed from low-resolution images taken with 930 different illumination patterns. Results for optical detectors with numerical apertures of 0.1 and 0.2 were similar, demonstrating that the resolution is primarily determined by the illuminator and not by the low-resolution detector. Furthermore, the long working distance, large depth of field, and large field of view of the low-resolution detector are preserved.

Joint aperture detection for speckle reduction and increased collection efficiency in ophthalmic MHz OCT

PubMed Central

Klein, Thomas; André, Raphael; Wieser, Wolfgang; Pfeiffer, Tom; Huber, Robert

2013-01-01

Joint-aperture optical coherence tomography (JA-OCT) is an angle-resolved OCT method, in which illumination from an active channel is simultaneously probed by several passive channels. JA-OCT increases the collection efficiency and effective sensitivity of the OCT system without increasing the power on the sample. Additionally, JA-OCT provides angular scattering information about the sample in a single acquisition, so the OCT imaging speed is not reduced. Thus, JA-OCT is especially suitable for ultra high speed in-vivo imaging. JA-OCT is compared to other angle-resolved techniques, and the relation between joint aperture imaging, adaptive optics, coherent and incoherent compounding is discussed. We present angle-resolved imaging of the human retina at an axial scan rate of 1.68 MHz, and demonstrate the benefits of JA-OCT: Speckle reduction, signal increase and suppression of specular and parasitic reflections. Moreover, in the future JA-OCT may allow for the reconstruction of the full Doppler vector and tissue discrimination by analysis of the angular scattering dependence. PMID:23577296

MEGARA Optics: Sub-aperture Stitching Interferometry for Large Surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguirre-Aguirre, Daniel; Carrasco, Esperanza; Izazaga-Pérez, Rafael; Páez, Gonzalo; Granados-Agustín, Fermín; Percino-Zacarías, Elizabeth; Gil de Paz, Armando; Gallego, Jesús; Iglesias-Páramo, Jorge; Villalobos-Mendoza, Brenda

2018-04-01

In this work, we present a detailed analysis of sub-aperture interferogram stitching software to test circular and elliptical clear apertures with diameters and long axes up to 272 and 180 mm, respectively, from the Multi-Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía (MEGARA). MEGARA is a new spectrograph for the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). It offers a resolution between 6000 and 20000 via the use of volume phase holographic gratings. It has an integral field unit and a set of robots for multi-object spectroscopy at the telescope focal plane. The output end of the fibers forms the spectrograph pseudo-slit. The fixed geometry of the collimator and camera configuration requires prisms in addition to the flat windows of the volume phase holographic gratings. There are 73 optical elements of large aperture and high precision manufactured in Mexico at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) and the Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica (CIO). The principle of stitching interferometry is to divide the surface being tested into overlapping small sections, which allows an easier analysis (Kim & Wyant 1981). This capability is ideal for non-contact tests for unique and large optics as required by astronomical instruments. We show that the results obtained with our sub-aperture stitching algorithm were consistent with other methods that analyze the entire aperture. We used this method to analyze the 24 MEGARA prisms that could not be tested otherwise. The instrument has been successfully commissioned at GTC in all the spectral configurations. The fulfillment of the irregularity specifications was one of the necessary conditions to comply with the spectral requirements.

Screening Efficiency Analysis of Vibrosieves with the Circular Vibrations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djoković, Jelena M.; Tanikić, Dejan I.; Nikolić, Ružica R.; Kalinović, Saša M.

2017-06-01

The analysis of influence of factors that depend on construction characteristics of the vibrosieves with circular vibrations on screening efficiency is presented in this paper. The dependence of the screening efficiency on the aperture size, length and inclination of the screen, as well as on vibration amplitude, is considered. Based on obtained results, one can see that the screening efficiency increases with vibration amplitude and the screen length increase. Further, increases of the screen inclination and aperture size are causing an initial increase of the screening efficiency, which is later decreasing.

GISOT: a giant solar telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammerschlag, Robert H.; von der Lühe, Oskar F.; Bettonvil, Felix C.; Jägers, Aswin P.; Snik, Frans

2004-10-01

A concept is presented for an extremely large high-resolution solar telescope with an aperture of 11 m and diffraction limited for visual wavelengths. The structure of GISOT will be transparent to wind and placed on a transparent stiff tower. For efficient wind flushing, all optics, including the primary mirror, will be located above the elevation axis. The aperture will be of the order of 11 m, not rotatively symmetrical, but of an elongated shape with dimensions 11 x 4 m. It consists of a central on-axis 4 m mirror with on both sides 3 pieces of 2 m mirrors. The optical layout will be kept simple to guarantee quality and minimize stray light. A Coudé room for instruments is planned below the telescope. The telescope will not be housed in a dome-like construction, which interferes with the open principle. Instead the telescope will be protected by a foldable tent construction with a diameter of the order of 30 m, which doesn"t form any obstruction during observations, but can withstand the severe weather circumstances on mountain sites. Because of the nature of the solar scene, extremely high resolution in only one dimension is sufficient to solve many exciting problems in solar physics and in this respect the concept of GISOT is very promising.

Performance of the first short model 150 mm aperture Nb$$_3$$Sn Quadrupole MQXFS for the High- Luminosity LHC upgrade

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chlachidze, G.; et al.

2016-08-30

The US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP) and CERN combined their efforts in developing Nb3Sn magnets for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to fabricate large aperture Nb3Sn quadrupoles for the LHC interaction regions (IR). These magnets will replace the present 70 mm aperture NbTi quadrupole triplets for expected increase of the LHC peak luminosity by a factor of 5. Over the past decade LARP successfully fabricated and tested short and long models of 90 mm and 120 mm aperture Nb3Sn quadrupoles. Recently the first short model of 150 mm diameter quadrupole MQXFS was builtmore » with coils fabricated both by the LARP and CERN. The magnet performance was tested at Fermilab’s vertical magnet test facility. This paper reports the test results, including the quench training at 1.9 K, ramp rate and temperature dependence studies.« less

A simplified model to evaluate the effect of fluid rheology on non-Newtonian flow in variable aperture fractures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felisa, Giada; Ciriello, Valentina; Longo, Sandro; Di Federico, Vittorio

2017-04-01

Modeling of non-Newtonian flow in fractured media is essential in hydraulic fracturing operations, largely used for optimal exploitation of oil, gas and thermal reservoirs. Complex fluids interact with pre-existing rock fractures also during drilling operations, enhanced oil recovery, environmental remediation, and other natural phenomena such as magma and sand intrusions, and mud volcanoes. A first step in the modeling effort is a detailed understanding of flow in a single fracture, as the fracture aperture is typically spatially variable. A large bibliography exists on Newtonian flow in single, variable aperture fractures. Ultimately, stochastic modeling of aperture variability at the single fracture scale leads to determination of the flowrate under a given pressure gradient as a function of the parameters describing the variability of the aperture field and the fluid rheological behaviour. From the flowrate, a flow, or 'hydraulic', aperture can then be derived. The equivalent flow aperture for non-Newtonian fluids of power-law nature in single, variable aperture fractures has been obtained in the past both for deterministic and stochastic variations. Detailed numerical modeling of power-law fluid flow in a variable aperture fracture demonstrated that pronounced channelization effects are associated to a nonlinear fluid rheology. The availability of an equivalent flow aperture as a function of the parameters describing the fluid rheology and the aperture variability is enticing, as it allows taking their interaction into account when modeling flow in fracture networks at a larger scale. A relevant issue in non-Newtonian fracture flow is the rheological nature of the fluid. The constitutive model routinely used for hydro-fracturing modeling is the simple, two-parameter power-law. Yet this model does not characterize real fluids at low and high shear rates, as it implies, for shear-thinning fluids, an apparent viscosity which becomes unbounded for zero shear rate and tends to zero for infinite shear rate. On the contrary, the four-parameter Carreau constitutive equation includes asymptotic values of the apparent viscosity at those limits; in turn, the Carreau rheological equation is well approximated by the more tractable truncated power-law model. Results for flow of such fluids between parallel walls are already available. This study extends the adoption of the truncated power-law model to variable aperture fractures, with the aim of understanding the joint influence of rheology and aperture spatial variability. The aperture variation, modeled within a stochastic or deterministic framework, is taken to be one-dimensional and perpendicular to the flow direction; for stochastic modeling, the influence of different distribution functions is examined. Results are then compared with those obtained for pure power-law fluids for different combinations of model parameters. It is seen that the adoption of the pure power law model leads to significant overestimation of the flowrate with respect to the truncated model, more so for large external pressure gradient and/or aperture variability.

Mirror coatings for large aperture UV optical infrared telescope optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Hennessy, John; Raouf, Nasrat; Nikzad, Shouleh; Del Hoyo, Javier; Quijada, Manuel

2017-09-01

Large space telescope concepts such as LUVOIR and HabEx aiming for observations from far UV to near IR require advanced coating technologies to enable efficient gathering of light with important spectral signatures including those in far UV region down to 90nm. Typical Aluminum mirrors protected with MgF2 fall short of the requirements below 120nm. New and improved coatings are sought to protect aluminum from oxidizing readily in normal environment causing severe absorption and reduction of reflectance in the deep UV. Choice of materials and the process of applying coatings present challenges. Here we present the progress achieved to date with experimental investigations of coatings at JPL and at GSFC and discuss the path forward to achieve high reflectance in the spectral region from 90 to 300nm without degrading performance in the visible and NIR regions taking into account durability concerns when the mirrors are exposed to normal laboratory environment as well as high humidity conditions. Reflectivity uniformity required on these mirrors is also discussed.

Superior characteristics of microscale light emitting diodes through tightly lateral oxide-confined scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Shen-Che; Li, Heng; Zhang, Zhe-Han; Chen, Hsiang; Wang, Shing-Chung; Lu, Tien-Chang

2017-01-01

We report on the design of the geometry and chip size-controlled structures of microscale light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) with a shallow-etched oxide-refilled current aperture and their performance. The proposed structure, which combines an indium-tin-oxide layer and an oxide-confined aperture, exhibited not only uniform current distribution but also remarkably tight current confinement. An extremely high injection level of more than 90 kA/cm2 was achieved in the micro-LED with a 5-μm aperture. Current spreading and the droop mechanism in the investigated devices were characterized through electroluminescence measurements, optical microscopy, and beam-view imaging. Furthermore, we utilized the β-model and S-model to elucidate current crowding and the efficiency droop phenomenon in the investigated micro-LEDs. The luminescence results evidenced the highly favorable performance of the fabricated micro-LEDs, which is a result of their more uniform current spreading and lower junction temperature relative to conventional LEDs. Moreover, the maximum endured current density could be further increased by reducing the aperture size of the micro-LEDs. The proposed design, which is expected to be beneficial for the development of high-performance array-based micro-LEDs, is practicable through current state-of-the-art processing techniques.

The impact of in-situ stress and outcrop-based fracture geometry on hydraulic aperture and upscaled permeability in fractured reservoirs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bisdom, Kevin; Bertotti, Giovanni; Nick, Hamidreza M.

2016-10-01

Aperture has a controlling impact on porosity and permeability and is a source of uncertainty in modeling of naturally fractured reservoirs. This uncertainty results from difficulties in accurately quantifying aperture in the subsurface and from a limited fundamental understanding of the mechanical and diagenetic processes that control aperture. In the absence of cement bridges and high pore pressure, fractures in the subsurface are generally considered to be closed. However, experimental work, outcrop analyses and subsurface data show that some fractures remain open, and that aperture varies even along a single fracture. However, most fracture flow models consider constant apertures for fractures. We create a stress-dependent heterogeneous aperture by combining Finite Element modeling of discrete fracture networks with an empirical aperture model. Using a modeling approach that considers fractures explicitly, we quantify equivalent permeability, i.e. combined matrix and stress-dependent fracture flow. Fracture networks extracted from a large outcropping pavement form the basis of these models. The results show that the angle between fracture strike and σ1 has a controlling impact on aperture and permeability, where hydraulic opening is maximum for an angle of 15°. At this angle, the fracture experiences a minor amount of shear displacement that allows the fracture to remain open even when fluid pressure is lower than the local normal stress. Averaging the heterogeneous aperture to scale up permeability probably results in an underestimation of flow, indicating the need to incorporate full aperture distributions rather than simplified aperture models in reservoir-scale flow models.

Developing Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF) Technology for the Manufacture of Large-Aperture Optics in Megajoule Class Laser Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Menapace, J A

2010-10-27

Over the last eight years we have been developing advanced MRF tools and techniques to manufacture meter-scale optics for use in Megajoule class laser systems. These systems call for optics having unique characteristics that can complicate their fabrication using conventional polishing methods. First, exposure to the high-power nanosecond and sub-nanosecond pulsed laser environment in the infrared (>27 J/cm{sup 2} at 1053 nm), visible (>18 J/cm{sup 2} at 527 nm), and ultraviolet (>10 J/cm{sup 2} at 351 nm) demands ultra-precise control of optical figure and finish to avoid intensity modulation and scatter that can result in damage to the optics chainmore » or system hardware. Second, the optics must be super-polished and virtually free of surface and subsurface flaws that can limit optic lifetime through laser-induced damage initiation and growth at the flaw sites, particularly at 351 nm. Lastly, ultra-precise optics for beam conditioning are required to control laser beam quality. These optics contain customized surface topographical structures that cannot be made using traditional fabrication processes. In this review, we will present the development and implementation of large-aperture MRF tools and techniques specifically designed to meet the demanding optical performance challenges required in large-aperture high-power laser systems. In particular, we will discuss the advances made by using MRF technology to expose and remove surface and subsurface flaws in optics during final polishing to yield optics with improve laser damage resistance, the novel application of MRF deterministic polishing to imprint complex topographical information and wavefront correction patterns onto optical surfaces, and our efforts to advance the technology to manufacture large-aperture damage resistant optics.« less

The free form XR photovoltaic concentrator: a high performance SMS3D design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cvetkovic, Aleksandra; Hernandez, Maikel; Benítez, Pablo; Miñano, Juan C.; Schwartz, Joel; Plesniak, Adam; Jones, Russ; Whelan, David

2008-08-01

A novel photovoltaic concentrator is presented. The goal is to achieve high concentration design with high efficiency and high acceptance angle that in the same time is compact and convenient for thermal and mechanical management. This photovoltaic system is based on 1 cm2 multi-junction tandem solar cells and an XR concentrator. The XR concentrator in this system is an SMS 3D design formed by one reflective (X) and one refractive (R) free-form surfaces (i.e., without rotational or linear symmetry) and has been chosen for its excellent aspect ratio and for its ability to perform near the thermodynamic limit. It is a mirror-lens device that has no shadowing elements and has square entry aperture (the whole system aperture area is used for collecting light). This large acceptance angle relaxes the manufacturing tolerances of all the optical and mechanical components of the system included the concentrator itself and is one of the keys to get a cost competitive photovoltaic generator. For the geometrical concentration of 1000x the simulation results show the acceptance angle of +/-1.8 deg. The irradiance distribution on the cell is achieved with ultra-short homogenizing prism, whose size is optimised to keep the maximum values under the ones that the cell can accept. The application of the XR optics to high-concentration is being developed in a consortium leaded by The Boeing Company, which has been awarded a project by US DOE in the framework of the Solar America Initiative.

High throughput optical lithography by scanning a massive array of bowtie aperture antennas at near-field

PubMed Central

Wen, X.; Datta, A.; Traverso, L. M.; Pan, L.; Xu, X.; Moon, E. E.

2015-01-01

Optical lithography, the enabling process for defining features, has been widely used in semiconductor industry and many other nanotechnology applications. Advances of nanotechnology require developments of high-throughput optical lithography capabilities to overcome the optical diffraction limit and meet the ever-decreasing device dimensions. We report our recent experimental advancements to scale up diffraction unlimited optical lithography in a massive scale using the near field nanolithography capabilities of bowtie apertures. A record number of near-field optical elements, an array of 1,024 bowtie antenna apertures, are simultaneously employed to generate a large number of patterns by carefully controlling their working distances over the entire array using an optical gap metrology system. Our experimental results reiterated the ability of using massively-parallel near-field devices to achieve high-throughput optical nanolithography, which can be promising for many important nanotechnology applications such as computation, data storage, communication, and energy. PMID:26525906

A vacuum sealed high emission current and transmission efficiency carbon nanotube triode

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Di, Yunsong; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023; Wang, Qilong

A vacuum sealed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) triode with a concave and spoke-shaped Mo grid is presented. Due to the high aperture ratio of the grid, the emission current could be modulated at a relatively high electric field. Totally 75 mA emission current has been obtained from the CNTs cathode with the average applied field by the grid shifting from 8 to 13 V/μm. Whilst with the electron transmission efficiency of the grid over 56%, a remarkable high modulated current electron beam over 42 mA has been collected by the anode. Also contributed by the high aperture ration of the grid,more » desorbed gas molecules could flow away from the emission area rapidly when the triode has been operated at a relative high emission current, and finally collected by a vacion pump. The working pressure has been maintained at ∼1 × 10{sup −7} Torr, seldom spark phenomena occurred. Nearly perfect I-V curve and corresponding Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plot confirmed the accuracy of the measured data, and the emission current was long term stable and reproducible. Thusly, this kind of triode would be used as a high-power electron source.« less

CALISTO: A Cryogenic Far-Infrared/Submillimeter Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldsmith, P. F.; Bradford, C. M.; Dragovan, M.; Khayatian, B.; Huffenberger, K.; O'Dwyer, I. J.; Gorski, K.; Yorke, H. W.; Zmuidzinas, J.; Paine, C.;

A Modular Orbital Demonstration of an Evolvable Space Telescope (MODEST)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conti, Alberto; Arenberg, Jonathan; Baldauf, Brian

2017-01-01

The “Search for Life” (direct imaging of earth-like planets) will require extremely stable telescopes with apertures in the 10 m to 20 m range. Such apertures are larger than what can be delivered to space using current or planned future launch vehicles. Building and assembling large telescopes in space is therefore likely to require not only multiple launches but importantly assembly in spce. As a result, space-based telescopes with large apertures will require major changes to our conventional telescope design and architecture.Here we report on the concept for the Modular Orbital Demonstration of an Evolvable Space Telescope (MODEST) to demonstrates the on-orbit robotic and/or astronaut assembly of an optical telescope in space. MODEST is a proposed International Space Station (ISS demonstration that will make use of the standard Express Logistics Carriers (ELCs) and can mounted to one of a variety of ISS pallets.MODEST will provides significant risk reduction for the next generation of space observatories, and demonstrates the technology needed to assemble a six-mirror phased telescope. Key modest features include the use of an active primary optical surface with wavefront feedback control to allow on-orbit optimization, and the precise surface control to meet optical system wavefront and stability requirements.MODEST will also be used to evaluate advances in lightweight mirror and metering structure materials such as SiC or Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) that have excellent mechanical and thermal properties, e.g. high stiffness, high modulus, high thermal conductivity, and low thermal expansion. Mirrors built from these materials can be rapidly replicated in a highly cost effective manner, making them an excellent candidate for a low cost, high performance Optical Telescope Assembly paving the way for enabling affordable solutions for the next generation of large aperture space-based telescope.MODEST post-assembly value includes space, ground, and environmental studies, a testbed for new instruments, and a tool for student’s exploration of space.

Method for measuring the focal spot size of an x-ray tube using a coded aperture mask and a digital detector.

PubMed

Russo, Paolo; Mettivier, Giovanni

2011-04-01

The goal of this study is to evaluate a new method based on a coded aperture mask combined with a digital x-ray imaging detector for measurements of the focal spot sizes of diagnostic x-ray tubes. Common techniques for focal spot size measurements employ a pinhole camera, a slit camera, or a star resolution pattern. The coded aperture mask is a radiation collimator consisting of a large number of apertures disposed on a predetermined grid in an array, through which the radiation source is imaged onto a digital x-ray detector. The method of the coded mask camera allows one to obtain a one-shot accurate and direct measurement of the two dimensions of the focal spot (like that for a pinhole camera) but at a low tube loading (like that for a slit camera). A large number of small apertures in the coded mask operate as a "multipinhole" with greater efficiency than a single pinhole, but keeping the resolution of a single pinhole. X-ray images result from the multiplexed output on the detector image plane of such a multiple aperture array, and the image of the source is digitally reconstructed with a deconvolution algorithm. Images of the focal spot of a laboratory x-ray tube (W anode: 35-80 kVp; focal spot size of 0.04 mm) were acquired at different geometrical magnifications with two different types of digital detector (a photon counting hybrid silicon pixel detector with 0.055 mm pitch and a flat panel CMOS digital detector with 0.05 mm pitch) using a high resolution coded mask (type no-two-holes-touching modified uniformly redundant array) with 480 0.07 mm apertures, designed for imaging at energies below 35 keV. Measurements with a slit camera were performed for comparison. A test with a pinhole camera and with the coded mask on a computed radiography mammography unit with 0.3 mm focal spot was also carried out. The full width at half maximum focal spot sizes were obtained from the line profiles of the decoded images, showing a focal spot of 0.120 mm x 0.105 mm at 35 kVp and M = 6.1, with a detector entrance exposure as low as 1.82 mR (0.125 mA s tube load). The slit camera indicated a focal spot of 0.112 mm x 0.104 mm at 35 kVp and M = 3.15, with an exposure at the detector of 72 mR. Focal spot measurements with the coded mask could be performed up to 80 kVp. Tolerance to angular misalignment with the reference beam up to 7 degrees in in-plane rotations and 1 degrees deg in out-of-plane rotations was observed. The axial distance of the focal spot from the coded mask could also be determined. It is possible to determine the beam intensity via measurement of the intensity of the decoded image of the focal spot and via a calibration procedure. Coded aperture masks coupled to a digital area detector produce precise determinations of the focal spot of an x-ray tube with reduced tube loading and measurement time, coupled to a large tolerance in the alignment of the mask.

Experiences from using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and Synthetic Aperture Sonar for Sediment and Habitat Mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorsnes, T.; Bjarnadóttir, L. R.

2017-12-01

Emerging platforms and tools like autonomous underwater vehicles and synthetic aperture sonars provide interesting opportunities for making seabed mapping more efficient and precise. Sediment grain-size maps are an important product in their own right and a key input for habitat and biotope maps. National and regional mapping programmes are tasked with mapping large areas, and survey efficiency, data quality, and resulting map confidence are important considerations when selecting the mapping strategy. Since 2005, c. 175,000 square kilometres of the Norwegian continental shelf and continental slope has been mapped with respect to sediments, habitats and biodiversity, and pollution under the MAREANO programme (www.mareano.no). At present the sediment mapping is based on a combination of ship-borne multibeam bathymetry and backscatter, visual documentation using a towed video platform, and grab sampling. We have now tested a new approach, using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) as the survey platform for the collection of acoustic data (Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS), EM2040 bathymetry and backscatter) and visual data (still images using a TFish colour photo system). This pilot project was conducted together the Norwegian Hydrographic Service, the Institute of Marine Research (biology observations) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (operation of ship and AUV). The test site reported here is the Vesterdjupet area, offshore Lofoten, northern Norway. The water depth is between 170 and 300 metres, with sediments ranging from gravel, cobbles and boulders to sandy mud. A cold-water coral reef, associated with bioclastic sediments was also present in the study area. The presentation will give an overview of the main findings and experiences gained from this pilot project with a focus on geological mapping and will also discuss the relevance of AUV-based mapping to large-area mapping programmes like MAREANO.

Comparison of anatomy-based, fluence-based and aperture-based treatment planning approaches for VMAT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, Min; Cao, Daliang; Chen, Fan; Ye, Jinsong; Mehta, Vivek; Wong, Tony; Shepard, David

2010-11-01

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) has the potential to reduce treatment times while producing comparable or improved dose distributions relative to fixed-field intensity-modulated radiation therapy. In order to take full advantage of the VMAT delivery technique, one must select a robust inverse planning tool. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of VMAT planning techniques of three categories: anatomy-based, fluence-based and aperture-based inverse planning. We have compared these techniques in terms of the plan quality, planning efficiency and delivery efficiency. Fourteen patients were selected for this study including six head-and-neck (HN) cases, and two cases each of prostate, pancreas, lung and partial brain. For each case, three VMAT plans were created. The first VMAT plan was generated based on the anatomical geometry. In the Elekta ERGO++ treatment planning system (TPS), segments were generated based on the beam's eye view (BEV) of the target and the organs at risk. The segment shapes were then exported to Pinnacle3 TPS followed by segment weight optimization and final dose calculation. The second VMAT plan was generated by converting optimized fluence maps (calculated by the Pinnacle3 TPS) into deliverable arcs using an in-house arc sequencer. The third VMAT plan was generated using the Pinnacle3 SmartArc IMRT module which is an aperture-based optimization method. All VMAT plans were delivered using an Elekta Synergy linear accelerator and the plan comparisons were made in terms of plan quality and delivery efficiency. The results show that for cases of little or modest complexity such as prostate, pancreas, lung and brain, the anatomy-based approach provides similar target coverage and critical structure sparing, but less conformal dose distributions as compared to the other two approaches. For more complex HN cases, the anatomy-based approach is not able to provide clinically acceptable VMAT plans while highly conformal dose distributions were obtained using both aperture-based and fluence-based inverse planning techniques. The aperture-based approach provides improved dose conformity than the fluence-based technique in complex cases.

A solar-pumped Nd:YAG laser in the high collection efficiency regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lando, Mordechai; Kagan, Jacob; Linyekin, Boris; Dobrusin, Vadim

2003-07-01

Solar-pumped lasers can be used for space and terrestrial applications. We report on solar side-pumped Nd:YAG laser experiments, which included comprehensive beam quality measurements and demonstrated record collection efficiency and day long operation. A 6.75 m 2 segmented primary mirror was mounted on a commercial two-axis positioner and focused the solar radiation towards a stationary non-imaging-optics secondary concentrator, which illuminated a Nd:YAG laser rod. Solar side-pumped laser experiments were conducted in both the low and the high pumping density regimes. The low density system was composed of a 89 × 98-mm 2 aperture two-dimensional compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) and a 10-mm diameter 130-mm long Nd:YAG laser rod. The laser emitted up to 46 W and operated continuously for 5 h. The high density system was composed of a three-dimensional CPC with 98 mm entrance diameter and 24 mm exit diameter, followed by a two-dimensional CPC with a rectangular 24 × 33 mm 2 aperture. It pumped a 6-mm diameter 72 mm long Nd:YAG laser rod, which emitted up to 45 W. The results constitute a record collection efficiency of 6.7 W/m 2 of primary mirror. We compare the current results to previous solar side-pumped laser experiments, including experiments at higher pumping density but with low collection efficiency. Finally, we present a scaled up design for a 400 W laser pumped by a solar collection area of 60 m 2, incorporating simultaneously high collection efficiency and high pumping density.

Research on sub-surface damage and its stress deformation in the process of large aperture and high diameter-to-thickness ratio TMT M3MP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Hai-xiang; Qi, Erhui; Cole, Glen; Hu, Hai-fei; Luo, Xiao; Zhang, Xue-jun

2016-10-01

Large flat mirrors play important roles in large aperture telescopes. However, they also introduce unpredictable problems. The surface errors created during manufacturing, testing, and supporting are all combined during measurement, thus making understanding difficult for diagnosis and treatment. Examining a high diameter-to-thickness ratio flat mirror, TMT M3MP, and its unexpected deformation during processing, we proposed a strain model of subsurface damage to explain the observed phenomenon. We designed a set of experiment, and checked the validity of our diagnosis. On that basis, we theoretical predicted the trend of this strain and its scale effect on Zerodur®, and checked the validity on another piece experimentally. This work guided the grinding-polishing process of M3MP, and will be used as reference for M3M processing as well.

Design and fabrication of sub-wavelength annular apertures on fiber tip for femtosecond laser machining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tung, Yen-Chun; Chung, Ming-Han; Sung, I.-Hui; Lee, Chih-Kung

2014-03-01

Adopting optical technique to pursue micromachining must make a compromise between the focal spot sizes the depth of focus. The focal spot size determines the minimum features can be fabricated. On the other hand, the depth of focus influences the ease of alignment in positioning the fabrication light beam. A typical approach to bypass the diffraction limit is to adopt the near-field approach, which has spot size in the range of the optical fiber tip. However, the depth of focus of the emitted light beam will be limited to tens of nanometers in most cases, which posts a difficult challenge to control the distance between the optical fiber tip and the sample to be machined optically. More specifically, problems remained in this machining approach, which include issues such as residue induced by laser ablation tends to deposit near the optical fiber tip and leads to loss of coupling efficiency. We proposed a method based on illuminating femtosecond laser through a sub-wavelength annular aperture on metallic film so as to produce Bessel light beam of sub-wavelength while maintaining large depth of focus first. To further advance the ease of use in one such system, producing sub-wavelength annular aperture on a single mode optical fiber head with sub-wavelength focusing ability is detailed. It is shown that this method can be applied in material machining with an emphasis to produce high aspect ratio structure. Simulations and experimental results are presented in this paper.

System design of an optical interferometer based on compressive sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Gang; Wen, De-Sheng; Song, Zong-Xi

2018-07-01

In this paper, we develop a new optical interferometric telescope architecture based on compressive sensing (CS) theory. Traditional optical telescopes with large apertures must be large in size, heavy and have high-power consumption, which limits the development of space-based telescopes. A turning point has occurred in the advent of imaging technology that utilizes Fourier-domain interferometry. This technology can reduce the system size, weight and power consumption by an order of magnitude compared to traditional optical telescopes at the same resolution. CS theory demonstrates that incomplete and noisy Fourier measurements may suffice for the exact reconstruction of sparse or compressible signals. Our proposed architecture combines advantages from the two frameworks, and the performance is evaluated through simulations. The results indicate the ability to efficiently sample spatial frequencies, while being lightweight and compact in size. Another attractive property of our architecture is the strong denoising ability for Gaussian noise.

The Born approximation, multiple scattering, and the butterfly algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez, Alejandro F.

Radar works by focusing a beam of light and seeing how long it takes to reflect. To see a large region the beam is pointed in different directions. The focus of the beam depends on the size of the antenna (called an aperture). Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) works by moving the antenna through some region of space. A fundamental assumption in SAR is that waves only bounce once. Several imaging algorithms have been designed using that assumption. The scattering process can be described by iterations of a badly behaving integral. Recently a method for efficiently evaluating these types of integrals has been developed. We will give a detailed implementation of this algorithm and apply it to study the multiple scattering effects in SAR using target estimates from single scattering algorithms.

Broadband light trapping strategies for quantum-dot photovoltaic cells (>10%) and their issues with the measurement of photovoltaic characteristics.

PubMed

Cho, Changsoon; Song, Jung Hoon; Kim, Changjo; Jeong, Sohee; Lee, Jung-Yong

2017-12-12

Bandgap tunability and broadband absorption make quantum-dot (QD) photovoltaic cells (PVs) a promising candidate for future solar energy conversion systems. Approaches to improving the electrical properties of the active layer increase efficiency in part. The present study focuses on optical room for enhancement in QD PVs over wide spectrum in the near-infrared (NIR) region. We find that ray-optical light trapping schemes rather than the nanophotonics approach may be the best solution for enhancing broadband QD PVs by suppressing the escape probability of internal photons without spectral dependency. Based on the theoretical study of diverse schemes for various bandgaps, we apply a V-groove structure and a V-groove textured compound parabolic trapper (VCPT) to PbS-based QD PVs along with the measurement issues for PVs with a light scattering layer. The efficiency of the best device is improved from 10.3% to 11.0% (certified to 10.8%) by a V-groove structure despite the possibility of underestimation caused by light scattering in small-area devices (aperture area: 0.0625 cm 2 ). By minimizing such underestimation, even greater enhancements of 13.6% and 15.6% in short circuit current are demonstrated for finger-type devices (0.167 cm 2 without aperture) and large-area devices (2.10 cm 2 with an aperture of 0.350 cm 2 ), respectively, using VCPT.

Large aperture deformable mirror with a transferred single-crystal silicon membrane actuated using large-stroke PZT Unimorph Actuators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hishinumat, Yoshikazu; Yang, Eui - Hyeok (EH)

2005-01-01

We have demonstrated a large aperture (50 mm x 50 mm) continuous membrane deformable mirror (DM) with a large-stroke piezoelectric unimorph actuator array. The DM consists of a continuous, large aperture, silicon membrane 'transferred' in its entirety onto a 20 x 20 piezoelectric unimorph actuator array. A PZT unimorph actuator, 2.5 mm in diameter with optimized PZT/Si thickness and design showed a deflection of 5.7 [m at 20V. An assembled DM showed an operating frequency bandwidth of 30 kHz and influence function of approximately 30%.

Multi-Aperture Digital Coherent Combining for Free-Space Optical Communication Receivers

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-21

Distribution A: Public Release; unlimited distribution 2016 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.1660) Coherent communications; (070.2025) Discrete ...Coherent combining algorithm Multi-aperture coherent combining enables using many discrete apertures together to create a large effective aperture. A

Laser-induced damage of intrinsic and extrinsic defects by picosecond pulses on multilayer dielectric coatings for petawatt-class lasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Negres, Raluca A.; Carr, Christopher W.; Laurence, Ted A.

2016-08-01

Here, we describe a damage testing system and its use in investigating laser-induced optical damage initiated by both intrinsic and extrinsic precursors on multilayer dielectric coatings suitable for use in high-energy, large-aperture petawatt-class lasers. We employ small-area damage test methodologies to evaluate the intrinsic damage resistance of various coatings as a function of deposition methods and coating materials under simulated use conditions. In addition, we demonstrate that damage initiation by raster scanning at lower fluences and growth threshold testing are required to probe the density of extrinsic defects, which will limit large-aperture optics performance.

Rotatable Aperture Coronagraph for Exoplanetary Studies (RACES)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakrabarti, Supriya; Mendillo, Christopher; Mukherjee, Sunip; Martel, Jason; Cook, Timothy; Polidan, Ronald S.; Rafanelli, Gerard L.; Spencer, Susan B.; Wolfe, Douglas w.

2018-01-01

We present the design and expected performance of RACES, a suborbital mission concept to directly image exo-Jupiters with a rotatable non-circular aperture telescope. By using a high-aspect ratio elliptical or rectangular primary mirror (2.3m x 0.6m), this mission achieves the same angular resolution and inner working angle as a 2.3m dia telescope. Such an elliptical or rectangular system would fill the volume of a cylindrical launch vehicle more efficiently and by choosing the aspect ratio one can appropriately tailor its light gathering power. RACES can therefore serve as a pathfinder for future larger missions for exoplanetary explorations. For example, the system described here approaches the collecting area of the well studied EXO-C concept and exceeds its angular resolution. The mission concept, design studies, observation strategy and expected target yield for RACES will be presented, as well as simulations of the high contrast vector vortex coronagraph operating with an un-obscured elliptical aperture.

Feasibility Study of Space Based Solar Power to Tethered Aerostat Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blank, Stephen J.; Leete, Stephen J.; Jaffe, Paul

2013-01-01

The feasibility of two-stage Space-Based Solar Power to Tethered Aerostat to Earth (SSP-TA) system architectures that offer significant advantages over conventional single stage space-to-earth architectures is being studied. There have been many proposals for the transmission of solar power collected in space to the surface of the earth so that solar energy could provide a major part of the electric power requirements on earth. There are, however, serious difficulties in implementing the single stage space-based solar power systems that have been previously studied. These difficulties arise due to: i) the cost of transporting the components needed for the extremely large microwave transmit beaming aperture into space orbit, ii) the even larger collection apertures required on earth, iii) the potential radiation hazard to personnel and equipment on earth, and iv) a lack of flexibility in location of the collection station on the earth. Two candidate system architectures are described here to overcome these difficulties. In both cases a two-stage space to tethered aerostat to earth transmission system (SSP-TA) is proposed. The use of high altitude tethered aerostats (or powered airships) avoids the effects of attenuation of EM energy propagating through the earth s lower atmosphere. This allows the use of beaming frequencies to be chosen from the range of high millimeter (THz) to near-infra-red (NIR) to the visible. This has the potential for: i) greatly reduced transportation costs to space, ii) much smaller receiver collection apertures and ground stations, iii) elimination of the potential radiation hazard to personnel and equipment on earth, and iv) ease in transportation and flexibility in location of the collection station on the earth. A preliminary comparison of system performance and efficiencies is presented.

Trade-offs between lens complexity and real estate utilization in a free-space multichip global interconnection module.

PubMed

Milojkovic, Predrag; Christensen, Marc P; Haney, Michael W

2006-07-01

The FAST-Net (Free-space Accelerator for Switching Terabit Networks) concept uses an array of wide-field-of-view imaging lenses to realize a high-density shuffle interconnect pattern across an array of smart-pixel integrated circuits. To simplify the optics we evaluated the efficiency gained in replacing spherical surfaces with aspherical surfaces by exploiting the large disparity between narrow vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) beams and the wide field of view of the imaging optics. We then analyzed trade-offs between lens complexity and chip real estate utilization and determined that there exists an optimal numerical aperture for VCSELs that maximizes their area density. The results provide a general framework for the design of wide-field-of-view free-space interconnection systems that incorporate high-density VCSEL arrays.

Measuring parameters of large-aperture crystals used for generating optical harmonics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

English, R. E.; Hibbard, R. L.; Michie, R. B.

1999-02-23

The purpose of this project was to develop tools for understanding the influence of crystal quality and crystal mounting on harmonic-generation efficiency at high irradiance. Measuring the homogeneity of crystals interferometrically, making detailed physics calculations of conversion efficiency, performing finite- element modeling of mounted crystals, and designing a new optical metrology tool were key elements in obtaining that understanding. For this work, we used the following frequency-tripling scheme: type I second- harmonic generation followed by type II sum-frequency mixing of the residual fundamental and the second harmonic light. The doubler was potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP), and the tripler was deuteratedmore » KDP (KD*P). With this scheme, near-infrared light (1053 nm) can be frequency tripled (to 351 nm) at high efficiency (theoretically >90%) for high irradiance (>3 GW/cm²). Spatial variations in the birefringence of the large crystals studied here (37 to 41 cm square by about 1 cm thick) imply that the ideal phase-matching orientation of the crystal with respect to the incident laser beam varies across the crystal. We have shown that phase-measuring interferometry can be used to measure these spatial variations. We observed transmitted wavefront differences between orthogonally polarized interferograms of {lambda}/50 to {lambda}/100, which correspond to index variations of order 10 -6. On some plates that we measured, the standard deviation of angular errors is 22-23 µrad; this corresponds to a 1% reduction in efficiency. Because these conversion crystals are relatively thin, their surfaces are not flat (deviate by k2.5 urn from flat). A crystal is mounted against a precision-machined surface that supports the crystal on four edges. This mounting surface is not flat either (deviates by +2.5 µm from flat). A retaining flange presses a compliant element against the crystal. The load thus applied near the edges of the crystal surface holds it in place. We performed detailed finite-element modeling to predict the resulting shape of the mounted crystal. The prediction agreed with measurements of mounted crystals. We computed the physics of the frequency-conversion process to better quantify the effects on efficiency of variation in the crystal' s axis, changes in the shape of the crystal, and mounting-induced stress. We were able to accurately predict the frequency-conversion performance of 37-cm square crystals on Beamlet, a one-beam scientific prototype of the NIF laser architecture, using interferometric measurements of the mounted crystals and the model. In a 2{omega} measurement campaign, the model predicted 64.9% conversion efficiency; 64.1% was observed. When detuned by 640 µrad, the model and measurement agreement is even better (both were 10.4%). Finally, we completed the design and initial testing of a new optical metrology tool to measure the spatial variation of frequency conversion. This system employs a high-power subaperture beam from a commercial laser oscillator and rod amplifier. The beam interrogates the crystal' s aperture by moving the crystal horizontally on a translation stage and translating the laser beam vertically on an optical periscope. Precision alignment is maintained by means of a full-aperture reference mirror, a precision-machined surface on the crystal mount, and autocollimators (the goal for angular errors is 10 µrad). The autocollimators track the mounting angle of the crystal and the direction of the laser beam with respect to the reference mirror. The conversion efficiency can be directly measured by recording l{omega}, 2{omega}, 3{omega} energy levels during the scan and by rocking (i.e., tilting) the crystal mount over an angular range.« less

High-contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT). 4. Status and wavefront control development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leboulleux, Lucie; N'Diaye, Mamadou; Riggs, A. J. E.; Egron, Sylvain; Mazoyer, Johan; Pueyo, Laurent; Choquet, Elodie; Perrin, Marshall D.; Kasdin, Jeremy; Sauvage, Jean-François; Fusco, Thierry; Soummer, Rémi

2016-07-01

Segmented telescopes are a possible approach to enable large-aperture space telescopes for the direct imaging and spectroscopy of habitable worlds. However, the increased complexity of their aperture geometry, due to their central obstruction, support structures and segment gaps, makes high-contrast imaging very challenging. The High-contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) was designed to study and develop solutions for such telescope pupils using wavefront control and starlight suppression. The testbed design has the flexibility to enable studies with increasing complexity for telescope aperture geometries starting with off-axis telescopes, then on-axis telescopes with central obstruction and support structures (e.g. the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope [WFIRST]), up to on-axis segmented telescopes e.g. including various concepts for a Large UV, Optical, IR telescope (LUVOIR), such as the High Definition Space Telescope (HDST). We completed optical alignment in the summer of 2014 and a first deformable mirror was successfully integrated in the testbed, with a total wavefront error of 13nm RMS over a 18mm diameter circular pupil in open loop. HiCAT will also be provided with a segmented mirror conjugated with a shaped pupil representing the HDST configuration, to directly study wavefront control in the presence of segment gaps, central obstruction and spider. We recently applied a focal plane wavefront control method combined with a classical Lyot coronagraph on HiCAT, and we found limitations on contrast performance due to vibration effect. In this communication, we analyze this instability and study its impact on the performance of wavefront control algorithms. We present our Speckle Nulling code to control and correct for wavefront errors both in simulation mode and on testbed mode. This routine is first tested in simulation mode without instability to validate our code. We then add simulated vibrations to study the degradation of contrast performance in the presence of these effects.

Large-aperture space optical system testing based on the scanning Hartmann.

PubMed

Wei, Haisong; Yan, Feng; Chen, Xindong; Zhang, Hao; Cheng, Qiang; Xue, Donglin; Zeng, Xuefeng; Zhang, Xuejun

2017-03-10

Based on the Hartmann testing principle, this paper proposes a novel image quality testing technology which applies to a large-aperture space optical system. Compared with the traditional testing method through a large-aperture collimator, the scanning Hartmann testing technology has great advantages due to its simple structure, low cost, and ability to perform wavefront measurement of an optical system. The basic testing principle of the scanning Hartmann testing technology, data processing method, and simulation process are presented in this paper. Certain simulation results are also given to verify the feasibility of this technology. Furthermore, a measuring system is developed to conduct a wavefront measurement experiment for a 200 mm aperture optical system. The small deviation (6.3%) of root mean square (RMS) between experimental results and interferometric results indicates that the testing system can measure low-order aberration correctly, which means that the scanning Hartmann testing technology has the ability to test the imaging quality of a large-aperture space optical system.

Design and Fabrication of Double-Focused Ultrasound Transducers to Achieve Tight Focusing.

PubMed

Jang, Jihun; Chang, Jin Ho

2016-08-06

Beauty treatment for skin requires a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) transducer to generate coagulative necrosis in a small focal volume (e.g., 1 mm³) placed at a shallow depth (3-4.5 mm from the skin surface). For this, it is desirable to make the F-number as small as possible under the largest possible aperture in order to generate ultrasound energy high enough to induce tissue coagulation in such a small focal volume. However, satisfying both conditions at the same time is demanding. To meet the requirements, this paper, therefore, proposes a double-focusing technique, in which the aperture of an ultrasound transducer is spherically shaped for initial focusing and an acoustic lens is used to finally focus ultrasound on a target depth of treatment; it is possible to achieve the F-number of unity or less while keeping the aperture of a transducer as large as possible. In accordance with the proposed method, we designed and fabricated a 7-MHz double-focused ultrasound transducer. The experimental results demonstrated that the fabricated double-focused transducer had a focal length of 10.2 mm reduced from an initial focal length of 15.2 mm and, thus, the F-number changed from 1.52 to 1.02. Based on the results, we concluded that the proposed double-focusing method is suitable to decrease F-number while maintaining a large aperture size.

High-Aperture-Efficiency Horn Antenna

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pickens, Wesley; Hoppe, Daniel; Epp, Larry; Kahn, Abdur

2005-01-01

A horn antenna (see Figure 1) has been developed to satisfy requirements specific to its use as an essential component of a high-efficiency Ka-band amplifier: The combination of the horn antenna and an associated microstrip-patch antenna array is required to function as a spatial power divider that feeds 25 monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers. The foregoing requirement translates to, among other things, a further requirement that the horn produce a uniform, vertically polarized electromagnetic field in its patches identically so that the MMICs can operate at maximum efficiency. The horn is fed from a square waveguide of 5.9436-mm-square cross section via a transition piece. The horn features cosine-tapered, dielectric-filled longitudinal corrugations in its vertical walls to create a hard boundary condition: This aspect of the horn design causes the field in the horn aperture to be substantially vertically polarized and to be nearly uniform in amplitude and phase. As used here, cosine-tapered signifies that the depth of the corrugations is a cosine function of distance along the horn. Preliminary results of finite-element simulations of performance have shown that by virtue of the cosine taper the impedance response of this horn can be expected to be better than has been achieved previously in a similar horn having linearly tapered dielectric- filled longitudinal corrugations. It is possible to create a hard boundary condition by use of a single dielectric-filled corrugation in each affected wall, but better results can be obtained with more corrugations. Simulations were performed for a one- and a three-corrugation cosine-taper design. For comparison, a simulation was also performed for a linear- taper design (see Figure 2). The three-corrugation design was chosen to minimize the cost of fabrication while still affording acceptably high performance. Future designs using more corrugations per wavelength are expected to provide better field responses and, hence, greater aperture efficiencies.

Effects of Aperture Size on Q factor and Shielding Effectiveness of a Cubic Resonator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parr, Stefan; Chromy, Stephan; Dickmann, Stefan; Schaarschmidt, Martin

2017-09-01

The EMC properties of a cubic metallic shield are highly affected by its resonances. At the resonant frequencies, the shielding effectiveness (SE) collapses, which results in high field strengths inside the cavity. This can cause failure or even breakdown of electronic devices inside the shield. The resonant behaviour is mainly determined by the quality or Q factor of the shield. In this paper, the effects of the aperture size on the Q factor and the SE of an electrically large, cubic shield are analysed. At first, a method is developed in order to determine the Q factor based on the resonance behaviour of the shield in time domain. Only the first resonance of the shield is considered therefore. The results are evaluated for different aperture diameters and compared with theory for the Q factor. The dominant coupling mechanism of electromagnetic energy into the shield is thus identified. Then the effect of aperture size on the SE is analysed. The excitation of resonances is very probable if the interfering signal is an ultrawideband (UWB) pulse, which constitutes a typical intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) scenario. Therefore, the relation between aperture size and SE is analysed using the theory of the transient SE for a broadband signal with a constant spectral density distribution. The results show, that a worst case aperture size exists, where the SE has its minimum.

Effect of Clouds on Apertures of Space-based Air Fluorescence Detectors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sokolsky, P.; Krizmanic, J.

2003-01-01

Space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detectors observe fluorescence light from extensive air showers produced by these particles in the troposphere. Clouds can scatter and absorb this light and produce systematic errors in energy determination and spectrum normalization. We study the possibility of using IR remote sensing data from MODIS and GOES satellites to delimit clear areas of the atmosphere. The efficiency for detecting ultra-high-energy cosmic rays whose showers do not intersect clouds is determined for real, night-time cloud scenes. We use the MODIS SST cloud mask product to define clear pixels for cloud scenes along the equator and use the OWL Monte Carlo to generate showers in the cloud scenes. We find the efficiency for cloud-free showers with closest approach of three pixels to a cloudy pixel is 6.5% exclusive of other factors. We conclude that defining a totally cloud-free aperture reduces the sensitivity of space-based fluorescence detectors to unacceptably small levels.

Synthetic aperture imaging in astronomy and aerospace: introduction.

PubMed

Creech-Eakman, Michelle J; Carney, P Scott; Buscher, David F; Shao, Michael

2017-05-01

Aperture synthesis methods allow the reconstruction of images with the angular resolutions exceeding that of extremely large monolithic apertures by using arrays of smaller apertures together in combination. In this issue we present several papers with techniques relevant to amplitude interferometry, laser radar, and intensity interferometry applications.

The SMS3D photovoltaic concentrator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cvetković, Aleksandra; Hernandez, Maikel; Benítez, Pablo; Miñano, Juan Carlos; Schwartz, Joel; Plesniak, Adam; Jones, Russ; Whelan, David

2008-08-01

A novel photovoltaic concentrator is presented. The goal is to achieve high concentration design with high efficiency and high acceptance angle that in the same time is compact and convenient for thermal and mechanical management [1]. This photovoltaic system is based on 1 cm2 multi-junction tandem solar cells and an XR concentrator. The XR concentrator in this system is an SMS 3D design formed by one reflective (X) and one refractive (R) free-form surfaces (i.e., without rotational or linear symmetry) and has been chosen for its excellent aspect ratio and for its ability to perform near the thermodynamic limit. It is a mirror-lens device that has no shadowing elements and has square entry aperture (the whole system aperture area is used for collecting light). This large acceptance angle relaxes the manufacturing tolerances of all the optical and mechanical components of the system included the concentrator itself and is one of the keys to get a cost competitive photovoltaic generator. For the geometrical concentration of 1000x the simulation results show the acceptance angle of +/-1.8 deg. The irradiance distribution on the cell is achieved with ultra-short homogenizing prism, whose size is optimised to keep the maximum values under the ones that the cell can accept. The application of the XR optics to high-concentration is being developed in a consortium leaded by The Boeing Company, which has been awarded a project by US DOE in the framework of the Solar America Initiative.

Design of compact surface optical coupler based on vertically curved silicon waveguide for high-numerical-aperture single-mode optical fiber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atsumi, Yuki; Yoshida, Tomoya; Omoda, Emiko; Sakakibara, Youichi

2017-09-01

A surface optical coupler based on a vertically curved Si waveguide was designed for coupling with high-numerical aperture single-mode optical fibers with a mode-field diameter of 5 µm. This coupler has a quite small device size, with a height of approximately 12 µm, achieved by introducing an effective spot-size converter configured with the combination of an extremely short Si exponential-inverse taper and a dome-structured SiO2 lens formed on the coupler top. The designed coupler shows high-efficiency optical coupling, with a loss of 0.8 dB for TE polarized light, as well as broad-band coupling with a 0.5-dB-loss band of 420 nm.

Hard X-ray imaging from Explorer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grindlay, J. E.; Murray, S. S.

1981-01-01

Coded aperture X-ray detectors were applied to obtain large increases in sensitivity as well as angular resolution. A hard X-ray coded aperture detector concept is described which enables very high sensitivity studies persistent hard X-ray sources and gamma ray bursts. Coded aperture imaging is employed so that approx. 2 min source locations can be derived within a 3 deg field of view. Gamma bursts were located initially to within approx. 2 deg and X-ray/hard X-ray spectra and timing, as well as precise locations, derived for possible burst afterglow emission. It is suggested that hard X-ray imaging should be conducted from an Explorer mission where long exposure times are possible.

Vacuum insulation of the high energy negative ion source for fusion application.

PubMed

Kojima, A; Hanada, M; Hilmi, A; Inoue, T; Watanabe, K; Taniguchi, M; Kashiwagi, M; Umeda, N; Tobari, H; Kobayashi, S; Yamano, Y; Grisham, L R

2012-02-01

Vacuum insulation on a large size negative ion accelerator with multiple extraction apertures and acceleration grids for fusion application was experimentally examined and designed. In the experiment, vacuum insulation characteristics were investigated in the JT-60 negative ion source with >1000 apertures on the grid with the surface area of ∼2 m(2). The sustainable voltages varied with a square root of the gap lengths between the grids, and decreased with number of the apertures and with the surface area of the grids. Based on the obtained results, the JT-60SA (super advanced) negative ion source is designed to produce 22 A, 500 keV D(-) ion beams for 100 s.

Three-dimensional near-field MIMO array imaging using range migration techniques.

PubMed

Zhuge, Xiaodong; Yarovoy, Alexander G

2012-06-01

This paper presents a 3-D near-field imaging algorithm that is formulated for 2-D wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) imaging array topology. The proposed MIMO range migration technique performs the image reconstruction procedure in the frequency-wavenumber domain. The algorithm is able to completely compensate the curvature of the wavefront in the near-field through a specifically defined interpolation process and provides extremely high computational efficiency by the application of the fast Fourier transform. The implementation aspects of the algorithm and the sampling criteria of a MIMO aperture are discussed. The image reconstruction performance and computational efficiency of the algorithm are demonstrated both with numerical simulations and measurements using 2-D MIMO arrays. Real-time 3-D near-field imaging can be achieved with a real-aperture array by applying the proposed MIMO range migration techniques.

Adaptive optics technique to overcome the turbulence in a large-aperture collimator.

PubMed

Mu, Quanquan; Cao, Zhaoliang; Li, Dayu; Hu, Lifa; Xuan, Li

2008-03-20

A collimator with a long focal length and large aperture is a very important apparatus for testing large-aperture optical systems. But it suffers from internal air turbulence, which may limit its performance and reduce the testing accuracy. To overcome this problem, an adaptive optics system is introduced to compensate for the turbulence. This system includes a liquid crystal on silicon device as a wavefront corrector and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. After correction, we can get a plane wavefront with rms of about 0.017 lambda (lambda=0.6328 microm) emitted out of a larger than 500 mm diameter aperture. The whole system reaches diffraction-limited resolution.

The pinwheel pupil discovery: exoplanet science & improved processing with segmented telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breckinridge, James Bernard

2018-01-01

In this paper, we show that by using a “pinwheel” architecture for the segmented primary mirror and curved supports for the secondary mirror, we can achieve a near uniform diffraction background in ground and space large telescope systems needed for high SNR exoplanet science. Also, the point spread function will be nearly rotationally symmetric, enabling improved digital image reconstruction. Large (>4-m) aperture space telescopes are needed to characterize terrestrial exoplanets by direct imaging coronagraphy. Launch vehicle volume constrains these apertures are segmented and deployed in space to form a large mirror aperture that is masked by the gaps between the hexagonal segments and the shadows of the secondary support system. These gaps and shadows over the pupil result in an image plane point spread function that has bright spikes, which may mask or obscure exoplanets.These telescope artifact mask faint exoplanets, making it necessary for the spacecraft to make a roll about the boresight and integrate again to make sure no planets are missed. This increases integration time, and requires expensive space-craft resources to do bore-sight roll.Currently the LUVOIR and HabEx studies have several significant efforts to develop special purpose A/O technology and to place complex absorbing apodizers over their Hex pupils to shape the unwanted diffracted light. These strong apodizers absorb light, decreasing system transmittance and reducing SNR. Implementing curved pupil obscurations will eliminate the need for the highly absorbing apodizers and thus result in higher SNR.Quantitative analysis of diffraction patterns that use the pinwheel architecture are compared to straight hex-segment edges with a straight-line secondary shadow mask to show a gain of over a factor of 100 by reducing the background. For the first-time astronomers are able to control and minimize image plane diffraction background “noise”. This technology will enable 10-m segmented apertures to perform nearly the same as a 10-meter monolith filled aperture. The pinwheel pupil will enable a significant gain in exoplanet SNR.

Solar concentrator modules with silicone-onglass Fresnel lens panels and multijunction cells.

PubMed

Rumyantsev, Valery D

2010-04-26

High-efficiency multijunction (MJ) solar cells, being very expensive to manufacture, should only be used in combination with solar concentrators in terrestrial applications. An essential cost reduction of electric power produced by photovoltaic (PV) installations with MJ cells, may be expected by the creation of highly-effective, but inexpensive, elements for optical concentration and sun tracking. This article is an overview of the corresponding approach under development at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute. The approach to R&D of the solar PV modules is based on the concepts of sunlight concentration by small-aperture area Fresnel lenses and "all-glass" module design. The small-aperture area lenses are arranged as a panel with silicone-on-glass structure where the glass plate serves as the front surface of a module. In turn, high-efficiency InGaP/(In)GaAs/Ge cells are arranged on a rear module panel mounted on a glass plate which functions as a heat sink and integrated protective cover for the cells. The developed PV modules and sun trackers are characterized by simple design, and are regarded as the prototypes for further commercialization.

X-ray focusing with efficient high-NA multilayer Laue lenses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bajt, Sasa; Prasciolu, Mauro; Fleckenstein, Holger

Multilayer Laue lenses are volume diffraction elements for the efficient focusing of X-rays. With a new manufacturing technique that we introduced, it is possible to fabricate lenses of sufficiently high numerical aperture (NA) to achieve focal spot sizes below 10 nm. The alternating layers of the materials that form the lens must span a broad range of thicknesses on the nanometer scale to achieve the necessary range of X-ray deflection angles required to achieve a high NA. This poses a challenge to both the accuracy of the deposition process and the control of the materials properties, which often vary withmore » layer thickness. We introduced a new pair of materials—tungsten carbide and silicon carbide—to prepare layered structures with smooth and sharp interfaces and with no material phase transitions that hampered the manufacture of previous lenses. Using a pair of multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) fabricated from this system, we achieved a two-dimensional focus of 8.4 × 6.8 nm 2 at a photon energy of 16.3 keV with high diffraction efficiency and demonstrated scanning-based imaging of samples with a resolution well below 10 nm. The high NA also allowed projection holographic imaging with strong phase contrast over a large range of magnifications. Furthermore, an error analysis indicates the possibility of achieving 1 nm focusing.« less

X-ray focusing with efficient high-NA multilayer Laue lenses

DOE PAGES

Bajt, Sasa; Prasciolu, Mauro; Fleckenstein, Holger; ...

2018-03-23

Multilayer Laue lenses are volume diffraction elements for the efficient focusing of X-rays. With a new manufacturing technique that we introduced, it is possible to fabricate lenses of sufficiently high numerical aperture (NA) to achieve focal spot sizes below 10 nm. The alternating layers of the materials that form the lens must span a broad range of thicknesses on the nanometer scale to achieve the necessary range of X-ray deflection angles required to achieve a high NA. This poses a challenge to both the accuracy of the deposition process and the control of the materials properties, which often vary withmore » layer thickness. We introduced a new pair of materials—tungsten carbide and silicon carbide—to prepare layered structures with smooth and sharp interfaces and with no material phase transitions that hampered the manufacture of previous lenses. Using a pair of multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) fabricated from this system, we achieved a two-dimensional focus of 8.4 × 6.8 nm 2 at a photon energy of 16.3 keV with high diffraction efficiency and demonstrated scanning-based imaging of samples with a resolution well below 10 nm. The high NA also allowed projection holographic imaging with strong phase contrast over a large range of magnifications. Furthermore, an error analysis indicates the possibility of achieving 1 nm focusing.« less

High Field Side Lower Hybrid Current Drive Launcher Design for DIII-D

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallace, G. M.; Leccacori, R.; Doody, J.; Vieira, R.; Shiraiwa, S.; Wukitch, S. J.; Holcomb, C.; Pinsker, R. I.

2017-10-01

Efficient off-axis current drive scalable to reactors is a key enabling technology for a steady-state tokamak. Simulations of DIII-D discharges have identified high performance scenarios with excellent lower hybrid (LH) wave penetration, single pass absorption and high current drive efficiency. The strategy was to adapt known launching technology utilized in previous experiments on C-Mod (poloidal splitter) and Tore Supra (bi-junction) and remain within power density limits established in JET and Tore Supra. For a 2 MW source power antenna, the launcher consists of 32 toroidal apertures and 4 poloidal rows. The aperture is 60 mm x 5 mm with 1 mm septa and the peak n| | is 2.7+/-0.2 for 90□ phasing. Eight WR187 waveguides are routed from the R-1 port down under the lower cryopump, under the existing divertor, and up the central column with the long waveguide dimension along the vacuum vessel. Above the inner strike point region, each waveguide is twisted to orient the long dimension perpendicular to the vacuum vessel and splits into 4 toroidal apertures via bi-junctions. To protect the waveguide, the inner wall radius will need to increase by 2.5 cm. RF, disruption, and thermal analysis of the latest design will be presented. Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, using User Facility DIII-D, under Award Number DE-FC02-04ER54698 and by MIT PSFC cooperative agreement DE-SC0014264.

NIAC Phase II Orbiting Rainbows: Future Space Imaging with Granular Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quadrelli, Marco B.; Basinger, Scott; Arumugam, Darmindra; Swartzlander, Grover

2017-01-01

Inspired by the light scattering and focusing properties of distributed optical assemblies in Nature, such as rainbows and aerosols, and by recent laboratory successes in optical trapping and manipulation, we propose a unique combination of space optics and autonomous robotic system technology, to enable a new vision of space system architecture with applications to ultra-lightweight space optics and, ultimately, in-situ space system fabrication. Typically, the cost of an optical system is driven by the size and mass of the primary aperture. The ideal system is a cloud of spatially disordered dust-like objects that can be optically manipulated: it is highly reconfigurable, fault-tolerant, and allows very large aperture sizes at low cost. This new concept is based on recent understandings in the physics of optical manipulation of small particles in the laboratory and the engineering of distributed ensembles of spacecraft swarms to shape an orbiting cloud of micron-sized objects. In the same way that optical tweezers have revolutionized micro- and nano-manipulation of objects, our breakthrough concept will enable new large scale NASA mission applications and develop new technology in the areas of Astrophysical Imaging Systems and Remote Sensing because the cloud can operate as an adaptive optical imaging sensor. While achieving the feasibility of constructing one single aperture out of the cloud is the main topic of this work, it is clear that multiple orbiting aerosol lenses could also combine their power to synthesize a much larger aperture in space to enable challenging goals such as exo-planet detection. Furthermore, this effort could establish feasibility of key issues related to material properties, remote manipulation, and autonomy characteristics of cloud in orbit. There are several types of endeavors (science missions) that could be enabled by this type of approach, i.e. it can enable new astrophysical imaging systems, exo-planet search, large apertures allow for unprecedented high resolution to discern continents and important features of other planets, hyperspectral imaging, adaptive systems, spectroscopy imaging through limb, and stable optical systems from Lagrange-points. Furthermore, future micro-miniaturization might hold promise of a further extension of our dust aperture concept to other more exciting smart dust concepts with other associated capabilities. Our objective in Phase II was to experimentally and numerically investigate how to optically manipulate and maintain the shape of an orbiting cloud of dust-like matter so that it can function as an adaptable ultra-lightweight surface. Our solution is based on the aperture being an engineered granular medium, instead of a conventional monolithic aperture. This allows building of apertures at a reduced cost, enables extremely fault-tolerant apertures that cannot otherwise be made, and directly enables classes of missions for exoplanet detection based on Fourier spectroscopy with tight angular resolution and innovative radar systems for remote sensing. In this task, we have examined the advanced feasibility of a crosscutting concept that contributes new technological approaches for space imaging systems, autonomous systems, and space applications of optical manipulation. The proposed investigation has matured the concept that we started in Phase I to TRL 3, identifying technology gaps and candidate system architectures for the space-borne cloud as an aperture.

Carotid lesion characterization by synthetic-aperture-imaging techniques with multioffset ultrasonic probes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capineri, Lorenzo; Castellini, Guido; Masotti, Leonardo F.; Rocchi, Santina

1992-06-01

This paper explores the applications of a high-resolution imaging technique to vascular ultrasound diagnosis, with emphasis on investigation of the carotid vessel. With the present diagnostic systems, it is difficult to measure quantitatively the extension of the lesions and to characterize the tissue; quantitative images require enough spatial resolution and dynamic to reveal fine high-risk pathologies. A broadband synthetic aperture technique with multi-offset probes is developed to improve the lesion characterization by the evaluation of local scattering parameters. This technique works with weak scatterers embedded in a constant velocity medium, large aperture, and isotropic sources and receivers. The features of this technique are: axial and lateral spatial resolution of the order of the wavelength, high dynamic range, quantitative measurements of the size and scattering intensity of the inhomogeneities, and capabilities of investigation of inclined layer. The evaluation of the performances in real condition is carried out by a software simulator in which different experimental situations can be reproduced. Images of simulated anatomic test-objects are presented. The images are obtained with an inversion process of the synthesized ultrasonic signals, collected on the linear aperture by a limited number of finite size transducers.

High-Flux, High-Temperature Thermal Vacuum Qualification Testing of a Solar Receiver Aperture Shield

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kerslake, Thomas W.; Mason, Lee S.; Strumpf, Hal J.

1997-01-01

As part of the International Space Station (ISS) Phase 1 program, NASA Lewis Research Center (LERC) and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) teamed together to design, build and flight test the world's first orbital Solar Dynamic Power System (SDPS) on the Russian space station Mir. The Solar Dynamic Flight Demonstration (SDFD) program was to operate a nominal 2 kWe SDPS on Mir for a period up to 1-year starting in late 1997. Unfortunately, the SDFD mission was demanifested from the ISS phase 1 shuttle program in early 1996. However, substantial flight hardware and prototypical flight hardware was built including a heat receiver and aperture shield. The aperture shield comprises the front face of the cylindrical cavity heat receiver and is located at the focal plane of the solar concentrator. It is constructed of a stainless steel plate with a 1-m outside diameter, a 0.24-m inside diameter and covered with high-temperature, refractory metal Multi-Foil Insulation (MFI). The aperture shield must minimize heat loss from the receiver cavity, provide a stiff, high strength structure to accommodate shuttle launch loads and protect receiver structures from highly concentrated solar fluxes during concentrator off-pointing events. To satisfy Mir operational safety protocols, the aperture shield was required to accommodate direct impingement of the intensely concentrated solar image for a 1-hour period. To verify thermal-structural durability under the anticipated high-flux, high-temperature loading, an aperture shield test article was constructed and underwent a series of two tests in a large thermal vacuum chamber configured with a reflective, point-focus solar concentrator and a solar simulator. The test article was positioned near the focal plane and exposed to concentrated solar flux for a period of 1-hour. In the first test, a near equilibrium temperature of 1862 K was attained in the center of the shield hot spot. In the second test, with increased incident flux, a near equilibrium temperature of 2072 K was achieved. The aperture shield sustained no visible damage as a result of the exposures. This paper describes the aperture shield thermal-vacuum qualification test program including the test article, test facility, procedures, data collection, test success criteria, results and conclusions.

Transmission Grating and Optics Technology Development for the Arcus Explorer Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heilmann, Ralf; Arcus Team

2018-01-01

Arcus is a high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy MIDEX mission selected for a Phase A concept study. It is designed to explore structure formation through measurements of hot baryon distributions, feedback from black holes, and the formation and evolution of stars, disks, and exoplanet atmospheres. The design provides unprecedented sensitivity in the 1.2-5 nm wavelength band with effective area above 450 sqcm and spectral resolution R > 2500. The Arcus technology is based on 12 m-focal length silicon pore optics (SPO) developed for the European Athena mission, and critical-angle transmission (CAT) x-ray diffraction gratings and x-ray CCDs developed at MIT. The modular design consists of four parallel channels, each channel holding an optics petal, followed by a grating petal. CAT gratings are lightweight, alignment insensitive, high-efficiency x-ray transmission gratings that blaze into high diffraction orders, leading to high spectral resolution. Each optics petal represents an azimuthal sub-aperture of a full Wolter optic. The sub-aperturing effect increases spectral resolving power further. Two CCD readout strips receive photons from each channel, including higher-energy photons in 0th order. Each optics petal holds 34 SPO modules. Each grating petal holds 34 grating windows, and each window holds 4-6 grating facets. A grating facet consists of a silicon grating membrane, bonded to a flexure frame that interfaces with the grating window. We report on a sequence of tests with increasing complexity that systematically increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for the combination of CAT gratings and SPOs towards TLR 6. CAT gratings have been evaluated in x rays for diffraction efficiency (> 30% at 2.5 nm) and for resolving power (R> 10,000). A CAT grating/SPO combination was measured at R ~ 3100 at blaze angles smaller than design values, exceeding Arcus requirements. Efficiency and resolving power were not impacted by vibration and thermal testing of gratings. A pair of large (32 mm x 32 mm) gratings was aligned using laser metrology, and alignment was verified under x rays. We present results on simultaneous illumination of the aligned grating pair, and describe our progress towards further tests.

Planar concentrators near the étendue limit.

PubMed

Winston, Roland; Gordon, Jeffrey M

2005-10-01

Recently proposed aplanatic imaging designs are integrally combined with nonimaging flux boosters to produce an ultracompact planar glass-filled concentrator that performs near the étendue limit. Such optical devices are attractive for high-efficiency multijunction photovoltaics at high flux, with realistic power generation of 1 W from a 1 mm2 cell. When deployed in reverse, our designs provide collimation even for high-numerical-aperture light sources.

Planar concentrators near the étendue limit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winston, Roland; Gordon, Jeffrey M.

2005-10-01

Recently proposed aplanatic imaging designs are integrally combined with nonimaging flux boosters to produce an ultracompact planar glass-filled concentrator that performs near the étendue limit. Such optical devices are attractive for high-efficiency multijunction photovoltaics at high flux, with realistic power generation of 1 W from a 1 mm² cell. When deployed in reverse, our designs provide collimation even for high-numerical-aperture light sources.

The influence of swarm deformation on the velocity behavior of falling swarms of particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitchell, C. A.; Pyrak-Nolte, L. J.; Nitsche, L.

2017-12-01

Cohesive particle swarms have been shown to exhibit enhanced sedimentation in fractures for an optimal range of fracture apertures. Within this range, swarms travel farther and faster than a disperse (particulate) solution. This study aims to uncover the physics underlying the enhanced sedimentation. Swarm behavior at low Reynolds number in a quiescent unbounded fluid and between smooth rigid planar boundaries is investigated numerically using direct-summation, particle-mesh (PM) and particle-particle particle-mesh (P3M) methods - based upon mutually interacting viscous point forces (Stokeslet fields). Wall effects are treated with a least-squares boundary singularity method. Sub-structural effects beyond pseudo-liquid behavior (i.e., particle-scale interactions) are approximated by the P3M method much more efficiently than with direct summation. The model parameters are selected from particle swarm experiments to enable comparison. From the simulations, if the initial swarm geometry at release is unaffected by the fracture aperture, no enhanced transport occurs. The swarm velocity as a function of apertures increases monotonically until it asymptotes to the swarm velocity in an open tank. However, if the fracture aperture affects the initial swarm geometry, the swarm velocity no longer exhibits a monotonic behavior. When swarms are released between two parallel smooth walls with very small apertures, the swarm is forced to reorganize and quickly deform, which results in dramatically reduced swarm velocities. At large apertures, the swarm evolution is similar to that of a swarm in open tank and quickly flattens into a slow speed torus. In the optimal aperture range, the swarm maintains a cohesive unit behaving similarly to a falling sphere. Swarms falling in apertures less than or greater than the optimal aperture range, experience a level of anisotropy that considerably decreases velocities. Unraveling the physics that drives swarm behavior in fractured porous media is important for understanding particle sedimentation and contaminant spreading in the subsurface. Acknowledgment: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Geosciences Research Program under Award Number (DE-FG02-09ER16022).

Summary of Test Results of MQXFS1 - The First Short Model 150 mm Aperture $$Nb_3Sn$$ Quadrupole for the High-Luminosity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stoynev, S.; et al.

The development ofmore » $$Nb_3Sn$$ quadrupole magnets for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade is a joint venture between the US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP)* and CERN with the goal of fabricating large aperture quadrupoles for the LHC in-teraction regions (IR). The inner triplet (low-β) NbTi quadrupoles in the IR will be replaced by the stronger Nb3Sn magnets boosting the LHC program of having 10-fold increase in integrated luminos-ity after the foreseen upgrades. Previously LARP conducted suc-cessful tests of short and long models with up to 120 mm aperture. The first short 150 mm aperture quadrupole model MQXFS1 was assembled with coils fabricated by both CERN and LARP. The magnet demonstrated strong performance at the Fermilab’s verti-cal magnet test facility reaching the LHC operating limits. This paper reports the latest results from MQXFS1 tests with changed pre-stress levels. The overall magnet performance, including quench training and memory, ramp rate and temperature depend-ence, is also summarized.« less

Development of a Coded Aperture X-Ray Backscatter Imager for Explosive Device Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faust, Anthony A.; Rothschild, Richard E.; Leblanc, Philippe; McFee, John Elton

2009-02-01

Defence R&D Canada has an active research and development program on detection of explosive devices using nuclear methods. One system under development is a coded aperture-based X-ray backscatter imaging detector designed to provide sufficient speed, contrast and spatial resolution to detect antipersonnel landmines and improvised explosive devices. The successful development of a hand-held imaging detector requires, among other things, a light-weight, ruggedized detector with low power requirements, supplying high spatial resolution. The University of California, San Diego-designed HEXIS detector provides a modern, large area, high-temperature CZT imaging surface, robustly packaged in a light-weight housing with sound mechanical properties. Based on the potential for the HEXIS detector to be incorporated as the detection element of a hand-held imaging detector, the authors initiated a collaborative effort to demonstrate the capability of a coded aperture-based X-ray backscatter imaging detector. This paper will discuss the landmine and IED detection problem and review the coded aperture technique. Results from initial proof-of-principle experiments will then be reported.

Three-Dimensional Terahertz Coded-Aperture Imaging Based on Single Input Multiple Output Technology.

PubMed

Chen, Shuo; Luo, Chenggao; Deng, Bin; Wang, Hongqiang; Cheng, Yongqiang; Zhuang, Zhaowen

2018-01-19

As a promising radar imaging technique, terahertz coded-aperture imaging (TCAI) can achieve high-resolution, forward-looking, and staring imaging by producing spatiotemporal independent signals with coded apertures. In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional (3D) TCAI architecture based on single input multiple output (SIMO) technology, which can reduce the coding and sampling times sharply. The coded aperture applied in the proposed TCAI architecture loads either purposive or random phase modulation factor. In the transmitting process, the purposive phase modulation factor drives the terahertz beam to scan the divided 3D imaging cells. In the receiving process, the random phase modulation factor is adopted to modulate the terahertz wave to be spatiotemporally independent for high resolution. Considering human-scale targets, images of each 3D imaging cell are reconstructed one by one to decompose the global computational complexity, and then are synthesized together to obtain the complete high-resolution image. As for each imaging cell, the multi-resolution imaging method helps to reduce the computational burden on a large-scale reference-signal matrix. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed architecture can achieve high-resolution imaging with much less time for 3D targets and has great potential in applications such as security screening, nondestructive detection, medical diagnosis, etc.

Optical Characterization of the SPT-3G Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Z.; Ade, P. A. R.; Ahmed, Z.; Anderson, A. J.; Austermann, J. E.; Avva, J. S.; Thakur, R. Basu; Bender, A. N.; Benson, B. A.; Carlstrom, J. E.; Carter, F. W.; Cecil, T.; Chang, C. L.; Cliche, J. F.; Cukierman, A.; Denison, E. V.; de Haan, T.; Ding, J.; Dobbs, M. A.; Dutcher, D.; Everett, W.; Foster, A.; Gannon, R. N.; Gilbert, A.; Groh, J. C.; Halverson, N. W.; Harke-Hosemann, A. H.; Harrington, N. L.; Henning, J. W.; Hilton, G. C.; Holzapfel, W. L.; Huang, N.; Irwin, K. D.; Jeong, O. B.; Jonas, M.; Khaire, T.; Kofman, A. M.; Korman, M.; Kubik, D.; Kuhlmann, S.; Kuo, C. L.; Lee, A. T.; Lowitz, A. E.; Meyer, S. S.; Michalik, D.; Montgomery, J.; Nadolski, A.; Natoli, T.; Nguyen, H.; Noble, G. I.; Novosad, V.; Padin, S.; Pearson, J.; Posada, C. M.; Rahlin, A.; Ruhl, J. E.; Saunders, L. J.; Sayre, J. T.; Shirley, I.; Shirokoff, E.; Smecher, G.; Sobrin, J. A.; Stark, A. A.; Story, K. T.; Suzuki, A.; Tang, Q. Y.; Thompson, K. L.; Tucker, C.; Vale, L. R.; Vanderlinde, K.; Vieira, J. D.; Wang, G.; Whitehorn, N.; Yefremenko, V.; Yoon, K. W.; Young, M. R.

2018-05-01

The third-generation South Pole Telescope camera is designed to measure the cosmic microwave background across three frequency bands (centered at 95, 150 and 220 GHz) with ˜ 16,000 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. Each multichroic array element on a detector wafer has a broadband sinuous antenna that couples power to six TESs, one for each of the three observing bands and both polarizations, via lumped element filters. Ten detector wafers populate the detector array, which is coupled to the sky via a large-aperture optical system. Here we present the frequency band characterization with Fourier transform spectroscopy, measurements of optical time constants, beam properties, and optical and polarization efficiencies of the detector array. The detectors have frequency bands consistent with our simulations and have high average optical efficiency which is 86, 77 and 66% for the 95, 150 and 220 GHz detectors. The time constants of the detectors are mostly between 0.5 and 5 ms. The beam is round with the correct size, and the polarization efficiency is more than 90% for most of the bolometers.

Optical Characterization of the SPT-3G Focal Plane

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pan, Z.; et al.

The third-generation South Pole Telescope camera is designed to measure the cosmic microwave background across three frequency bands (95, 150 and 220 GHz) with ~16,000 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. Each multichroic pixel on a detector wafer has a broadband sinuous antenna that couples power to six TESs, one for each of the three observing bands and both polarization directions, via lumped element filters. Ten detector wafers populate the focal plane, which is coupled to the sky via a large-aperture optical system. Here we present the frequency band characterization with Fourier transform spectroscopy, measurements of optical time constants, beam properties, andmore » optical and polarization efficiencies of the focal plane. The detectors have frequency bands consistent with our simulations, and have high average optical efficiency which is 86%, 77% and 66% for the 95, 150 and 220 GHz detectors. The time constants of the detectors are mostly between 0.5 ms and 5 ms. The beam is round with the correct size, and the polarization efficiency is more than 90% for most of the bolometers« less

Measures of galaxy environment - I. What is 'environment'?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muldrew, Stuart I.; Croton, Darren J.; Skibba, Ramin A.; Pearce, Frazer R.; Ann, Hong Bae; Baldry, Ivan K.; Brough, Sarah; Choi, Yun-Young; Conselice, Christopher J.; Cowan, Nicolas B.; Gallazzi, Anna; Gray, Meghan E.; Grützbauch, Ruth; Li, I.-Hui; Park, Changbom; Pilipenko, Sergey V.; Podgorzec, Bret J.; Robotham, Aaron S. G.; Wilman, David J.; Yang, Xiaohu; Zhang, Youcai; Zibetti, Stefano

2012-01-01

The influence of a galaxy's environment on its evolution has been studied and compared extensively in the literature, although differing techniques are often used to define environment. Most methods fall into two broad groups: those that use nearest neighbours to probe the underlying density field and those that use fixed apertures. The differences between the two inhibit a clean comparison between analyses and leave open the possibility that, even with the same data, different properties are actually being measured. In this work, we apply 20 published environment definitions to a common mock galaxy catalogue constrained to look like the local Universe. We find that nearest-neighbour-based measures best probe the internal densities of high-mass haloes, while at low masses the interhalo separation dominates and acts to smooth out local density variations. The resulting correlation also shows that nearest-neighbour galaxy environment is largely independent of dark matter halo mass. Conversely, aperture-based methods that probe superhalo scales accurately identify high-density regions corresponding to high-mass haloes. Both methods show how galaxies in dense environments tend to be redder, with the exception of the largest apertures, but these are the strongest at recovering the background dark matter environment. We also warn against using photometric redshifts to define environment in all but the densest regions. When considering environment, there are two regimes: the 'local environment' internal to a halo best measured with nearest neighbour and 'large-scale environment' external to a halo best measured with apertures. This leads to the conclusion that there is no universal environment measure and the most suitable method depends on the scale being probed.

The Position and Attitude of Sub-reflector Modeling for TM65 m Radio Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Z. X.; Chen, L.; Wang, J. Q.

2016-01-01

In the course of astronomical observations, with changes in angle of pitch, the large radio telescope will have different degrees of deformation in the sub-reflector support, back frame, main reflector etc, which will lead to the dramatic decline of antenna efficiency in both high and low elevation. A sub-reflector system of the Tian Ma 65 m radio telescope has been installed in order to compensate for the gravitational deformations of the sub-reflector support and the main reflector. The position and attitude of the sub-reflector are variable in order to improve the pointing performance and the efficiency at different elevations. In this paper, it is studied that the changes of position and attitude of the sub-reflector have influence on the efficiency of antenna in the X band and Ku band. A model has been constructed to determine the position and attitude of the sub-reflector with elevation, as well as the point compensation model, by observing the radio source. In addition, antenna efficiency was tested with sub-reflector position adjusted and fixed. The results show that the model of sub-reflector can effectively improve the efficiency of the 65 m radio telescope. In X band, the aperture efficiency of the radio telescope reaches more than 60% over the entire elevation range.

Fabrication and efficiency measurement of a Mo/C/Si/C three material system multilayer Laue lens

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kubec, Adam; Maser, J.; Formanek, P.

In this letter we report on the manufacturing of a multilayer Laue lens (MLL) consisting of a multilayer stack with three materials: molybdenum and silicon as absorber and spacer layer, respectively, and carbon as transition layers. The design has four layers per period: Mo/C/Si/C. It yields 6000 zones, and provides an aperture of 50 μm. This allows the MLL structure to accept a large portion of the coherent part of the beam and achieving a small spot size. The MLL deposition was made by magnetron sputtering at the Fraunhofer IWS, the sectioning was done by laser cutting and subsequent focusedmore » ion beam milling to a thickness that provides a good efficiency for a photon energy of 12 keV. The diffraction efficiency as a function of the tilting angle has been measured at beamline 1-BM of the Advanced Photon Source. An efficiency of almost 40% has been achieved. This shows that the material system performs well compared to MLLs made of two-materials and that it is in an excellent agreement with the numerically calculated efficiency for a comparable molybdenum/silicon bilayer system lens. Here, we conclude that the three material system offers high efficiencies and is advantageous for stress reduction in MLLs.« less

Fabrication and efficiency measurement of a Mo/C/Si/C three material system multilayer Laue lens

DOE PAGES

Kubec, Adam; Maser, J.; Formanek, P.; ...

2017-03-17

In this letter we report on the manufacturing of a multilayer Laue lens (MLL) consisting of a multilayer stack with three materials: molybdenum and silicon as absorber and spacer layer, respectively, and carbon as transition layers. The design has four layers per period: Mo/C/Si/C. It yields 6000 zones, and provides an aperture of 50 μm. This allows the MLL structure to accept a large portion of the coherent part of the beam and achieving a small spot size. The MLL deposition was made by magnetron sputtering at the Fraunhofer IWS, the sectioning was done by laser cutting and subsequent focusedmore » ion beam milling to a thickness that provides a good efficiency for a photon energy of 12 keV. The diffraction efficiency as a function of the tilting angle has been measured at beamline 1-BM of the Advanced Photon Source. An efficiency of almost 40% has been achieved. This shows that the material system performs well compared to MLLs made of two-materials and that it is in an excellent agreement with the numerically calculated efficiency for a comparable molybdenum/silicon bilayer system lens. Here, we conclude that the three material system offers high efficiencies and is advantageous for stress reduction in MLLs.« less

A technique for measurement of earth station antenna G/T by radio stars and Applications Technology Satellites.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kochevar, H. J.

1972-01-01

A new technique has been developed to accurately measure the G/T of a small aperture antenna using geostationary satellites and the well established radio star method. A large aperture antenna having the capability of accurately measuring its G/T by using a radio star of known power density is used to obtain an accurate G/T to use as a reference. The CNR of both the large and small aperture antennas are then measured using an Applications Technology Satellite (ATS). After normalizing the two C/N ratios to the large antenna system noise temperature the G/T or the gain G of the small aperture antenna can then be determined.

Modular Orbital Demonstration of an Evolvable Space Telescope (MODEST)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldauf, Brian; Conti, Alberto

2016-01-01

The "Search for Life" via imaging of exoplanets is a mission that requires extremely stable telescopes with apertures in the 10 m to 20 m range. The High Definition Space Telescope (HDST) envisioned for this mission would have an aperture >10 m, which is a larger payload than what can be delivered to space using a single launch vehicle. Building and assembling the mirror segments enabling large telescopes will likely require multiple launches and assembly in space. Space-based telescopes with large apertures will require major changes to system architectures.The Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) for HDST is a primary mission cost driver. Enabling and affordable solutions for this next generation of large aperture space-based telescope are needed.This paper reports on the concept for the Modular Orbital Demonstration of an Evolvable Space Telescope (MODEST), which demonstrates on-orbit robotic and/or astronaut assembly of a precision optical telescope in space. It will also facilitate demonstration of active correction of phase and mirror shape. MODEST is proposed to be delivered to the ISS using standard Express Logistics Carriers (ELCs) and can mounted to one of a variety of ISS pallets. Post-assembly value includes space, ground, and environmental studies, and a testbed for new instruments. This demonstration program for next generation mirror technology provides significant risk reduction and demonstrates the technology in a six-mirror phased telescope. Other key features of the demonstration include the use of an active primary optical surface with wavefront feedback control that allows on-orbit optimization and demonstration of precise surface control to meet optical system wavefront and stability requirements.MODEST will also be used to evaluate advances in lightweight mirror and metering structure materials such as SiC or Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer that have excellent mechanical and thermal properties, e.g. high stiffness, high modulus, high thermal conductivity, and low thermal expansion. It has been demonstrated that mirrors built from these materials can be rapidly replicated in a highly cost effective manner, making these materials excellent candidates for a low cost, high performance OTA.

Lambmeat colour values (HunterLab CIE and reflectance) are influenced by aperture size (5 mm v. 25 mm).

PubMed

Holman, Benjamin W B; Ponnampalam, Eric N; van de Ven, Remy J; Kerr, Matthew G; Hopkins, David L

2015-02-01

The effect of aperture size on the assessment of lamb meat colour values (L*, a*, b* and R630/580)was investigated. Two experiments using 2 HunterLab MiniScan colorimeters (large [25 mm] and small [5 mm] apertures) were conducted: 1) coloured tiles were measured and 2) unaged lamb (n = 65) m. longissimus lumborum (LL) and m. semimembranosus (SM) muscles were measured over 2.5 d under simulated retail display. For Experiment three, 2 different colorimeters were used on lamb (n = 36) LL aged for 6 weeks before measurement over 4 don simulated retail display. Coloured tile a* and b* values were unaffected by aperture size, but L* values and the R630/580 ratio were influenced by aperture size. The effect of aperture size on lamb meat colour measurements varied with display time and muscle type. The large aperture size generally provided the highest colorimetric values, and is recommended for measuring lamb meat colour.

Experimental study of near-field light collection efficiency of aperture fiber probe at near-infrared wavelengths.

PubMed

Tsumori, Nobuhiro; Takahashi, Motoki; Sakuma, Yoshiki; Saiki, Toshiharu

2011-10-10

We examined the near-field collection efficiency of near-infrared radiation for an aperture probe. We used InAs quantum dots as ideal point light sources with emission wavelengths ranging from 1.1 to 1.6 μm. We experimentally investigated the wavelength dependence of the collection efficiency and compared the results with computational simulations that modeled the actual probe structure. The observed degradation in the collection efficiency is attributed to the cutoff characteristics of the gold-clad tapered waveguide, which approaches an ideal conductor at near-infrared wavelengths. © 2011 Optical Society of America

Freeform array projection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michaelis, D.; Schreiber, P.; Li, C.; Bräuer, A.; Gross, H.

2015-09-01

The concept of multichannel array projection is generalized in order to realize an ultraslim, highly efficient optical system for structured illumination with high lumen output, where additionally the Köhler illumination principle is utilized and source light homogenization occurs. The optical system consists of a multitude of neighboring optical channels. In each channel two optical freeforms generate a real or a virtual spatial light pattern and furthermore, the ray directions are modified to enable Köhler illumination of a subsequent projection lens. The internal light pattern may be additionally influenced by absorbing apertures or slides. The projection lens transfers the resulting light pattern to a target, where the total target distribution is produced by superposition of all individual channel output pattern. The optical system without absorbing apertures can be regarded as a generalization of a fly's eye condenser for structured illumination. In this case light pattern is exclusively generated by freeform light redistribution. The commonly occurring blurring effect for freeform beamshaping is reduced due to the creation of a virtual object light structure by means of the two freeform surfaces and its imaging towards the target. But, the remaining blurring inhibits very high spatial frequencies at the target. In order to create target features with very high spatial resolution the absorbing apertures can be utilized. In this case the freeform beamshaping can be used for an enhanced light transmission through the absorbing apertures. The freeform surfaces are designed by a generalized approach of Cartesian oval representation.

Low-Power Optical Trapping of Nanoparticles and Proteins with Resonant Coaxial Nanoaperture Using 10 nm Gap.

PubMed

Yoo, Daehan; Gurunatha, Kargal L; Choi, Han-Kyu; Mohr, Daniel A; Ertsgaard, Christopher T; Gordon, Reuven; Oh, Sang-Hyun

2018-06-13

We present optical trapping with a 10 nm gap resonant coaxial nanoaperture in a gold film. Large arrays of 600 resonant plasmonic coaxial nanoaperture traps are produced on a single chip via atomic layer lithography with each aperture tuned to match a 785 nm laser source. We show that these single coaxial apertures can act as efficient nanotweezers with a sharp potential well, capable of trapping 30 nm polystyrene nanoparticles and streptavidin molecules with a laser power as low as 4.7 mW. Furthermore, the resonant coaxial nanoaperture enables real-time label-free detection of the trapping events via simple transmission measurements. Our fabrication technique is scalable and reproducible, since the critical nanogap dimension is defined by atomic layer deposition. Thus our platform shows significant potential to push the limit of optical trapping technologies.

Design of a large dual polarized Ku band reflectarray for space borne radar altimeter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodges, Richard E.; Zawadzki, Mark

2004-01-01

We describe the design of a large dual-beam, dual polarized reflectarray designed for a space-based radar altimeter. This application requires a 2.16 X 0.35 m aperture that can be folded for launch stowage. Low mass and >50% efficiency are also required. A reflectarray antenna offers the best approach but also presents unique technical challenges since a reflectarry has never been used in a space based radar application. In what follows, we describe the design, analysis and measurements of a breadboard test array built to demonstrate the reflectarray concept.

Extraordinary electromagnetic transmission by antenna arrays and frequency selective surfaces having compound unit cells with dissimilar elements

DOEpatents

Loui, Hung; Strassner, II, Bernd H.

2018-03-20

The various embodiments presented herein relate to extraordinary electromagnetic transmission (EEMT) to enable multiple inefficient (un-matched) but coupled radiators and/or apertures to radiate and/or pass electromagnetic waves efficiently. EEMT can be utilized such that signal transmission from a plurality of antennas and/or apertures occurs at a transmission frequency different to transmission frequencies of the individual antennas and/or aperture elements. The plurality of antennas/apertures can comprise first antenna/aperture having a first radiating area and material(s) and second antenna/aperture having a second radiating area and material(s), whereby the first radiating/aperture area and second radiating/aperture area can be co-located in a periodic compound unit cell. Owing to mutual coupling between the respective antennas/apertures in their arrayed configuration, the transmission frequency of the array can be shifted from the transmission frequencies of the individual elements. EEMT can be utilized for an array of evanescent of inefficient radiators connected to a transmission line(s).

Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope: Science Drivers and Technology Developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Postman, Marc; Brown, Tom; Sembach, Kenneth; Glavallsco, Mauro; Traub, Wesley; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Calzetti, Daniela; Oegerle, William; Rich, R. Michael; Stahl, H. Philip;

Stitching Type Large Aperture Depolarizer for Gas Monitoring Imaging Spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, X.; Li, M.; An, N.; Zhang, T.; Cao, G.; Cheng, S.

2018-04-01

To increase the accuracy of radiation measurement for gas monitoring imaging spectrometer, it is necessary to achieve high levels of depolarization of the incoming beam. The preferred method in space instrument is to introduce the depolarizer into the optical system. It is a combination device of birefringence crystal wedges. Limited to the actual diameter of the crystal, the traditional depolarizer cannot be used in the large aperture imaging spectrometer (greater than 100 mm). In this paper, a stitching type depolarizer is presented. The design theory and numerical calculation model for dual babinet depolarizer were built. As required radiometric accuracies of the imaging spectrometer with 250 mm × 46 mm aperture, a stitching type dual babinet depolarizer was design in detail. Based on designing the optimum structural parmeters the tolerance of wedge angle refractive index, and central thickness were given. The analysis results show that the maximum residual polarization degree of output light from depolarizer is less than 2 %. The design requirements of polarization sensitivity is satisfied.

Effects of atmospheric turbulence on the imaging performance of optical system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Hamadani, Ali H.; Zainulabdeen, Faten Sh.; Karam, Ghada Sabah; Nasir, Eman Yousif; Al-Saedi, Abaas

2018-05-01

Turbulent effects are very complicated and still not entirely understood. Light waves from an astronomical object are distorted as they pass through the atmosphere. The refractive index fluctuations in the turbulent atmosphere induce an optical path difference (OPD) between different parts of the wavefront, distorted wavefronts produce low-quality images and degrade the image beyond the diffraction limit. In this paper the image degradation due to 2-D Gaussian atmospheric turbulence is considered in terms of the point spread function (PSF), and Strehl ratio as an image quality criteria for imaging systems with different apertures using the pupil function teqneque. A general expression for the degraded PSF in the case of circular and square apertures (with half diagonal = √{π/2 } , and 1) diffraction limited and defocused optical system is considered. Based on the derived formula, the effect of the Gaussian atmospheric turbulence on circular and square pupils has been studied with details. Numerical results show that the performance of optical systems with square aperture is more efficient at high levels of atmospheric turbulence than the other apertures.

Status of prototype of SG-III high-power solid-state laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Haiwu; Jing, Feng; Wei, Xiaofeng; Zheng, Wanguo; Zhang, Xiaomin; Sui, Zhan; Li, Mingzhong; Hu, Dongxia; He, Shaobo; Peng, Zhitao; Feng, Bin; Zhou, Hai; Guo, Liangfu; Li, Xiaoqun; Su, Jingqin; Zhao, Runchang; Yang, Dong; Zheng, Kuixing; Yuan, Xiaodong

2008-10-01

We are currently developing a large aperture neodymium-glass based high-power solid state laser, Shenguang-III (SG-III), which will be used to provide extreme conditions for high-energy-density physical experiments in China. As a baseline design, SG-III will be composed of 48 beams arranged in 6 bundles with each beam aperture of 40cm×40cm. A prototype of SG-III (TIL-Technical Integration experimental Line) was developed from 2000, and completed in 2007. TIL is composed of 8 beams (four in vertical and two in horizontal), with each square aperture of 30cm×30cm. After frequency tripling, TIL has delivered about 10kJ in 0.351 μm at 1 ns pulsewidth. As an operational laser facility, TIL has a beam divergence of 70 μrad (focus length of 2.2m, i.e., 30DL) and pointing accuracy of 30 μm (RMS), and meets the requirements of physical experiments.

The Monitoring Case of Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar with Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, H. Y.; Zhai, Q. P.; Chen, L.; Liu, Y. J.; Zhou, K. Q.; Wang, Y. S.; Dou, Y. D.

2017-09-01

The features of the landslide geological disaster are wide distribution, variety, high frequency, high intensity, destructive and so on. It has become a natural disaster with harmful and wide range of influence. The technology of ground-based synthetic aperture radar is a novel deformation monitoring technology developed in recent years. The features of the technology are large monitoring area, high accuracy, long distance without contact and so on. In this paper, fast ground-based synthetic aperture radar (Fast-GBSAR) based on frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) system is used to collect the data of Ma Liuzui landslide in Chongqing. The device can reduce the atmospheric errors caused by rapidly changing environment. The landslide deformation can be monitored in severe weather conditions (for example, fog) by Fast-GBSAR with acquisition speed up to 5 seconds per time. The data of Ma Liuzui landslide in Chongqing are analyzed in this paper. The result verifies that the device can monitor landslide deformation under severe weather conditions.

Reduction of heavy metals in residues from the dismantling of waste electrical and electronic equipment before incineration.

PubMed

Long, Yu-Yang; Feng, Yi-Jian; Cai, Si-Shi; Hu, Li-Fang; Shen, Dong-Sheng

2014-05-15

Residues disposal from the dismantling of waste electrical and electronic equipment are challenging because of the large waste volumes, degradation-resistance, low density and high heavy metal content. Incineration is advantageous for treating these residues but high heavy metal contents may exist in incinerator input and output streams. We have developed and studied a specialized heavy metal reduction process, which includes sieving and washing for treating residues before incineration. The preferable screen aperture for sieving was found to be 2.36mm (8 meshes) in this study; using this screen aperture resulted in the removal of approximately 47.2% Cu, 65.9% Zn, 26.5% Pb, 55.4% Ni and 58.8% Cd from the residues. Subsequent washing further reduces the heavy metal content in the residues larger than 2.36mm, with preferable conditions being 400rpm rotation speed, 5min washing duration and liquid-to-solid ratio of 25:1. The highest cumulative removal efficiencies of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cd after sieving and washing reached 81.1%, 61.4%, 75.8%, 97.2% and 72.7%, respectively. The combined sieving and washing process is environmentally friendly, can be used for the removal of heavy metals from the residues and has benefits in terms of heavy metal recycling. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Efficient color mixing through étendue conservation using freeform optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorgato, Simone; Mohedano, Rubén.; Chaves, Julio; Cvetkovic, Aleksandra; Hernández, Maikel; Benitez, Pablo; Miñano, Juan C.; Thienpont, Hugo; Duerr, Fabian

2015-08-01

Today's SSL illumination market shows a clear trend to high flux packages with higher efficiency and higher CRI, realized by means of multiple color chips and phosphors. Such light sources require the optics to provide both near- and far-field color mixing. This design problem is particularly challenging for collimated luminaries, since traditional diffusers cannot be employed without enlarging the exit aperture and reducing brightness. Furthermore, diffusers compromise the light output ratio (efficiency) of the lamps to which they are applied. A solution, based on Köhler integration, consisting of a spherical cap comprising spherical microlenses on both its interior and exterior sides was presented in 2012. The diameter of this so-called Shell-Mixer was 3 times that of the chip array footprint. A new version of the Shell-Mixer, based on the Edge Ray Principle and conservation of etendue, where neither the outer shape of the cap nor the surfaces of the lenses are constrained to spheres or 2D Cartesian ovals will be shown in this work. The new shell is freeform, only twice as large as the original chip-array and equals the original model in terms of color uniformity, brightness and efficiency.

Near-field microscopy with a microfabricated solid immersion lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fletcher, Daniel Alden

2001-07-01

Diffraction of focused light prevents optical microscopes from resolving features in air smaller than half the wavelength, λ Spatial resolution can be improved by passing light through a sub-wavelength metal aperture scanned close to a sample, but aperture-based probes suffer from low optical throughput, typically below 10-4. An alternate and more efficient technique is solid immersion microscopy in which light is focused through a high refractive index Solid Immersion Lens (SIL). This work describes the fabrication, modeling, and use of a microfabricated SIL to obtain spatial resolution better than the diffraction limit in air with high optical throughput for infrared applications. SILs on the order of 10 μm in diameter are fabricated from single-crystal silicon and integrated onto silicon cantilevers with tips for scanning. We measure a focused spot size of λ/5 with optical throughput better than 10-1 at a wavelength of λ = 9.3 μm. Spatial resolution is improved to λ/10 with metal apertures fabricated directly on the tip of the silicon SIL. Microlenses have reduced spherical aberration and better transparency than large lenses but cannot be made arbitrarily small and still focus. We model the advantages and limitations of focusing in lenses close to the wavelength in diameter using an extension of Mie theory. We also investigate a new contrast mechanism unique to microlenses resulting from the decrease in field-of-view with lens diameter. This technique is shown to achieve λ/4 spatial resolution. We explore applications of the microfabricated silicon SIL for high spatial resolution thermal microscopy and biological spectroscopy. Thermal radiation is collected through the SIL from a heated surface with spatial resolution four times better than that of a diffraction- limited infrared microscope. Using a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer, we observe absorption peaks in bacteria cells positioned at the focus of the silicon SIL.

CAFNA{reg{underscore}sign}, coded aperture fast neutron analysis for contraband detection: Preliminary results

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, L.; Lanza, R.C.

1999-12-01

The authors have developed a near field coded aperture imaging system for use with fast neutron techniques as a tool for the detection of contraband and hidden explosives through nuclear elemental analysis. The technique relies on the prompt gamma rays produced by fast neutron interactions with the object being examined. The position of the nuclear elements is determined by the location of the gamma emitters. For existing fast neutron techniques, in Pulsed Fast Neutron Analysis (PFNA), neutrons are used with very low efficiency; in Fast Neutron Analysis (FNS), the sensitivity for detection of the signature gamma rays is very low.more » For the Coded Aperture Fast Neutron Analysis (CAFNA{reg{underscore}sign}) the authors have developed, the efficiency for both using the probing fast neutrons and detecting the prompt gamma rays is high. For a probed volume of n{sup 3} volume elements (voxels) in a cube of n resolution elements on a side, they can compare the sensitivity with other neutron probing techniques. As compared to PFNA, the improvement for neutron utilization is n{sup 2}, where the total number of voxels in the object being examined is n{sup 3}. Compared to FNA, the improvement for gamma-ray imaging is proportional to the total open area of the coded aperture plane; a typical value is n{sup 2}/2, where n{sup 2} is the number of total detector resolution elements or the number of pixels in an object layer. It should be noted that the actual signal to noise ratio of a system depends also on the nature and distribution of background events and this comparison may reduce somewhat the effective sensitivity of CAFNA. They have performed analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and preliminary experiments using low and high energy gamma-ray sources. The results show that a high sensitivity 3-D contraband imaging and detection system can be realized by using CAFNA.« less

Vacuum insulation of the high energy negative ion source for fusion application

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kojima, A.; Hanada, M.; Inoue, T.

2012-02-15

Vacuum insulation on a large size negative ion accelerator with multiple extraction apertures and acceleration grids for fusion application was experimentally examined and designed. In the experiment, vacuum insulation characteristics were investigated in the JT-60 negative ion source with >1000 apertures on the grid with the surface area of {approx}2 m{sup 2}. The sustainable voltages varied with a square root of the gap lengths between the grids, and decreased with number of the apertures and with the surface area of the grids. Based on the obtained results, the JT-60SA (super advanced) negative ion source is designed to produce 22 A,more » 500 keV D{sup -} ion beams for 100 s.« less

A Novel Reflector/Reflectarray Antenna: An Enabling Technology for NASA's Dual-Frequency ACE Radar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Racette, Paul E.; Heymsfield, Gerald; Li, Lihua; Cooley, Michael E.; Park, Richard; Stenger, Peter

2011-01-01

This paper describes a novel dual-frequency shared aperture Ka/W-band antenna design that enables wide-swath Imaging via electronic scanning at Ka-band and Is specifically applicable to NASA's Aerosol, Cloud and Ecosystems (ACE) mission. The innovative antenna design minimizes size and weight via use of a shared aperture and builds upon NASA's investments in large-aperture reflectors and high technology-readiness-level (TRL) W-band radar architectures. The antenna is comprised of a primary cylindrical reflector/reflectarray surface illuminated by a fixed W-band feed and a Ka-band Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) line feed. The reflectarray surface provides beam focusing at W-band, but is transparent at Ka-band.

Scattering Solar Thermal Concentrators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Giebink, Noel C.

2015-01-31

This program set out to explore a scattering-based approach to concentrate sunlight with the aim of improving collector field reliability and of eliminating wind loading and gross mechanical movement through the use of a stationary collection optic. The approach is based on scattering sunlight from the focal point of a fixed collection optic into the confined modes of a sliding planar waveguide, where it is transported to stationary tubular heat transfer elements located at the edges. Optical design for the first stage of solar concentration, which entails focusing sunlight within a plane over a wide range of incidence angles (>120more » degree full field of view) at fixed tilt, led to the development of a new, folded-path collection optic that dramatically out-performs the current state-of-the-art in scattering concentration. Rigorous optical simulation and experimental testing of this collection optic have validated its performance. In the course of this work, we also identified an opportunity for concentrating photovoltaics involving the use of high efficiency microcells made in collaboration with partners at the University of Illinois. This opportunity exploited the same collection optic design as used for the scattering solar thermal concentrator and was therefore pursued in parallel. This system was experimentally demonstrated to achieve >200x optical concentration with >70% optical efficiency over a full day by tracking with <1 cm of lateral movement at fixed latitude tilt. The entire scattering concentrator waveguide optical system has been simulated, tested, and assembled at small scale to verify ray tracing models. These models were subsequently used to predict the full system optical performance at larger, deployment scale ranging up to >1 meter aperture width. Simulations at an aperture widths less than approximately 0.5 m with geometric gains ~100x predict an overall optical efficiency in the range 60-70% for angles up to 50 degrees from normal. However, the concentrator optical efficiency was found to decrease significantly with increasing aperture width beyond 0.5 m due to parasitic waveguide out-coupling loss and low-level absorption that become dominant at larger scale. A heat transfer model was subsequently implemented to predict collector fluid heat gain and outlet temperature as a function of flow rate using the optical model as a flux input. It was found that the aperture width size limitation imposed by the optical efficiency characteristics of the waveguide limits the absolute optical power delivered to the heat transfer element per unit length. As compared to state-of-the-art parabolic trough CPV system aperture widths approaching 5 m, this limitation leads to an approximate factor of order of magnitude increase in heat transfer tube length to achieve the same heat transfer fluid outlet temperature. The conclusion of this work is that scattering solar thermal concentration cannot be implemented at the scale and efficiency required to compete with the performance of current parabolic trough CSP systems. Applied within the alternate context of CPV, however, the results of this work have likely opened up a transformative new path that enables quasi-static, high efficiency CPV to be implemented on rooftops in the form factor of traditional fixed-panel photovoltaics.« less

Simultaneous delivery time and aperture shape optimization for the volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatment planning problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahnam, Mehdi; Gendreau, Michel; Lahrichi, Nadia; Rousseau, Louis-Martin

2017-07-01

In this paper, we propose a novel heuristic algorithm for the volumetric-modulated arc therapy treatment planning problem, optimizing the trade-off between delivery time and treatment quality. We present a new mixed integer programming model in which the multi-leaf collimator leaf positions, gantry speed, and dose rate are determined simultaneously. Our heuristic is based on column generation; the aperture configuration is modeled in the columns and the dose distribution and time restriction in the rows. To reduce the number of voxels and increase the efficiency of the master model, we aggregate similar voxels using a clustering technique. The efficiency of the algorithm and the treatment quality are evaluated on a benchmark clinical prostate cancer case. The computational results show that a high-quality treatment is achievable using a four-thread CPU. Finally, we analyze the effects of the various parameters and two leaf-motion strategies.

Technique for positioning hologram for balancing large data capacity with fast readout

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimada, Ken-ichi; Hosaka, Makoto; Yamazaki, Kazuyoshi; Onoe, Shinsuke; Ide, Tatsuro

2017-09-01

The technical difficulty of balancing large data capacity with a high data transfer rate in holographic data storage systems (HDSSs) is significantly high because of tight tolerances for physical perturbation. From a system margin perspective in terabyte-class HDSSs, the positioning error of a holographic disc should be within about 10 µm to ensure high readout quality. Furthermore, fine control of the positioning should be accomplished within a time frame of about 10 ms for a high data transfer rate of the Gbps class, while a conventional method based on servo control of spindle or sled motors can rarely satisfy the requirement. In this study, a new compensation method for the effect of positioning error, which precisely controls the positioning of a Nyquist aperture instead of a holographic disc, has been developed. The method relaxes the markedly low positional tolerance of a holographic disc. Moreover, owing to the markedly light weight of the aperture, positioning control within the required time frame becomes feasible.

SiPM electro-optical detection system noise suppression method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bi, Xiangli; Yang, Suhui; Hu, Tao; Song, Yiheng

2014-11-01

In this paper, the single photon detection principle of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) device is introduced. The main noise factors that infect the sensitivity of the electro-optical detection system are analyzed, including background light noise, detector dark noise, preamplifier noise and signal light noise etc. The Optical, electrical and thermodynamic methods are used to suppress the SiPM electro-optical detection system noise, which improved the response sensitivity of the detector. Using SiPM optoelectronic detector with a even high sensitivity, together with small field large aperture optical system, high cutoff narrow bandwidth filters, low-noise operational amplifier circuit, the modular design of functional circuit, semiconductor refrigeration technology, greatly improved the sensitivity of optical detection system, reduced system noise and achieved long-range detection of weak laser radiation signal. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed methods are reasonable and efficient.

Technology gap assessment for a future large-aperture ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman; Shaklan, Stuart; Stahl, H. Philip; Stahle, Carl M.; Thronson, Harley

2016-10-01

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) team identified five key technology areas to enable candidate architectures for a future large-aperture ultraviolet/optical/infrared (LUVOIR) space observatory envisioned by the NASA Astrophysics 30-year roadmap, "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions." The science goals of ATLAST address a broad range of astrophysical questions from early galaxy and star formation to the processes that contributed to the formation of life on Earth, combining general astrophysics with direct-imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets. The key technology areas are internal coronagraphs, starshades (or external occulters), ultra-stable large-aperture telescope systems, detectors, and mirror coatings. For each technology area, we define best estimates of required capabilities, current state-of-the-art performance, and current technology readiness level (TRL), thus identifying the current technology gap. We also report on current, planned, or recommended efforts to develop each technology to TRL 5.

Initial Technology Assessment for the Large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Feinberg, Lee D.; France, Kevin; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Schiminovich, David

2016-01-01

The NASA Astrophysics Divisions 30-Year Roadmap prioritized a future large-aperture space telescope operating in the ultra-violet-optical-infrared wavelength regime. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy envisioned a similar observatory, the High Definition Space Telescope. And a multi-institution group also studied the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope. In all three cases, a broad science case is outlined, combining general astrophysics with the search for bio-signatures via direct-imaging and spectroscopic characterization of habitable exo-planets. We present an initial technology assessment that enables such an observatory that is currently being studied for the 2020 Decadal Survey by the Large UV-Optical Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor Science and Technology Definition Team. We present here the technology prioritization for the 2016 technology cycle and define the required technology capabilities and current state-of-the-art performance. Current, planned, and recommended technology development efforts are also reported.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kisaki, M., E-mail: kisaki.masashi@LHD.nifs.ac.jp; Ikeda, K.; Osakabe, M.

To improve the performance of negative-ion based neutral beam injection on the Large Helical Device, the accelerator was modified on the basis of numerical investigations. A field limiting ring was installed on the upper side of a grounded grid (GG) support and a multi-slot GG was adopted instead of a multi-aperture GG. As a result, the voltage holding capability is improved and the heat load on the GG decreases by 40%. In addition, the arc efficiency is improved significantly only by replacing the GG.

Electro-Mechanical Simulation of a Large Aperture MOEMS Fabry-Perot Tunable Filter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuhn, Jonathan L.; Barclay, Richard B.; Greenhouse, Matthew A.; Mott, D. Brent; Satyapal, Shobita; Powers, Edward I. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

We are developing a micro-machined electrostatically actuated Fabry-Perot tunable filter with a large clear aperture for application in high through-put wide-field imaging spectroscopy and lidar systems. In the first phase of this effort, we are developing key components based on coupled electro-mechanical simulations. In particular, the movable etalon plate design leverages high coating stresses to yield a flat surface in drum-head tension over a large diameter (12.5 mm). In this approach, the cylindrical silicon movable plate is back etched, resulting in an optically coated membrane that is suspended from a thick silicon support ring. Understanding the interaction between the support ring, suspended membrane, and coating is critical to developing surfaces that are flat to within stringent etalon requirements. In this work, we present the simulations used to develop the movable plate, spring suspension system, and electrostatic actuation mechanism. We also present results from tests of fabricated proof of concept components.

An efficient method for the fusion of light field refocused images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yingqian; Yang, Jungang; Xiao, Chao; An, Wei

2018-04-01

Light field cameras have drawn much attention due to the advantage of post-capture adjustments such as refocusing after exposure. The depth of field in refocused images is always shallow because of the large equivalent aperture. As a result, a large number of multi-focus images are obtained and an all-in-focus image is demanded. Consider that most multi-focus image fusion algorithms do not particularly aim at large numbers of source images and traditional DWT-based fusion approach has serious problems in dealing with lots of multi-focus images, causing color distortion and ringing effect. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an efficient multi-focus image fusion method based on stationary wavelet transform (SWT), which can deal with a large quantity of multi-focus images with shallow depth of fields. We compare SWT-based approach with DWT-based approach on various occasions. And the results demonstrate that the proposed method performs much better both visually and quantitatively.

Quantify fluid saturation in fractures by light transmission technique and its application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, S.; Zhang, Y.; Wu, J.

2016-12-01

The Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs) migration in transparent and rough fractures with variable aperture was studied experimentally using a light transmission technique. The migration of trichloroethylene (TCE) in variable-aperture fractures (20 cm wide x 32.5 cm high) showed that a TCE blob moved downward with snap-off events in four packs with apertures from 100 μm to 1000 μm, and that the pattern presented a single and tortuous cluster with many fingers in a pack with two apertures of 100 μm and 500 μm. The variable apertures in the fractures were measured by light transmission. A light intensity-saturation (LIS) model based on light transmission was used to quantify DNAPL saturation in the fracture system. Known volumes of TCE, were added to the chamber and these amounts were compared to the results obtained by LIS model. Strong correlation existed between results obtained based on LIS model and the known volumes of T CE. Sensitivity analysis showed that the aperture was more sensitive than parameter C2 of LIS model. LIS model was also used to measure dyed TCE saturation in air sparging experiment. The results showed that the distribution and amount of TCE significantly influenced the efficient of air sparging. The method developed here give a way to quantify fluid saturation in two-phase system in fractured medium, and provide a non-destructive, non-intrusive tool to investigate changes in DNAPL architecture and flow characteristics in laboratory experiments. Keywords: light transmission, fluid saturation, fracture, variable aperture AcknowledgementsFunding for this research from NSFC Project No. 41472212.

The solid angle (geometry factor) for a spherical surface source and an arbitrary detector aperture

DOE PAGES

Favorite, Jeffrey A.

2016-01-13

It is proven that the solid angle (or geometry factor, also called the geometrical efficiency) for a spherically symmetric outward-directed surface source with an arbitrary radius and polar angle distribution and an arbitrary detector aperture is equal to the solid angle for an isotropic point source located at the center of the spherical surface source and the same detector aperture.

Radiometric calibration method for large aperture infrared system with broad dynamic range.

PubMed

Sun, Zhiyuan; Chang, Songtao; Zhu, Wei

2015-05-20

Infrared radiometric measurements can acquire important data for missile defense systems. When observation is carried out by ground-based infrared systems, a missile is characterized by long distance, small size, and large variation of radiance. Therefore, the infrared systems should be manufactured with a larger aperture to enhance detection ability and calibrated at a broader dynamic range to extend measurable radiance. Nevertheless, the frequently used calibration methods demand an extended-area blackbody with broad dynamic range or a huge collimator for filling the system's field stop, which would greatly increase manufacturing costs and difficulties. To overcome this restriction, a calibration method based on amendment of inner and outer calibration is proposed. First, the principles and procedures of this method are introduced. Then, a shifting strategy of infrared systems for measuring targets with large fluctuations of infrared radiance is put forward. Finally, several experiments are performed on a shortwave infrared system with Φ400  mm aperture. The results indicate that the proposed method cannot only ensure accuracy of calibration but have the advantage of low cost, low power, and high motility. Hence, it is an effective radiometric calibration method in the outfield.

Data Intensive Systems (DIS) Benchmark Performance Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-08-01

models assumed by today’s conventional architectures. Such applications include model- based Automatic Target Recognition (ATR), synthetic aperture...radar (SAR) codes, large scale dynamic databases/battlefield integration, dynamic sensor- based processing, high-speed cryptanalysis, high speed...distributed interactive and data intensive simulations, data-oriented problems characterized by pointer- based and other highly irregular data structures

Novel In-Space Manufacturing Concepts for the Development of Large Space Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mooney, James T.; Reardon, Patrick; Gregory Don; Manning, Andrew; Blackmon, Jim; Howsman, Tom; Williams, Philip; Brantley, Whitt; Rakoczy, John; Herren, Kenneth

2006-01-01

There is a continuous demand for larger, lighter, and higher quality telescopes. Over the past several decades, we have seen the evolution from launchable 2 meter-class telescopes (such as Hubble), to today s demand for deployable 6 meter-class telescopes (such as JWST), to tomorrow s need for up to 150 meter-class telescopes. As the apertures continue to grow, it will become much more difficult and expensive to launch assembled telescope structures. To address this issue, we are seeing the emergence of new novel structural concepts, such as inflatable structures and membrane optics. While these structural concepts do show promise, it is very difficult to achieve and maintain high surface figure quality. Another potential solution to develop large space telescopes is to move the fabrication facility into space and launch the raw materials. In this paper we present initial in-space manufacturing concepts to enable the development of large telescopes. This includes novel approaches for the fabrication of both the optical elements and the telescope support structure. We will also discuss potential optical designs for large space telescopes and describe their relation to the fabrication methods. These concepts are being developed to meet the demanding requirements of DARPA s LASSO (Large Aperture Space Surveillance Optic) program which currently requires a 150 meter optical aperture with a 17 degree field of view.

Design and Use of Microphone Directional Arrays for Aeroacoustic Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Humphreys, William M., Jr.; Brooks, Thomas F.; Hunter, William W., Jr.; Meadows, Kristine R.

1998-01-01

An overview of the development of two microphone directional arrays for aeroacoustic testing is presented. These arrays were specifically developed to measure airframe noise in the NASA Langley Quiet Flow Facility. A large aperture directional array using 35 flush-mounted microphones was constructed to obtain high resolution noise localization maps around airframe models. This array possesses a maximum diagonal aperture size of 34 inches. A unique logarithmic spiral layout design was chosen for the targeted frequency range of 2-30 kHz. Complementing the large array is a small aperture directional array, constructed to obtain spectra and directivity information from regions on the model. This array, possessing 33 microphones with a maximum diagonal aperture size of 7.76 inches, is easily moved about the model in elevation and azimuth. Custom microphone shading algorithms have been developed to provide a frequency- and position-invariant sensing area from 10-40 kHz with an overall targeted frequency range for the array of 5-60 kHz. Both arrays are employed in acoustic measurements of a 6 percent of full scale airframe model consisting of a main element NACA 632-215 wing section with a 30 percent chord half-span flap. Representative data obtained from these measurements is presented, along with details of the array calibration and data post-processing procedures.

An Efficient and Versatile Means for Assembling and Manufacturing Systems in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dorsey, John T.; Doggett, William R.; Hafley, Robert A.; Komendera, Erik; Correll, Nikolaus; King, Bruce

2012-01-01

Within NASA Space Science, Exploration and the Office of Chief Technologist, there are Grand Challenges and advanced future exploration, science and commercial mission applications that could benefit significantly from large-span and large-area structural systems. Of particular and persistent interest to the Space Science community is the desire for large (in the 10- 50 meter range for main aperture diameter) space telescopes that would revolutionize space astronomy. Achieving these systems will likely require on-orbit assembly, but previous approaches for assembling large-scale telescope truss structures and systems in space have been perceived as very costly because they require high precision and custom components. These components rely on a large number of mechanical connections and supporting infrastructure that are unique to each application. In this paper, a new assembly paradigm that mitigates these concerns is proposed and described. A new assembly approach, developed to implement the paradigm, is developed incorporating: Intelligent Precision Jigging Robots, Electron-Beam welding, robotic handling/manipulation, operations assembly sequence and path planning, and low precision weldable structural elements. Key advantages of the new assembly paradigm, as well as concept descriptions and ongoing research and technology development efforts for each of the major elements are summarized.

Electrostatically actuatable light modulating device

DOEpatents

Koehler, Dale R.

1991-01-01

The electrostatically actuatable light modulator utilizes an opaque substrate plate patterned with an array of aperture cells, the cells comprised of physically positionable dielectric shutters and electrostatic actuators. With incorporation of a light source and a viewing screen, a projection display system is effected. Inclusion of a color filter array aligned with the aperture cells accomplishes a color display. The system is realized in terms of a silicon based manufacturing technology allowing fabrication of a high resolution capability in a physically small device which with the utilization of included magnification optics allows both large and small projection displays.

JWST Point Spread Function Quality and Stability: Ground Testing, Integrated Modeling, and Space Validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McElwain, Michael; Van Gorkom, Kyle; Bowers, Charles W.; Carnahan, Timothy M.; Kimble, Randy A.; Knight, J. Scott; Lightsey, Paul; Maghami, Peiman G.; Mustelier, David; Niedner, Malcolm B.;

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST): Science Drivers, Technology Developments, and Synergies with Other Future Facilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Postman, Marc; Brown, Tom; Sembach, Kenneth; Giavalisco, Mauro; Traub, Wesley; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Calzetti, Daniela; Oegerle, William; Rich, R. Michael; Stahl, H. Philip;

Solar concentrator modules with silicone-on-glass Fresnel lens panels and multijunction cells.

PubMed

Rumyantsev, Valery D

2010-04-26

High-efficiency multijunction (MJ) solar cells, being very expensive to manufacture, should only be used in combination with solar concentrators in terrestrial applications. An essential cost reduction of electric power produced by photovoltaic (PV) installations with MJ cells, may be expected by the creation of highly-effective, but inexpensive, elements for optical concentration and sun tracking. This article is an overview of the corresponding approach under development at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute. The approach to R&D of the solar PV modules is based on the concepts of sunlight concentration by small-aperture area Fresnel lenses and "all-glass" module design. The small-aperture area lenses are arranged as a panel with silicone-on-glass structure where the glass plate serves as the front surface of a module. In turn, high-efficiency InGaP/(In)GaAs/Ge cells are arranged on a rear module panel mounted on a glass plate which functions as a heat sink and integrated protective cover for the cells. The developed PV modules and sun trackers are characterized by simple design, and are regarded as the prototypes for further commercialization.

Multi-aperture all-fiber active coherent beam combining for free-space optical communication receivers.

PubMed

Yang, Yan; Geng, Chao; Li, Feng; Huang, Guan; Li, Xinyang

2017-10-30

Multi-aperture receiver with optical combining architecture is an effective approach to overcome the turbulent atmosphere effect on the performance of the free-space optical (FSO) communications, in which how to combine the multiple laser beams received by the sub-apertures efficiently is one of the key technologies. In this paper, we focus on the combining module based on fiber couplers, and propose the all-fiber coherent beam combining (CBC) with two architectures by using active phase locking. To validate the feasibility of the proposed combining module, corresponding experiments and simulations on the CBC of four laser beams are carried out. The experimental results show that the phase differences among the input beams can be compensated and the combining efficiency can be stably promoted by active phase locking in CBC with both of the two architectures. The simulation results show that the combining efficiency fluctuates when turbulent atmosphere is considered, and the effectiveness of the combining module decreases as the turbulence increases. We believe that the combining module proposed in this paper has great potential, and the results can provide significant advices for researchers when building such a multi-aperture receiver with optical combining architecture for FSO commutation systems.

Numerical aperture limits on efficient ball lens coupling of laser diodes to single-mode fibers with defocus to balance spherical aberration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, R. Gale

1994-01-01

The potential capabilities and limitations of single ball lenses for coupling laser diode radiation to single-mode optical fibers have been analyzed; parameters important to optical communications were specifically considered. These parameters included coupling efficiency, effective numerical apertures, lens radius, lens refractive index, wavelength, magnification in imaging the laser diode on the fiber, and defocus to counterbalance spherical aberration of the lens. Limiting numerical apertures in object and image space were determined under the constraint that the lens perform to the Rayleigh criterion of 0.25-wavelength (Strehl ratio = 0.80). The spherical aberration-defocus balance to provide an optical path difference of 0.25 wavelength units was shown to define a constant coupling efficiency (i.e., 0.56). The relative numerical aperture capabilities of the ball lens were determined for a set of wavelengths and associated fiber-core diameters of particular interest for single-mode fiber-optic communication. The results support general continuing efforts in the optical fiber communications industry to improve coupling links within such systems with emphasis on manufacturing simplicity, system packaging flexibility, relaxation of assembly alignment tolerances, cost reduction of opto-electronic components and long term reliability and stability.

Development of design technique for vacuum insulation in large size multi-aperture multi-grid accelerator for nuclear fusion.

PubMed

Kojima, A; Hanada, M; Tobari, H; Nishikiori, R; Hiratsuka, J; Kashiwagi, M; Umeda, N; Yoshida, M; Ichikawa, M; Watanabe, K; Yamano, Y; Grisham, L R

2016-02-01

Design techniques for the vacuum insulation have been developed in order to realize a reliable voltage holding capability of multi-aperture multi-grid (MAMuG) accelerators for fusion application. In this method, the nested multi-stage configuration of the MAMuG accelerator can be uniquely designed to satisfy the target voltage within given boundary conditions. The evaluation of the voltage holding capabilities of each acceleration stages was based on the previous experimental results about the area effect and the multi-aperture effect. Since the multi-grid effect was found to be the extension of the area effect by the total facing area this time, the total voltage holding capability of the multi-stage can be estimated from that per single stage by assuming the stage with the highest electric field, the total facing area, and the total apertures. By applying these consideration, the analysis on the 3-stage MAMuG accelerator for JT-60SA agreed well with the past gap-scan experiments with an accuracy of less than 10% variation, which demonstrated the high reliability to design MAMuG accelerators and also multi-stage high voltage bushings.

Development of design technique for vacuum insulation in large size multi-aperture multi-grid accelerator for nuclear fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kojima, A., E-mail: kojima.atsushi@jaea.go.jp; Hanada, M.; Tobari, H.

Design techniques for the vacuum insulation have been developed in order to realize a reliable voltage holding capability of multi-aperture multi-grid (MAMuG) accelerators for fusion application. In this method, the nested multi-stage configuration of the MAMuG accelerator can be uniquely designed to satisfy the target voltage within given boundary conditions. The evaluation of the voltage holding capabilities of each acceleration stages was based on the previous experimental results about the area effect and the multi-aperture effect. Since the multi-grid effect was found to be the extension of the area effect by the total facing area this time, the total voltagemore » holding capability of the multi-stage can be estimated from that per single stage by assuming the stage with the highest electric field, the total facing area, and the total apertures. By applying these consideration, the analysis on the 3-stage MAMuG accelerator for JT-60SA agreed well with the past gap-scan experiments with an accuracy of less than 10% variation, which demonstrated the high reliability to design MAMuG accelerators and also multi-stage high voltage bushings.« less

The effect of aberrated recording beams on reflecting Bragg gratings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

SeGall, Marc; Ott, Daniel; Divliansky, Ivan; Glebov, Leonid B.

2013-03-01

The effect of aberrations present in the recording beams of a holographic setup is discussed regarding the period and spectral response of a reflecting volume Bragg grating. Imperfect recording beams result in spatially varying resonant wavelengths and the side lobes of the spectrum are washed out. Asymmetrical spectra, spectral broadening, and a reduction in peak diffraction efficiency may also be present, though these effects are less significant for gratings with wider spectral widths. Reflecting Bragg gratings (RBGs) are used as elements in a variety of applications including spectral beam combining1,2, mode locking3,4, longitudinal and transverse mode selection in lasers5,6, and sensing7,8. For applications requiring narrow spectral selectivity9, or large apertures10, these gratings must have a uniform period throughout the length of the recording medium, which may be on the order of millimeters. However, when using typical recording techniques such as two-beam interference for large aperture gratings and phase-mask recording of fiber gratings, aberrations from the optical elements in the system result in an imperfect grating structure11-13. In this paper we consider the effects of aberrations on large aperture gratings recorded in thick media using the two-beam interference technique. Previous works in analyzing the effects of aberrations have considered the effects of aberrations in a single recording plane where the beams perfectly overlap. Such an approach is valid for thin media (on the order of tens of microns), but for thick recording media (on the order of several millimeters) there will be a significant shift in the positions of the beams relative to each other as they traverse the recording medium. Therefore, the fringe pattern produced will not be constant throughout the grating if one or both beams have a non-uniform wavefront. Such non-uniform gratings may have a wider spectral width, a shifted resonant wavelength, or other problems. It is imperative therefore to know what the effects of aberrations will have on the properties of the RBGs. Thus, in this paper we consider the imperfect fringe pattern caused by the recording beams and its effect on the diffraction efficiency and spectral profile of the recorded reflecting volume Bragg gratings.

High-irradiance reactor design with practical unfolded optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feuermann, Daniel; Gordon, Jeffrey M.

2008-08-01

In the design of high-temperature chemical reactors and furnaces, as well as high-radiance light projection applications, reconstituting the ultra-high radiance of short-arc discharge lamps at maximum radiative efficiency constitutes a significant challenge. The difficulty is exacerbated by the high numerical aperture necessary at both the source and the target. Separating the optic from both the light source and the target allows practical operation, control, monitoring, diagnostics and maintenance. We present near-field unfolded aplanatic optics as a feasible solution. The concept is illustrated with a design customized to a high-temperature chemical reactor for nano-material synthesis, driven by an ultra-bright xenon short-arc discharge lamp, with near-unity numerical aperture for both light input and light output. We report preliminary optical measurements for the first prototype, which constitutes a double-ellipsoid solution. We also propose compound unfolded aplanats that collect the full angular extent of lamp emission (in lieu of light recycling optics) and additionally permit nearly full-circumference irradiation of the reactor.

Efficient and reusable polyamide-56 nanofiber/nets membrane with bimodal structures for air filtration.

PubMed

Liu, Bowen; Zhang, Shichao; Wang, Xueli; Yu, Jianyong; Ding, Bin

2015-11-01

Nanofibrous media that both possess high airborne particle interception efficiency and robust air permeability would have broad technological implications for areas ranging from individual protection and industrial security to environmental governance; however, creating such filtration media has proved extremely challenging. Here we report a strategy to construct the bio-based polyamide-56 nanofiber/nets (PA-56 NFN) membranes with bimodal structures for effective air filtration via one-step electrospinning/netting. The PA-56 membranes are composed of completely covered two-dimensional (2D) ultrathin (∼20 nm) nanonets which are optimized by facilely regulating the solution concentration, and the bonded scaffold fibers constructed cavity structures which are synchronously created by using the CH3COOH inspiration. With integrated properties of small aperture, high porosity, and bonded scaffold, the resulting PA-56 NFN membranes exhibit high filtration efficiency of 99.995%, low pressure drop of 111 Pa, combined with large dust holding capacity of 49 g/m(2) and dust-cleaning regeneration ability, for filtrating ultrafine airborne particles in the most safe manner involving sieving principle and surface filtration. The successful synthesis of PA-56 NFN medium would not only make it a promising candidate for air filtration, but also provide new insights into the design and development of nanonet-based bimodal structures for various applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High-contrast terahertz wave modulation by gated graphene enhanced by extraordinary transmission through ring apertures.

PubMed

Gao, Weilu; Shu, Jie; Reichel, Kimberly; Nickel, Daniel V; He, Xiaowei; Shi, Gang; Vajtai, Robert; Ajayan, Pulickel M; Kono, Junichiro; Mittleman, Daniel M; Xu, Qianfan

2014-03-12

Gate-controllable transmission of terahertz (THz) radiation makes graphene a promising material for making high-speed THz wave modulators. However, to date, graphene-based THz modulators have exhibited only small on/off ratios due to small THz absorption in single-layer graphene. Here we demonstrate a ∼50% amplitude modulation of THz waves with gated single-layer graphene by the use of extraordinary transmission through metallic ring apertures placed right above the graphene layer. The extraordinary transmission induced ∼7 times near-filed enhancement of THz absorption in graphene. These results promise complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible THz modulators with tailored operation frequencies, large on/off ratios, and high speeds, ideal for applications in THz communications, imaging, and sensing.

First Test Results of the 150 mm Aperture IR Quadrupole Models for the High Luminosity LHC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ambrosio, G.; Chlachidze, G.; Wanderer, P.

2016-10-06

The High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC at CERN will use large aperture (150 mm) quadrupole magnets to focus the beams at the interaction points. The high field in the coils requires Nb3Sn superconductor technology, which has been brought to maturity by the LHC Accelerator Re-search Program (LARP) over the last 10 years. The key design targets for the new IR quadrupoles were established in 2012, and fabrication of model magnets started in 2014. This paper discusses the results from the first single short coil test and from the first short quadrupole model test. Remaining challenges and plans to addressmore » them are also presented and discussed.« less

Spatial imaging of UV emission from Jupiter and Saturn

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clarke, J. T.; Moos, H. W.

1981-01-01

Spatial imaging with the IUE is accomplished both by moving one of the apertures in a series of exposures and within the large aperture in a single exposure. The image of the field of view subtended by the large aperture is focussed directly onto the detector camera face at each wavelength; since the spatial resolution of the instrument is 5 to 6 arc sec and the aperture extends 23.0 by 10.3 arc sec, imaging both parallel and perpendicular to dispersion is possible in a single exposure. The correction for the sensitivity variation along the slit at 1216 A is obtained from exposures of diffuse geocoronal H Ly alpha emission. The relative size of the aperture superimposed on the apparent discs of Jupiter and Saturn in typical observation is illustrated. By moving the planet image 10 to 20 arc sec along the major axis of the aperture (which is constrained to point roughly north-south) maps of the discs of these planets are obtained with 6 arc sec spatial resolution.

The impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality in digital microscope system.

PubMed

Ren, Liqiang; Li, Zheng; Li, Yuhua; Zheng, Bin; Li, Shibo; Chen, Xiaodong; Liu, Hong

2013-01-01

Optimizing operational parameters of the digital microscope system is an important technique to acquire high quality cytogenetic images and facilitate the process of karyotyping so that the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis can be improved. This study investigated the impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality and system working performance using a prototype digital microscope image scanning system. Both theoretical analysis and experimental validations through objectively evaluating a resolution test chart and subjectively observing large numbers of specimen were conducted. The results show that the optimal image quality and large depth of field (DOF) are simultaneously obtained when the numerical aperture of condenser is set as 60%-70% of the corresponding objective. Under this condition, more analyzable chromosomes and diagnostic information are obtained. As a result, the system shows higher working stability and less restriction for the implementation of algorithms such as autofocusing especially when the system is designed to achieve high throughput continuous image scanning. Although the above quantitative results were obtained using a specific prototype system under the experimental conditions reported in this paper, the presented evaluation methodologies can provide valuable guidelines for optimizing operational parameters in cytogenetic imaging using the high throughput continuous scanning microscopes in clinical practice.

A Large Aperture Fabry-Perot Tunable Filter Based On Micro Opto Electromechanical Systems Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenhouse, Matt; Mott, Brent; Powell, Dan; Barclay, Rich; Hsieh, Wen-Ting

2002-01-01

A research and development effort sponsored by the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC) is focused on applying Micro Opto Electromechanical Systems (MOEMS) technology to create a miniature Fabry-Perot tunable etalon for space and ground-based near infrared imaging spectrometer applications. Unlike previous devices developed for small-aperture telecommunications systems, the GSFC research is directed toward a novel 12 - 40 mm aperture for astrophysical studies, including emission line imaging of galaxies and nebulae, and multi-spectral redshift surveys in the 1.1 - 2.3 micron wavelength region. The MOEMS design features integrated electrostatic scanning of the 11-micron optical gap, and capacitance micrometry for closed loop control of parallelism within a 10-nm tolerance. The low thermal mass and inertia inherent in MOEMS devices allows for rapid cooling to the proposed 30 K operating temperature, and high frequency response. Achieving the proposed 6-nm aperture flatness (with an effective finesse of 50) represents the primary technical challenge in the current 12-mm prototype.

Baseline Receiver Concept for a Next Generation Very Large Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srikanth, Sivasankaran; Wes Grammer, Silver Sturgis, Rob Selina

2018-01-01

The Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is envisioned to be an interferometric array with 10 times the effective collecting area and spatial resolution as the current VLA, operating over a frequency range of 1.2-116 GHz. Achieving these goals will require 214 antennas of nominal 18m diameter, on baselines of 300km. Maximizing sensitivity for each receiver band, while also minimizing the overall operating cost are the primary design goals. Therefore, receivers and feeds will be cryogenically cooled, with multiple bands integrated into a common cryostat to the greatest extent possible. Using feed designs that yield broad bandwidths and high aperture efficiencies are key to meeting these goals.The proposed receiver configuration will be implemented as six independent bands, each with its own feed. The upper five bands will be integrated into a single compact cryostat, while the lowest-frequency band occupies a second cryostat of similar volume and mass. The lowest-band feed is cooled to 80K, while all other feeds are cooled to 20K.For optimum performance at the higher frequencies, waveguide-bandwidth (~1.66:1) receivers are proposed to cover 12.6 – 50.5 GHz and 70 – 116 GHz in four separate bands, integrated into a single cryostat. Excellent LNA noise performance is readily achievable, and using waveguide throughout the signal chain reduces losses and their associated noise contributions, without adding undue size or weight. An axially-corrugated conical feed horn with wide flare angle (~50degree half-angle), based on a design by G. Cortes and L. Baker, is being considered for these receivers.For continuous coverage between 1.2 – 12.6 GHz, waveguide or even octave-bandwidth receivers are not cost-effective, given the > 10:1 frequency range. For these bands, wideband (3.25:1) receivers mated to a Caltech-designed quad-ridge feed horn (QRFH) are proposed. These feeds are highly compact, and cryogenically cooled to reduce losses ahead of the LNAs. Aperture efficiency and LNA noise temperature may be somewhat less than optimum: however, there would be significant cost savings by effectively halving the number of receivers and cryostats required per antenna.

A Spherical Active Coded Aperture for 4π Gamma-ray Imaging

DOE PAGES

Hellfeld, Daniel; Barton, Paul; Gunter, Donald; ...

2017-09-22

Gamma-ray imaging facilitates the efficient detection, characterization, and localization of compact radioactive sources in cluttered environments. Fieldable detector systems employing active planar coded apertures have demonstrated broad energy sensitivity via both coded aperture and Compton imaging modalities. But, planar configurations suffer from a limited field-of-view, especially in the coded aperture mode. In order to improve upon this limitation, we introduce a novel design by rearranging the detectors into an active coded spherical configuration, resulting in a 4pi isotropic field-of-view for both coded aperture and Compton imaging. This work focuses on the low- energy coded aperture modality and the optimization techniquesmore » used to determine the optimal number and configuration of 1 cm 3 CdZnTe coplanar grid detectors on a 14 cm diameter sphere with 192 available detector locations.« less

Noncoherent Combination Of Optical-Heterodyne Outputs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Chien-Chung; Lesh, James R.

1990-01-01

In proposed scheme for reception of amplitude- or frequency-modulated signals transmitted optically through atmosphere, main receiver aperture divided into subapertures equipped with receivers, and outputs of receivers combined noncoherently. Multiple subaperture receivers used instead of attempting to focus all light from single large aperture onto one receiver. Outputs of receivers combined after demodulation. System will not perform as well as fully coherent system, but surpasses single-large-aperture system in presence of atmospheric turbulence. Offers superior performance in presence of distorted wavefront and/or imperfect receiver optics.

Single-particle dynamics in a nonlinear accelerator lattice: attaining a large tune spread with octupoles in IOTA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Antipov, S. A.; Nagaitsev, S.; Valishev, A.

2017-04-01

Fermilab is constructing the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) as the centerpiece of the Accelerator R&D Program towards high-intensity circular machines. One of the factors limiting the beam intensity in present circular accelerators is collective instabilities, which can be suppressed by a spread of betatron frequencies (tunes) through the Landau damping mechanism or by an external damper, if the instability is slow enough. The spread is usually created by octupole magnets, which introduce the tune dependence on the amplitude and, in some cases, by a chromatic spread (tune dependence on particle's momentum). The introduction of octupoles usually lead to amore » resonant behavior and a reduction of the dynamic aperture. One of the goals of the IOTA research program is to achieve a high betatron tune spread, while retaining a large dynamic aperture using conventional octupole magnets in a special but realistic accelerator configuration. In this report, we present results of computer simulations of an electron beam in the IOTA by particle tracking and the Frequency Map Analysis. The results show that the ring's octupole magnets can be configured to provide a betatron tune shift of 0.08 (for particles at large amplitudes) with the dynamical aperture of over 20 beam sigma for a 150-MeV electron beam. The influence of the synchrotron motion, lattice errors, and magnet imperfections is insignificant for the parameters and levels of tolerances set by the design of the ring. The described octupole insert could be beneficial for suppression of space-charge induced instabilities in high intensity machines.« less

Experimental investigation on the high-order modes in supercontinuum generation from step-index As-S fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Peng; Xue, Zugang; Tian, Youmei; Zhao, Zheming; Wang, Xunsi; Liu, Zijun; Zhang, Peiqing; Dai, Shixun; Nie, Qiuhua; Wang, Rongping

2018-06-01

Two kinds of step-index As-S fibers have been fabricated by an isolated extrusion method with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.52, but with different core size of 10 or 50 µm. With a femtosecond laser pumping, their supercontinnum (SC) generation spectra were recorded in order to testify the effect of high-order modes on SC generation. The spectra spanning from 1.0 to 6.7 µm and from 1.5 to 8.6 µm can be obtained in a 16-cm-long fiber with 10 µm-core diameter pumping by central wavelength of 2.9 and 4.0 µm, respectively. The results show that high-order modes would deplete the spectra spanning in red-shifting part. The SC generation in small-core fiber is much more efficient than that in large-core fiber. This is the first comparative investigation on the SC generation from the quasi single- and multi-mode ChG fibers under the same conditions.

The Applicability of Incoherent Array Processing to IMS Seismic Array Stations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gibbons, S. J.

2012-04-01

The seismic arrays of the International Monitoring System for the CTBT differ greatly in size and geometry, with apertures ranging from below 1 km to over 60 km. Large and medium aperture arrays with large inter-site spacings complicate the detection and estimation of high frequency phases since signals are often incoherent between sensors. Many such phases, typically from events at regional distances, remain undetected since pipeline algorithms often consider only frequencies low enough to allow coherent array processing. High frequency phases that are detected are frequently attributed qualitatively incorrect backazimuth and slowness estimates and are consequently not associated with the correct event hypotheses. This can lead to missed events both due to a lack of contributing phase detections and by corruption of event hypotheses by spurious detections. Continuous spectral estimation can be used for phase detection and parameter estimation on the largest aperture arrays, with phase arrivals identified as local maxima on beams of transformed spectrograms. The estimation procedure in effect measures group velocity rather than phase velocity and the ability to estimate backazimuth and slowness requires that the spatial extent of the array is large enough to resolve time-delays between envelopes with a period of approximately 4 or 5 seconds. The NOA, AKASG, YKA, WRA, and KURK arrays have apertures in excess of 20 km and spectrogram beamforming on these stations provides high quality slowness estimates for regional phases without additional post-processing. Seven arrays with aperture between 10 and 20 km (MJAR, ESDC, ILAR, KSRS, CMAR, ASAR, and EKA) can provide robust parameter estimates subject to a smoothing of the resulting slowness grids, most effectively achieved by convolving the measured slowness grids with the array response function for a 4 or 5 second period signal. The MJAR array in Japan recorded high SNR Pn signals for both the 2006 and 2009 North Korea nuclear tests but, due to signal incoherence, failed to contribute to the automatic event detections. It is demonstrated that the smoothed incoherent slowness estimates for the MJAR Pn phases for both tests indicate unambiguously the correct type of phase and a backazimuth estimate within 5 degrees of the great-circle backazimuth. The detection part of the algorithm is applicable to all IMS arrays, and spectrogram-based processing may offer a reduction in the false alarm rate for high frequency signals. Significantly, the local maxima of the scalar functions derived from the transformed spectrogram beams provide good estimates of the signal onset time. High frequency energy is of greater significance for lower event magnitudes and in, for example, the cavity decoupling detection evasion scenario. There is a need to characterize propagation paths with low attenuation of high frequency energy and situations in which parameter estimation on array stations fails.

Quasi-optical grids with thin rectangular patch/aperture elements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, Te-Kao

1993-01-01

Theoretical analysis is presented for an efficient and accurate performance evaluation of quasi-optical grids comprised of thin rectangular patch/aperture elements with/without a dielectric substrate/superstrate. The convergence rate of this efficient technique is improved by an order of magnitude with the approximate edge conditions incorporated in the basis functions of the integral equation solution. Also presented are the interesting applications of this efficient analytical technique to the design and performance evaluation of the coupling grids and beam splitters in the optical systems as well as thermal protection sunshields used in the communication systems of satellites and spacecrafts.

Electromagnetic behavior of spatial terahertz wave modulators based on reconfigurable micromirror gratings in Littrow configuration.

PubMed

Kappa, Jan; Schmitt, Klemens M; Rahm, Marco

2017-08-21

Efficient, high speed spatial modulators with predictable performance are a key element in any coded aperture terahertz imaging system. For spectroscopy, the modulators must also provide a broad modulation frequency range. In this study, we numerically analyze the electromagnetic behavior of a dynamically reconfigurable spatial terahertz wave modulator based on a micromirror grating in Littrow configuration. We show that such a modulator can modulate terahertz radiation over a wide frequency range from 1.7 THz to beyond 3 THz at a modulation depth of more than 0.6. As a specific example, we numerically simulated coded aperture imaging of an object with binary transmissive properties and successfully reconstructed the image.

Effects of surface diffusion on high temperature selective emitters

DOE PAGES

Peykov, Daniel; Yeng, Yi Xiang; Celanovic, Ivan; ...

2015-01-01

Using morphological and optical simulations of 1D tantalum photonic crystals at 1200K, surface diffusion was determined to gradually reduce the efficiency of selective emitters. This was attributed to shifting resonance peaks and declining emissivity caused by changes to the cavity dimensions and the aperture width. Decreasing the structure’s curvature through larger periods and smaller cavity widths, as well as generating smoother transitions in curvature through the introduction of rounded cavities, was found to alleviate this degradation. An optimized structure, that shows both high efficiency selective emissivity and resistance to surface diffusion, was presented.

System performance testing of the DVA1 radio telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knee, Lewis B. G.; Baker, Lynn A.; Gray, Andrew D.; Hovey, Gary J.; Kesteven, Michael J.; Lacy, Gordon; Robishaw, Timothy

2016-07-01

DVA1 (Dish Verification Antenna 1) is a highly innovative rim-supported single-piece composite-material dish radio telescope developed at the National Research Council Canada (NRC). It has a feed-high offset Gregorian optical design with a primary effective diameter of 15 m. DVA1 has been undergoing mechanical and astronomical system tests since 2014. Astronomical measurements were made in L band using a prototype front end developed for MeerKAT by EMSS Antennas (South Africa), including aperture efficiency, beam profiles, sensitivity, and tipping curves. The clean shaped optics, careful attention to feed design, and high sensitivity of the L band receiver (Trx 6 K) yield a system with high aperture efficiency ( 0.8), excellent sensitivity ( 9 m2/K), and low spillover ( 4 K). Observations of 21 cm atomic hydrogen lines towards standard sources demonstrate the low stray radiation pickup of the antenna. Ku band holography has measured the effective surface accuracy and stability of the dual-reflector antenna. The effective RMS of 0.85 mm implies a Ruze efficiency of 0.88 at 10 GHz and 0.60 at 20 GHz. The surface is stable ( 10% variation in surface RMS) over the limited range of environmental conditions tested. Testing continues for characterization of pointing, low frequency performance (< 1 GHz), and polarimetric performance. NRC is developing a successor antenna, DVA3, which will have a more accurate surface and be usable at frequencies at least up to Q band (30 - 50 GHz).

3D Imaging Millimeter Wave Circular Synthetic Aperture Radar

PubMed Central

Zhang, Renyuan; Cao, Siyang

2017-01-01

In this paper, a new millimeter wave 3D imaging radar is proposed. The user just needs to move the radar along a circular track, and high resolution 3D imaging can be generated. The proposed radar uses the movement of itself to synthesize a large aperture in both the azimuth and elevation directions. It can utilize inverse Radon transform to resolve 3D imaging. To improve the sensing result, the compressed sensing approach is further investigated. The simulation and experimental result further illustrated the design. Because a single transceiver circuit is needed, a light, affordable and high resolution 3D mmWave imaging radar is illustrated in the paper. PMID:28629140

High-efficiency UV/optical/NIR detectors for large aperture telescopes and UV explorer missions: development of and field observations with delta-doped arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikzad, Shouleh; Jewell, April D.; Hoenk, Michael E.; Jones, Todd J.; Hennessy, John; Goodsall, Tim; Carver, Alexander G.; Shapiro, Charles; Cheng, Samuel R.; Hamden, Erika T.; Kyne, Gillian; Martin, D. Christopher; Schiminovich, David; Scowen, Paul; France, Kevin; McCandliss, Stephan; Lupu, Roxana E.

2017-07-01

Exciting concepts are under development for flagship, probe class, explorer class, and suborbital class NASA missions in the ultraviolet/optical spectral range. These missions will depend on high-performance silicon detector arrays being delivered affordably and in high numbers. To that end, we have advanced delta-doping technology to high-throughput and high-yield wafer-scale processing, encompassing a multitude of state-of-the-art silicon-based detector formats and designs. We have embarked on a number of field observations, instrument integrations, and independent evaluations of delta-doped arrays. We present recent data and innovations from JPL's Advanced Detectors and Systems Program, including two-dimensional doping technology, JPL's end-to-end postfabrication processing of high-performance UV/optical/NIR arrays and advanced coatings for detectors. While this paper is primarily intended to provide an overview of past work, developments are identified and discussed throughout. Additionally, we present examples of past, in-progress, and planned observations and deployments of delta-doped arrays.

Angular multiplexing holograms of four images recorded on photopolymer films with recording-film-thickness-dependent holographic characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osabe, Keiichi; Kawai, Kotaro

2017-03-01

In this study, angular multiplexing hologram recording photopolymer films were studied experimentally. The films contained acrylamide as a monomer, eosin Y as a sensitizer, and triethanolamine as a promoter in a polyvinyl alcohol matrix. In order to determine the appropriate thickness of the photopolymer films for angular multiplexing, photopolymer films with thicknesses of 29-503 μm were exposed to two intersecting beams of a YVO laser at a wavelength of 532 nm to form a holographic grating with a spatial frequency of 653 line/mm. The diffraction efficiencies as a function of the incident angle of reconstruction were measured. A narrow angular bandwidth and high diffraction efficiency are required for angular multiplexing; hence, we define the Q value, which is the diffraction efficiency divided by half the bandwidth. The Q value of the films depended on the thickness of the films, and was calculated based on the measured diffraction efficiencies. The Q value of a 297-μm-thick film was the highest of the all films. Therefore, the angular multiplexing experiments were conducted using 300-μm-thick films. In the angular multiplexing experiments, the object beam transmitted by a square aperture was focused by a Fourier transform lens and interfered with a reference beam. The maximum order of angular multiplexing was four. The signal intensity that corresponds to the squared-aperture transmission and the noise intensity that corresponds to transmission without the square aperture were measured. The signal intensities decreased as the order of angular multiplexing increased, and the noise intensities were not dependent on the order of angular multiplexing.

ScanSAR interferometric processing using existing standard InSAR software for measuring large scale land deformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Cunren; Zeng, Qiming; Jia, Jianying; Jiao, Jian; Cui, Xi'ai

2013-02-01

Scanning synthetic aperture radar (ScanSAR) mode is an efficient way to map large scale geophysical phenomena at low cost. The work presented in this paper is dedicated to ScanSAR interferometric processing and its implementation by making full use of existing standard interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) software. We first discuss the properties of the ScanSAR signal and its phase-preserved focusing using the full aperture algorithm in terms of interferometry. Then a complete interferometric processing flow is proposed. The standard ScanSAR product is decoded subswath by subswath with burst gaps padded with zero-pulses, followed by a Doppler centroid frequency estimation for each subswath and a polynomial fit of all of the subswaths for the whole scene. The burst synchronization of the interferometric pair is then calculated, and only the synchronized pulses are kept for further interferometric processing. After the complex conjugate multiplication of the interferometric pair, the residual non-integer pulse repetition interval (PRI) part between adjacent bursts caused by zero padding is compensated by resampling using a sinc kernel. The subswath interferograms are then mosaicked, in which a method is proposed to remove the subswath discontinuities in the overlap area. Then the following interferometric processing goes back to the traditional stripmap processing flow. A processor written with C and Fortran languages and controlled by Perl scripts is developed to implement these algorithms and processing flow based on the JPL/Caltech Repeat Orbit Interferometry PACkage (ROI_PAC). Finally, we use the processor to process ScanSAR data from the Envisat and ALOS satellites and obtain large scale deformation maps in the radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction.

A concept of a wide aperture klystron with RF absorbing drift tubes for a linear collider

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolbilov, G. V.; Azorsky, N. I.; Fateev, A. A.; Lebedev, N. I.; Petrov, V. A.; Shvetsov, V. S.; Yurkov, M. V.; Balakin, V. E.; Avrakhov, P. V.; Kazakov, S. Yu.; Solyak, N. A.; Teryaev, V. E.; Vogel, V. F.

1996-02-01

This paper is devoted to a problem of the optimal design of the electrodynamic structure of the X-band klystron for a linear collider. It is shown that the optimal design should provide a large aperture and a high power gain, about 80 dB. The most severe problem arising here is that of parasitic self-excitation of the klystron, which becomes more complicated at increasing aperture and power gain. Our investigations have shown that traditional methods for suppressing the self-excitation become ineffective at the desired technical parameters of the klystron. In this paper we present a novel concept of a wide aperture klystron with distributed suppression of parasitic oscillations. Results of an experimental study of the wide-aperture relativistic klystron for VLEPP are presented. Investigations have been performed using the driving beam of the JINR LIA-3000 induction accelerator ( E = 1 MeV, I = 250 A, τ = 250 ns). To suppress self-excitation parasitic modes we have used the technique of RF absorbing drift tubes. As a result, we have obtained design output parameters of the klystron and achieved a level of 100 MW output power.

Fabrication of ф 160 mm convex hyperbolic mirror for remote sensing instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuo, Ching-Hsiang; Yu, Zong-Ru; Ho, Cheng-Fang; Hsu, Wei-Yao; Chen, Fong-Zhi

2012-10-01

In this study, efficient polishing processes with inspection procedures for a large convex hyperbolic mirror of Cassegrain optical system are presented. The polishing process combines the techniques of conventional lapping and CNC polishing. We apply the conventional spherical lapping process to quickly remove the sub-surface damage (SSD) layer caused by grinding process and to get the accurate radius of best-fit sphere (BFS) of aspheric surface with fine surface texture simultaneously. Thus the removed material for aspherization process can be minimized and the polishing time for SSD removal can also be reduced substantially. The inspection procedure was carried out by using phase shift interferometer with CGH and stitching technique. To acquire the real surface form error of each sub aperture, the wavefront errors of the reference flat and CGH flat due to gravity effect of the vertical setup are calibrated in advance. Subsequently, we stitch 10 calibrated sub-aperture surface form errors to establish the whole irregularity of the mirror in 160 mm diameter for correction polishing. The final result of the In this study, efficient polishing processes with inspection procedures for a large convex hyperbolic mirror of Cassegrain optical system are presented. The polishing process combines the techniques of conventional lapping and CNC polishing. We apply the conventional spherical lapping process to quickly remove the sub-surface damage (SSD) layer caused by grinding process and to get the accurate radius of best-fit sphere (BFS) of aspheric surface with fine surface texture simultaneously. Thus the removed material for aspherization process can be minimized and the polishing time for SSD removal can also be reduced substantially. The inspection procedure was carried out by using phase shift interferometer with CGH and stitching technique. To acquire the real surface form error of each sub aperture, the wavefront errors of the reference flat and CGH flat due to gravity effect of the vertical setup are calibrated in advance. Subsequently, we stitch 10 calibrated sub-aperture surface form errors to establish the whole irregularity of the mirror in 160 mm diameter for correction polishing. The final result of the Fabrication of ф160 mm Convex Hyperbolic Mirror for Remote Sensing Instrument160 mm convex hyperbolic mirror is 0.15 μm PV and 17.9 nm RMS.160 mm convex hyperbolic mirror is 0.15 μm PV and 17.9 nm RMS.

Beamforming using subspace estimation from a diagonally averaged sample covariance.

PubMed

Quijano, Jorge E; Zurk, Lisa M

2017-08-01

The potential benefit of a large-aperture sonar array for high resolution target localization is often challenged by the lack of sufficient data required for adaptive beamforming. This paper introduces a Toeplitz-constrained estimator of the clairvoyant signal covariance matrix corresponding to multiple far-field targets embedded in background isotropic noise. The estimator is obtained by averaging along subdiagonals of the sample covariance matrix, followed by covariance extrapolation using the method of maximum entropy. The sample covariance is computed from limited data snapshots, a situation commonly encountered with large-aperture arrays in environments characterized by short periods of local stationarity. Eigenvectors computed from the Toeplitz-constrained covariance are used to construct signal-subspace projector matrices, which are shown to reduce background noise and improve detection of closely spaced targets when applied to subspace beamforming. Monte Carlo simulations corresponding to increasing array aperture suggest convergence of the proposed projector to the clairvoyant signal projector, thereby outperforming the classic projector obtained from the sample eigenvectors. Beamforming performance of the proposed method is analyzed using simulated data, as well as experimental data from the Shallow Water Array Performance experiment.

A first-order treatment of aberrations in Cassegrainian and Gregorian antennas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dragone, C.

1982-05-01

The decrease in aperture efficiency caused by small aberrations in a reflector antenna is determined. The important case of a Cassegrainian (or Gregorian) antenna with a feed placed in the vicinity of the focal point is treated in detail. For this case the various aberration components due to astigmatism, coma, etc., are derived explicitly, their effect on aperture efficiency is shown, and the conditions that optimize performance are given. The results are useful for the design of multibeam antennas in ground stations and satellites.

Stitching interferometry for ellipsoidal x-ray mirrors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yumoto, Hirokatsu, E-mail: yumoto@spring8.or.jp; Koyama, Takahisa; Matsuyama, Satoshi

2016-05-15

Ellipsoidal mirrors, which can efficiently produce a two-dimensional focusing beam with a single mirror, are superior x-ray focusing optics, especially when compared to elliptical-cylinder mirrors in the Kirkpatrick–Baez geometry. However, nano-focusing ellipsoidal mirrors are not commonly used for x-ray optics because achieving the accuracy required for the surface metrology of nano-focusing ellipsoidal mirrors is difficult due to their small radius of curvature along the short ellipsoidal axis. Here, we developed a surface metrology system for nano-focusing ellipsoidal mirrors using stitching interferometric techniques. The developed system simultaneously measures sub-aperture shapes with a microscopic interferometer and the tilt angles of the sub-aperturemore » shapes with a large Fizeau interferometer. After correcting the systematic errors included in the sub-aperture shapes, the entire mirror shape is calculated by stitching the sub-aperture shapes based on the obtained relative angles between partially overlapped sub-apertures. In this study, we developed correction methods for systematic errors in sub-aperture shapes that originated from off-axis aberrations produced in the optics of the microscopic interferometer. The systematic errors on an ellipsoidal mirror were estimated by measuring a series of tilted plane substrates and the ellipsoidal substrate. From measurements of an ellipsoidal mirror with a 3.6-mm radius of curvature at the mirror center, we obtained a measurement repeatability of 0.51 nm (root-mean-square) in an assessment area of 0.5 mm × 99.18 mm. This value satisfies the requirements for surface metrology of nano-focusing x-ray mirrors. Thus, the developed metrology system should be applicable for fabricating nano-focusing ellipsoidal mirrors.« less

Penalization of aperture complexity in inversely planned volumetric modulated arc therapy

PubMed Central

Younge, Kelly C.; Matuszak, Martha M.; Moran, Jean M.; McShan, Daniel L.; Fraass, Benedick A.; Roberts, Donald A.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Apertures obtained during volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) planning can be small and irregular, resulting in dosimetric inaccuracies during delivery. Our purpose is to develop and integrate an aperture-regularization objective function into the optimization process for VMAT, and to quantify the impact of using this objective function on dose delivery accuracy and optimized dose distributions. Methods: An aperture-based metric (“edge penalty”) was developed that penalizes complex aperture shapes based on the ratio of MLC side edge length and aperture area. To assess the utility of the metric, VMAT plans were created for example paraspinal, brain, and liver SBRT cases with and without incorporating the edge penalty in the cost function. To investigate the dose calculation accuracy, Gafchromic EBT2 film was used to measure the 15 highest weighted apertures individually and as a composite from each of two paraspinal plans: one with and one without the edge penalty applied. Films were analyzed using a triple-channel nonuniformity correction and measurements were compared directly to calculations. Results: Apertures generated with the edge penalty were larger, more regularly shaped and required up to 30% fewer monitor units than those created without the edge penalty. Dose volume histogram analysis showed that the changes in doses to targets, organs at risk, and normal tissues were negligible. Edge penalty apertures that were measured with film for the paraspinal plan showed a notable decrease in the number of pixels disagreeing with calculation by more than 10%. For a 5% dose passing criterion, the number of pixels passing in the composite dose distributions for the non-edge penalty and edge penalty plans were 52% and 96%, respectively. Employing gamma with 3% dose/1 mm distance criteria resulted in a 79.5% (without penalty)/95.4% (with penalty) pass rate for the two plans. Gradient compensation of 3%/1 mm resulted in 83.3%/96.2% pass rates. Conclusions: The use of the edge penalty during optimization has the potential to markedly improve dose delivery accuracy for VMAT plans while still maintaining high quality optimized dose distributions. The penalty regularizes aperture shape and improves delivery efficiency. PMID:23127107

Multi-aperture microoptical system for close-up imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berlich, René; Brückner, Andreas; Leitel, Robert; Oberdörster, Alexander; Wippermann, Frank; Bräuer, Andreas

2014-09-01

Modern applications in biomedical imaging, machine vision and security engineering require close-up optical systems with high resolution. Combined with the need for miniaturization and fast image acquisition of extended object fields, the design and fabrication of respective devices is extremely challenging. Standard commercial imaging solutions rely on bulky setups or depend on scanning techniques in order to meet the stringent requirements. Recently, our group has proposed a novel, multi-aperture approach based on parallel image transfer in order to overcome these constraints. It exploits state of the art microoptical manufacturing techniques on wafer level in order to create a compact, cost-effective system with a large field of view. However, initial prototypes have so far been subject to various limitations regarding their manufacturing, reliability and applicability. In this work, we demonstrate the optical design and fabrication of an advanced system, which overcomes these restrictions. In particular, a revised optical design facilitates a more efficient and economical fabrication process and inherently improves system reliability. An additional customized front side illumination module provides homogeneous white light illumination over the entire field of view while maintaining a high degree of compactness. Moreover, the complete imaging assembly is mounted on a positioning system. In combination with an extended working range, this allows for adjustment of the system's focus location. The final optical design is capable of capturing an object field of 36x24 mm2 with a resolution of 150 cycles/mm. Finally, we present experimental results of the respective prototype that demonstrate its enhanced capabilities.

Mechanical characterization at material interfaces through dark field Brillouin microscopy (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fiore, Antonio; Scarcelli, Giuliano

2017-02-01

Brillouin microscopy allows high-resolution mapping of the mechanical properties of a sample by measuring the spectra of acoustically induced light scattering therein, and thus has been widely investigated for biomedical application. Measuring the Brillouin spectral shift is challenging when the light is focused onto the interfaces between two materials of different refractive index, because a sizeable portion of the incident light is Fresnel-reflected into the Brillouin spectrometer. To address this need, here, we designed a Brillouin confocal microscope in which the specular reflection at the interface between two materials is physically rejected without significant loss to the Brillouin signal. To achieve this goal, we illuminate the sample with a small-diameter Gaussian beam focused by a high numerical aperture objective lens. In the collection path, the beam reflected from the sample has the same diameter as the incident beam, while the scattered light beam is as large as the clear aperture of the microscope objective. Therefore, using a small blocking filter allows to efficiently reject the reflected light. We calculated the tradeoff between extinction improvement and signal loss when the diameter of the blocking filter is changed. Experimentally, we demonstrated extinction improvement of over 60dB with only 30% signal loss while achieving submicron resolutions. This innovation can be useful for in vivo measurements of the cornea to avoid artifacts in the epithelium and anterior portions of the stroma, as well as to investigate cells cultured on glass coverslips without necessity of index-matching materials.

Complementary bowtie aperture for localizing and enhancing optical magnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Nan; Kinzel, Edward C.; Xu, Xianfan

2011-08-01

Nanoscale bowtie antenna and bowtie aperture antenna have been shown to generate strongly enhanced and localized electric fields below the diffraction limit in the optical frequency range. According to Babinet's principle, their complements will be efficient for concentrating and enhancing magnetic fields. In this Letter, we discuss the enhancement of magnetic field intensity of nanoscale complementary bowtie aperture as well as complementary bowtie aperture antenna, or diabolo nanoantenna. We show that the complementary bowtie antenna resonates at a smaller wavelength and thus is more suitable for applications near visible wavelengths. The near-field magnetic intensity can be further enhanced by the addition of groove structures that scatter surface plasmon.

Alternative synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modalities using a 1D dynamic metasurface antenna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyarsky, Michael; Sleasman, Timothy; Pulido-Mancera, Laura; Imani, Mohammadreza F.; Reynolds, Matthew S.; Smith, David R.

2017-05-01

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems conventionally rely on mechanically-actuated reflector dishes or large phased arrays for generating steerable directive beams. While these systems have yielded high-resolution images, the hardware suffers from considerable weight, high cost, substantial power consumption, and moving parts. Since these disadvantages are particularly relevant in airborne and spaceborne systems, a flat, lightweight, and low-cost solution is a sought-after goal. Dynamic metasurface antennas have emerged as a recent technology for generating waveforms with desired characteristics. Metasurface antennas consist of an electrically-large waveguide loaded with numerous subwavelength radiators which selectively leak energy from a guided wave into free space to form various radiation patterns. By tuning each radiating element, we can modulate the aperture's overall radiation pattern to generate steered directive beams, without moving parts or phase shifters. Furthermore, by using established manufacturing methods, these apertures can be made to be lightweight, low-cost, and planar, while maintaining high performance. In addition to their hardware benefits, dynamic metasurfaces can leverage their dexterity and high switching speeds to enable alternative SAR modalities for improved performance. In this work, we briefly discuss how dynamic metasurfaces can conduct existing SAR modalities with similar performance as conventional systems from a significantly simpler hardware platform. We will also describe two additional modalities which may achieve improved performance as compared to traditional modalities. These modalities, enhanced resolution stripmap and diverse pattern stripmap, offer the ability to circumvent the trade-off between resolution and region-of-interest size that exists within stripmap and spotlight. Imaging results with a simulated dynamic metasurface verify the benefits of these modalities and a discussion of implementation considerations and noise effects is also included. Ultimately, the hardware gains coupled with the additional modalities well-suited to dynamic metasurface antennas has poised them to propel the SAR field forward and open the door to exciting opportunities.

Centimeter-scale MEMS scanning mirrors for high power laser application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senger, F.; Hofmann, U.; v. Wantoch, T.; Mallas, C.; Janes, J.; Benecke, W.; Herwig, Patrick; Gawlitza, P.; Ortega-Delgado, M.; Grune, C.; Hannweber, J.; Wetzig, A.

2015-02-01

A higher achievable scan speed and the capability to integrate two scan axes in a very compact device are fundamental advantages of MEMS scanning mirrors over conventional galvanometric scanners. There is a growing demand for biaxial high speed scanning systems complementing the rapid progress of high power lasers for enabling the development of new high throughput manufacturing processes. This paper presents concept, design, fabrication and test of biaxial large aperture MEMS scanning mirrors (LAMM) with aperture sizes up to 20 mm for use in high-power laser applications. To keep static and dynamic deformation of the mirror acceptably low all MEMS mirrors exhibit full substrate thickness of 725 μm. The LAMM-scanners are being vacuum packaged on wafer-level based on a stack of 4 wafers. Scanners with aperture sizes up to 12 mm are designed as a 4-DOF-oscillator with amplitude magnification applying electrostatic actuation for driving a motor-frame. As an example a 7-mm-scanner is presented that achieves an optical scan angle of 32 degrees at 3.2 kHz. LAMM-scanners with apertures sizes of 20 mm are designed as passive high-Q-resonators to be externally excited by low-cost electromagnetic or piezoelectric drives. Multi-layer dielectric coatings with a reflectivity higher than 99.9 % have enabled to apply cw-laser power loads of more than 600 W without damaging the MEMS mirror. Finally, a new excitation concept for resonant scanners is presented providing advantageous shaping of intensity profiles of projected laser patterns without modulating the laser. This is of interest in lighting applications such as automotive laser headlights.

Micro-scanning mirrors for high-power laser applications in laser surgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandner, Thilo; Kimme, Simon; Grasshoff, Thomas; Todt, Ulrich; Graf, Alexander; Tulea, Cristian; Lenenbach, Achim; Schenk, Harald

2014-03-01

We present two novel micro scanning mirrors with large aperture and HR dielectric coatings suitable for high power laser applications in a miniaturized laser-surgical instrument for neurosurgery to cut skull tissue. An electrostatic driven 2D-raster scanning mirror with 5x7.1mm aperture is used for dynamic steering of a ps-laser beam of the laser cutting process. A second magnetic 2D-beam steering mirror enables a static beam correction of a hand guided laser instrument. Optimizations of a magnetic gimbal micro mirror with 6 mm x 8 mm mirror plate are presented; here static deflections of 3° were reached. Both MEMS devices were successfully tested with a high power ps-laser at 532nm up to 20W average laser power.

Instrument Design of the Large Aperture Solar UV Visible and IR Observing Telescope (SUVIT) for the SOLAR-C Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suematsu, Y.; Katsukawa, Y.; Shimizu, T.; Ichimoto, K.; Takeyama, N.

2012-12-01

We present an instrumental design of one major solar observation payload planned for the SOLAR-C mission: the Solar Ultra-violet Visible and near IR observing Telescope (SUVIT). The SUVIT is designed to provide high-angular-resolution investigation of the lower solar atmosphere, from the photosphere to the uppermost chromosphere, with enhanced spectroscopic and spectro-polarimetric capability in wide wavelength regions from 280 nm (Mg II h&k lines) to 1100 nm (He I 1083 nm line) with 1.5 m class aperture and filtergraphic and spectrographic instruments.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hellfeld, Daniel; Barton, Paul; Gunter, Donald

Gamma-ray imaging facilitates the efficient detection, characterization, and localization of compact radioactive sources in cluttered environments. Fieldable detector systems employing active planar coded apertures have demonstrated broad energy sensitivity via both coded aperture and Compton imaging modalities. But, planar configurations suffer from a limited field-of-view, especially in the coded aperture mode. In order to improve upon this limitation, we introduce a novel design by rearranging the detectors into an active coded spherical configuration, resulting in a 4pi isotropic field-of-view for both coded aperture and Compton imaging. This work focuses on the low- energy coded aperture modality and the optimization techniquesmore » used to determine the optimal number and configuration of 1 cm 3 CdZnTe coplanar grid detectors on a 14 cm diameter sphere with 192 available detector locations.« less

DM/LCWFC based adaptive optics system for large aperture telescopes imaging from visible to infrared waveband.

PubMed

Sun, Fei; Cao, Zhaoliang; Wang, Yukun; Zhang, Caihua; Zhang, Xingyun; Liu, Yong; Mu, Quanquan; Xuan, Li

2016-11-28

Almost all the deformable mirror (DM) based adaptive optics systems (AOSs) used on large aperture telescopes work at the infrared waveband due to the limitation of the number of actuators. To extend the imaging waveband to the visible, we propose a DM and Liquid crystal wavefront corrector (DM/LCWFC) combination AOS. The LCWFC is used to correct the high frequency aberration corresponding to the visible waveband and the aberrations of the infrared are corrected by the DM. The calculated results show that, to a 10 m telescope, DM/LCWFC AOS which contains a 1538 actuators DM and a 404 × 404 pixels LCWFC is equivalent to a DM based AOS with 4057 actuators. It indicates that the DM/LCWFC AOS is possible to work from visible to infrared for larger aperture telescopes. The simulations and laboratory experiment are performed for a 2 m telescope. The experimental results show that, after correction, near diffraction limited resolution USAF target images are obtained at the wavebands of 0.7-0.9 μm, 0.9-1.5 μm and 1.5-1.7 μm respectively. Therefore, the DM/LCWFC AOS may be used to extend imaging waveband of larger aperture telescope to the visible. It is very appropriate for the observation of spatial objects and the scientific research in astronomy.

Variable transmittance electrochromic windows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rauh, R. D.

1983-11-01

Electrochromic apertures based on RF sputtered thin films of WO3 are projected to have widely different sunlight attenuation properties when converted to MxWO3 (M = H, Li, Na, Ag, etc.), depending on the initial preparation conditions. Amorphous WO3, prepared at low temperature, has a coloration spectrum centered in the visible, while high temperature crystalline WO3 attenuates infrared light most efficiently, but appears to become highly reflective at high values of x. The possibility therefore exists of producing variable light transmission apertures of the general form (a-MxWO3/FIC/c-WO3), where the FIC is an ion conducting thin film, such as LiAlF4 (for M = Li). The attenuation of 90% of the solar spectrum requires an injected charge of 30 to 40 mcoul/sq cm in either amorphous or crystalline WO3, corresponding to 0.2 Whr/sq m per coloration cycle. In order to produce windows with very high solar transparency in the bleached form, new counter electrode materials must be found with complementary electrochromism to WO3.

“MODAL NOISE” IN SINGLE-MODE FIBERS: A CAUTIONARY NOTE FOR HIGH PRECISION RADIAL VELOCITY INSTRUMENTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Halverson, Samuel; Roy, Arpita; Mahadevan, Suvrath

2015-12-01

Exploring the use of single-mode fibers (SMFs) in high precision Doppler spectrometers has become increasingly attractive since the advent of diffraction-limited adaptive optics systems on large-aperture telescopes. Spectrometers fed with these fibers can be made significantly smaller than typical “seeing-limited” instruments, greatly reducing cost and overall complexity. Importantly, classical mode interference and speckle issues associated with multi-mode fibers, also known as “modal noise,” are mitigated when using SMFs, which also provide perfect radial and azimuthal image scrambling. However, SMFs do support multiple polarization modes, an issue that is generally ignored for larger-core fibers given the large number of propagation modes.more » Since diffraction gratings used in most high resolution astronomical instruments have dispersive properties that are sensitive to incident polarization changes, any birefringence variations in the fiber can cause variations in the efficiency profile, degrading illumination stability. Here we present a cautionary note outlining how the polarization properties of SMFs can affect the radial velocity (RV) measurement precision of high resolution spectrographs. This work is immediately relevant to the rapidly expanding field of diffraction-limited, extreme precision RV spectrographs that are currently being designed and built by a number of groups.« less

Photoconductive terahertz near-field detector with a hybrid nanoantenna array cavity

DOE PAGES

Mitrofanov, Oleg; Brener, Igal; Luk, Ting S.; ...

2015-11-19

Nanoscale structuring of optical materials leads to modification of their properties and can be used for improving efficiencies of photonic devices and for enabling new functionalities. In ultrafast optoelectronic switches for generation and detection of terahertz (THz) radiation, incorporation of nanostructures allows us to overcome inherent limitations of photoconductive materials. We propose and demonstrate a nanostructured photoconductive THz detector for sampling highly localized THz fields, down to the level of λ/150. The nanostructure that consists of an array of optical nanoantennas and a distributed Bragg reflector forms a hybrid cavity, which traps optical gate pulses within the photoconductive layer. Themore » effect of photon trapping is observed as enhanced absorption at a designed wavelength. This optically thin photoconductive THz detector allows us to detect highly confined evanescent THz fields coupled through a deeply subwavelength aperture as small as 2 μm (λ/150 at 1 THz). As a result, by monolithically integrating the THz detector with apertures ranging from 2 to 5 μm we realize higher spatial resolution and higher sensitivity in aperture-type THz near-field microscopy and THz time-domain spectroscopy.« less

Conceptual design of the beam source for the DEMO Neutral Beam Injectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonato, P.; Agostinetti, P.; Fantz, U.; Franke, T.; Furno, I.; Simonin, A.; Tran, M. Q.

2016-12-01

DEMO (DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant) is a proposed nuclear fusion power plant that is intended to follow the ITER experimental reactor. The main goal of DEMO will be to demonstrate the possibility to produce electric energy from the fusion reaction. The injection of high energy neutral beams is one of the main tools to heat the plasma up to fusion conditions. A conceptual design of the Neutral Beam Injector (NBI) for the DEMO fusion reactor, is currently being developed by Consorzio RFX in collaboration with other European research institutes. High efficiency and low recirculating power, which are fundamental requirements for the success of DEMO, have been taken into special consideration for the DEMO NBI. Moreover, particular attention has been paid to the issues related to reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability. A conceptual design of the beam source for the DEMO NBI is here presented featuring 20 sub-sources (two adjacent columns of 10 sub-sources each), following a modular design concept, with each sub-source featuring its radio frequency driver, capable of increasing the reliability and availability of the DEMO NBI. Copper grids with increasing size of the apertures have been adopted in the accelerator, with three main layouts of the apertures (circular apertures, slotted apertures and frame-like apertures for each sub-source). This design, permitting to significantly decrease the stripping losses in the accelerator without spoiling the beam optics, has been investigated with a self-consistent model able to study at the same time the magnetic field, the electrostatic field and the trajectory of the negative ions. Moreover, the status on the R&D carried out in Europe on the ion sources is presented.

Analysis of adjusting effects of mounting force on frequency conversion of mounted nonlinear optics.

PubMed

Su, Ruifeng; Liu, Haitao; Liang, Yingchun; Lu, Lihua

2014-01-10

Motivated by the need to increase the second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of nonlinear optics with large apertures, a novel mounting configuration with active adjusting function on the SHG efficiency is proposed and mechanically and optically studied. The adjusting effects of the mounting force on the distortion and stress are analyzed by the finite element methods (FEM), as well as the contribution of the distortion and stress to the change in phase mismatch, and the SHG efficiency are theoretically stated. Further on, the SHG efficiency is calculated as a function of the mounting force. The changing trends of the distortion, stress, and the SHG efficiency with the varying mounting force are obtained, and the optimal ones are figured out. Moreover, the mechanism of the occurrence of the optimal values is studied and the adjusting strategy is put forward. Numerical results show the robust adjustment of the mounting force, as well as the effectiveness of the mounting configuration, in increasing the SHG efficiency.

Aperture averaging in strong oceanic turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gökçe, Muhsin Caner; Baykal, Yahya

2018-04-01

Receiver aperture averaging technique is employed in underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) systems to mitigate the effects of oceanic turbulence, thus to improve the system performance. The irradiance flux variance is a measure of the intensity fluctuations on a lens of the receiver aperture. Using the modified Rytov theory which uses the small-scale and large-scale spatial filters, and our previously presented expression that shows the atmospheric structure constant in terms of oceanic turbulence parameters, we evaluate the irradiance flux variance and the aperture averaging factor of a spherical wave in strong oceanic turbulence. Irradiance flux variance variations are examined versus the oceanic turbulence parameters and the receiver aperture diameter are examined in strong oceanic turbulence. Also, the effect of the receiver aperture diameter on the aperture averaging factor is presented in strong oceanic turbulence.

Development of the Synthetic Aperture Radiometer ESTAR and the Next Generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeVine, David M.; Haken, Michael; Swift, Calvin T.

2004-01-01

ESTAR is a research instrument built to develop the technology of aperture synthesis for passive remote sensing of Earth from space. Aperture synthesis is an interferometric technology that addresses the problem of putting large antenna apertures in space to achieve the spatial resolution needed for remote sensing at long wavelengths ESTAR was a first step (synthesis only across track and only at horizontal polarization). The development has progressed to a new generation instrument that is dual polarized and does aperture synthesis in two dimensions. Among the plans for the future is technology to combine active and passive remote sensing.

Advances in stereomicroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnitzler, H.; Zimmer, Klaus-Peter

2008-09-01

Similar to human's binocular vision, stereomicroscopes are comprised of two optical paths under a convergence angle providing a full perspective insight into the world's microstructure. The numerical aperture of stereomicroscopes has continuously increased over the years, reaching the point where the lenses of left and right perspective paths touched each other. This constraint appeared as an upper limit for the resolution of stereomicroscopes, as the resolution of a stereomicroscope was deduced from the numerical apertures of the two equally sized perspective channels. We present the optical design and advances in resolution of the world's first asymmetrical stereomicroscope, which is a technological breakthrough in many aspects of stereomicroscopes. This unique approach uses a large numerical aperture and thus an, so far, unachievable high lateral resolution in the one path, and a small aperture in the other path, which provides a high depth of field ("Fusion Optics"). This new concept is a technical challenge for the optical design of the zoom system as well as for the common main objectives. Furthermore, the new concept makes use of the particular way in which perspective information by binocular vision is formed in the human's brain. In conjunction with a research project at the University of Zurich, Leica Microsystems consolidated the functionality of this concept in to a new generation of stereomicroscopes.

Electrically pumped edge-emitting photonic bandgap semiconductor laser

DOEpatents

Lin, Shawn-Yu; Zubrzycki, Walter J.

2004-01-06

A highly efficient, electrically pumped edge-emitting semiconductor laser based on a one- or two-dimensional photonic bandgap (PBG) structure is described. The laser optical cavity is formed using a pair of PBG mirrors operating in the photonic band gap regime. Transverse confinement is achieved by surrounding an active semiconductor layer of high refractive index with lower-index cladding layers. The cladding layers can be electrically insulating in the passive PBG mirror and waveguide regions with a small conducting aperture for efficient channeling of the injection pump current into the active region. The active layer can comprise a quantum well structure. The quantum well structure can be relaxed in the passive regions to provide efficient extraction of laser light from the active region.

Three-Component Long Offset Surface Seismic Survey Data Used to Find Large Aperture Fractures in Geothermal Resources - San Emidio Geothermal Resource Area

DOE Data Explorer

Ian Warren

2010-09-15

P and S-wave datasets and associated report studying the ability to use three-component long offset surface seismic surveys to find large aperture fractures in geothermal resources at the San Emidio geothermal resource area in Washoe County, Nevada.

Dual-camera design for coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging.

PubMed

Wang, Lizhi; Xiong, Zhiwei; Gao, Dahua; Shi, Guangming; Wu, Feng

2015-02-01

Coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging (CASSI) provides an efficient mechanism for recovering 3D spectral data from a single 2D measurement. However, since the reconstruction problem is severely underdetermined, the quality of recovered spectral data is usually limited. In this paper we propose a novel dual-camera design to improve the performance of CASSI while maintaining its snapshot advantage. Specifically, a beam splitter is placed in front of the objective lens of CASSI, which allows the same scene to be simultaneously captured by a grayscale camera. This uncoded grayscale measurement, in conjunction with the coded CASSI measurement, greatly eases the reconstruction problem and yields high-quality 3D spectral data. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Observation of enhanced spontaneous emission in dielectrically apertured microcavities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, Luke Alan

The effects of enhanced spontaneous emission are important in determining the low threshold characteristics of oxide confined vertical cavity semiconductor lasers. This enhancement effect increases as Q/V, where Q = λ/Δλ for the cavity and V is the mode volume. In particular we investigate the effects of mode diameter on enhancement in microcavity structures with successively smaller dielectric apertures. These structures were fabricated by etching and back filling with SiO 2 and by lateral steam oxidation. For both cavities, InAlGaAs quantum dot emitters were used in the active region in order to avoid carrier diffusion and recombination at the side walls. Decay data was obtained at 10 K using time resolved photoluminescence of individual microcavities, and arrays. The detector used here is based on a silicon avalanche photodiode operated in ``Geiger'' mode. It provides a resolution of 350 ps and a quantum efficiency of ~1% at a wavelength of 1 μm. For the etched aperture structures we observed enhancement factors as high as 1.4 for the 1 μm diameter cavities with a maximum Q ~ 200. The enhancement is limited by the low Qs induced by etched side wall scattering. For 1 μm apertures fabricated by lateral steam oxidation, a Q of 450 is obtained with an enhancement factor of 2.3. In these devices we show that the enhancement is limited by distribution of quantum dots throughout the aperture region. Dots resonant with the cavity and located along the aperture edge decay more slowly than those in the center, leading to spatial hole burning effects in the decay data. Microcavities with aperture sizes ranging from 1-5 μm and Qs greater than 5000 are also demonstrated. We show 0th and 1 st order mode spacings as a function of aperture size and from this data calculate the transverse optical mode diameter as a function of aperture diameter. We find that the optical mode size becomes larger than the aperture size for diameters of ~2.5 μm and below and that this is correlated with a steep drop in Q for smaller apertures. We also find that the upper limit in cavity Q in these structures appears to come from losses induced by the MgF2/ZnSe e-beam deposited DBRs.

Single-particle dynamics in a nonlinear accelerator lattice: attaining a large tune spread with octupoles in IOTA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antipov, S. A.; Nagaitsev, S.; Valishev, A.

2017-04-01

Fermilab is constructing the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) as the centerpiece of the Accelerator R&D Program towards high-intensity circular machines. One of the factors limiting the beam intensity in present circular accelerators is collective instabilities, which can be suppressed by a spread of betatron frequencies (tunes) through the Landau damping mechanism or by an external damper, if the instability is slow enough. The spread is usually created by octupole magnets, which introduce the tune dependence on the amplitude and, in some cases, by a chromatic spread (tune dependence on particle's momentum). The introduction of octupoles usually has both beneficial (improved Landau damping) and harmful properties, such as a resonant behavior and a reduction of the dynamic aperture. One of the research goals at the IOTA ring is to achieve a large betatron tune spread, while retaining a large dynamic aperture, using conventional octupole magnets in a special but realistic accelerator configuration. The configuration, although not integrable by design, approximates an autonomous 2D Hamiltonian system. In this paper, we present results of computer simulations of an electron beam in the IOTA by particle tracking and the Frequency Map Analysis. The results show that the ring's octupole magnets can be configured to provide a betatron tune shift of 0.08 (for particles at large amplitudes) with the dynamical aperture of over 20 beam sigma for a 150-MeV electron beam. The influence of the synchrotron motion, lattice errors, and magnet imperfections is insignificant for the parameters and levels of tolerances set by the design of the ring. The described octupole insert could be beneficial for enhancing Landau damping in high intensity machines.

Ultrahigh contrast from a frequency-doubled chirped-pulse-amplification beamline.

PubMed

Hillier, David; Danson, Colin; Duffield, Stuart; Egan, David; Elsmere, Stephen; Girling, Mark; Harvey, Ewan; Hopps, Nicholas; Norman, Michael; Parker, Stefan; Treadwell, Paul; Winter, David; Bett, Thomas

2013-06-20

This paper describes frequency-doubled operation of a high-energy chirped-pulse-amplification beamline. Efficient type-I second-harmonic generation was achieved using a 3 mm thick 320 mm aperture KDP crystal. Shots were fired at a range of energies achieving more than 100 J in a subpicosecond, 527 nm laser pulse with a power contrast of 10(14).

Effects of Vertical Direction and Aperture Size on the Perception of Visual Acceleration.

PubMed

Mueller, Alexandra S; González, Esther G; McNorgan, Chris; Steinbach, Martin J; Timney, Brian

2016-02-06

It is not well understood whether the distance over which moving stimuli are visible affects our sensitivity to the presence of acceleration or our ability to track such stimuli. It is also uncertain whether our experience with gravity creates anisotropies in how we detect vertical acceleration and deceleration. To address these questions, we varied the vertical extent of the aperture through which we presented vertically accelerating and decelerating random dot arrays. We hypothesized that observers would better detect and pursue accelerating and decelerating stimuli that extend over larger than smaller distances. In Experiment 1, we tested the effects of vertical direction and aperture size on acceleration and deceleration detection accuracy. Results indicated that detection is better for downward motion and for large apertures, but there is no difference between vertical acceleration and deceleration detection. A control experiment revealed that our manipulation of vertical aperture size affects the ability to track vertical motion. Smooth pursuit is better (i.e., with higher peak velocities) for large apertures than for small apertures. Our findings suggest that the ability to detect vertical acceleration and deceleration varies as a function of the direction and vertical extent over which an observer can track the moving stimulus. © The Author(s) 2016.

Metal–Dielectric Waveguides for High Efficiency Fluorescence Imaging

PubMed Central

Zhu, Liangfu; Zhang, Douguo; Wang, Ruxue; Wang, Pei; Ming, Hai; Badugu, Ramachandram; Du, Luping; Yuan, Xiaocong; Lakowicz, Joseph R.

2015-01-01

We demonstrate that Metal–Dielectric Waveguide structures (MDWs) with high efficiency of fluorescence coupling can be suitable as substrates for fluorescence imaging. This hybrid MDWs consists of a continuous metal film and a dielectric top layer. The optical modes sustaining inside this structure can be excited with a high numerical aperture (N.A) objective, and then focused into a virtual optical probe with high intensity, leading to efficient excitation of fluorophores deposited on top of the MDWs. The emitted fluorophores couple with the optical modes thus enabling the directional emission, which is verified by the back focal plane (BFP) imaging. These unique properties of MDWs have been adopted in a scanning laser confocal optical microscopy, and show the merit of high efficiency fluorescence imaging. MDWs can be easily fabricated by vapor deposition and/or spin coating, the silica surface of the MDWs is suitable for biomolecule tethering, and will offer new opportunities for cell biology and biophysics research. PMID:26525494

Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Modules by Scalable Fabrication and Interconnection Optimization

DOE PAGES

Yang, Mengjin; Kim, Dong Hoe; Klein, Talysa R.; ...

2018-01-02

To push perovskite solar cell (PSC) technology toward practical applications, large-area perovskite solar modules with multiple subcells need to be developed by fully scalable deposition approaches. Here, we demonstrate a deposition scheme for perovskite module fabrication with spray coating of a TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL) and blade coating of both a perovskite absorber layer and a spiro-OMeTAD-based hole transport layer (HTL). The TiO2 ETL remaining in the interconnection between subcells significantly affects the module performance. Reducing the TiO2 thickness changes the interconnection contact from a Schottky diode to ohmic behavior. Owing to interconnection resistance reduction, the perovskite modules withmore » a 10 nm TiO2 layer show enhanced performance mainly associated with an improved fill factor. Finally, we demonstrate a four-cell MA0.7FA0.3PbI3 perovskite module with a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.6% measured from an aperture area of ~10.36 cm2, corresponding to an active-area module PCE of 17.9% with a geometric fill factor of ~87.3%.« less

Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Modules by Scalable Fabrication and Interconnection Optimization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Mengjin; Kim, Dong Hoe; Klein, Talysa R.

To push perovskite solar cell (PSC) technology toward practical applications, large-area perovskite solar modules with multiple subcells need to be developed by fully scalable deposition approaches. Here, we demonstrate a deposition scheme for perovskite module fabrication with spray coating of a TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL) and blade coating of both a perovskite absorber layer and a spiro-OMeTAD-based hole transport layer (HTL). The TiO2 ETL remaining in the interconnection between subcells significantly affects the module performance. Reducing the TiO2 thickness changes the interconnection contact from a Schottky diode to ohmic behavior. Owing to interconnection resistance reduction, the perovskite modules withmore » a 10 nm TiO2 layer show enhanced performance mainly associated with an improved fill factor. Finally, we demonstrate a four-cell MA0.7FA0.3PbI3 perovskite module with a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.6% measured from an aperture area of ~10.36 cm2, corresponding to an active-area module PCE of 17.9% with a geometric fill factor of ~87.3%.« less

High numerical aperture multilayer Laue lenses

DOE PAGES

Morgan, Andrew J.; Prasciolu, Mauro; Andrejczuk, Andrzej; ...

2015-06-01

The ever-increasing brightness of synchrotron radiation sources demands improved X-ray optics to utilise their capability for imaging and probing biological cells, nanodevices, and functional matter on the nanometer scale with chemical sensitivity. Here we demonstrate focusing a hard X-ray beam to an 8 nm focus using a volume zone plate (also referred to as a wedged multilayer Laue lens). This lens was constructed using a new deposition technique that enabled the independent control of the angle and thickness of diffracting layers to microradian and nanometer precision, respectively. This ensured that the Bragg condition is satisfied at each point along themore » lens, leading to a high numerical aperture that is limited only by its extent. We developed a phase-shifting interferometric method based on ptychography to characterise the lens focus. The precision of the fabrication and characterisation demonstrated here provides the path to efficient X-ray optics for imaging at 1 nm resolution.« less

Chaotic dynamics in accelerator physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cary, J. R.

1992-11-01

Substantial progress was made in several areas of accelerator dynamics. We have completed a design of an FEL wiggler with adiabatic trapping and detrapping sections to develop an understanding of longitudinal adiabatic dynamics and to create efficiency enhancements for recirculating free-electron lasers. We developed a computer code for analyzing the critical KAM tori that binds the dynamic aperture in circular machines. Studies of modes that arise due to the interaction of coating beams with a narrow-spectrum impedance have begun. During this research educational and research ties with the accelerator community at large have been strengthened.

Analysis of a microstrip reflectarray antenna for microspacecraft applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, J.

1995-01-01

A microstrip reflectarray is a flat reflector antenna that can be mounted conformally onto a spacecraft's outside structure without consuming a significant amount of spacecraft volume and mass. For large apertures (2 m or larger), the antenna's reflecting surface, being flat, can be more easily and reliably deployed than a curved parabolic reflector. This article presents the study results on a microstrip reflect-array with circular polarization. Its efficiency and bandwidth characteristics are analyzed. Numerous advantages of this antenna system are discussed. Three new concepts using this microstrip reflectarray are also proposed.

The Performance and Scientific Rationale for an Infrared Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrograph on a Large Space Telescope

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-06-22

micromirrors . Thus, an IFTS will produce a rich scientific legacy with tremendous potential for serendipity. Table 1 details the capabilities of an IFTS...maintain modulation efficiency. Curves are plotted for resolutions , 105, and 1064R 5 k/dk 5 10 assuming an 8 m diameter primary aperture and a beam splitter...passbands centered at 1.1, 1.3, 1.7, 2.3, and 3.6 mm. Colors are plotted from ; a triangle is plotted at every interval of unit redshift. These curves

Measurements of ionospheric effects on wideband signals at VHF

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fitzgerald, T.J.

1998-08-17

Radars operating at very high frequency (VHF) have enhanced foliage and ground penetration compared to radars operated at higher frequencies. For example, VHF systems operated from airplanes have been used as synthetic aperture radars (SAR); a satellite-borne VHF SAR would have considerable utility. In order to operate with high resolution it would have to use both a large relative bandwidth and a large aperture. A satellite-borne radar would likely have to operate at altitudes above the maximum density of the ionosphere; the presence of the ionosphere in the propagation path of the radar will cause a deterioration of the performancemore » because of dispersion over the bandwidth. The author presents measurements of the effects of the ionosphere on radar signals propagated from a source on the surface of the Earth and received by instruments on the FORTE satellite at altitudes of 800 km. The author employs signals with a 90 MHz bandwidth centered at 240 MHz with a continuous digital recording period of 0.6 s.« less

Evaluating the effect of internal aperture variability on transport in kilometer scale discrete fracture networks

DOE PAGES

Makedonska, Nataliia; Hyman, Jeffrey D.; Karra, Satish; ...

2016-08-01

The apertures of natural fractures in fractured rock are highly heterogeneous. However, in-fracture aperture variability is often neglected in flow and transport modeling and individual fractures are assumed to have uniform aperture distribution. The relative importance of in-fracture variability in flow and transport modeling within kilometer-scale fracture networks has been under debate for a long time, since the flow in each single fracture is controlled not only by in-fracture variability but also by boundary conditions. Computational limitations have previously prohibited researchers from investigating the relative importance of in-fracture variability in flow and transport modeling within large-scale fracture networks. We addressmore » this question by incorporating internal heterogeneity of individual fractures into flow simulations within kilometer scale three-dimensional fracture networks, where fracture intensity, P 32 (ratio between total fracture area and domain volume) is between 0.027 and 0.031 [1/m]. The recently developed discrete fracture network (DFN) simulation capability, dfnWorks, is used to generate kilometer scale DFNs that include in-fracture aperture variability represented by a stationary log-normal stochastic field with various correlation lengths and variances. The Lagrangian transport parameters, non-reacting travel time, , and cumulative retention, , are calculated along particles streamlines. As a result, it is observed that due to local flow channeling early particle travel times are more sensitive to in-fracture aperture variability than the tails of travel time distributions, where no significant effect of the in-fracture aperture variations and spatial correlation length is observed.« less

Evaluating the effect of internal aperture variability on transport in kilometer scale discrete fracture networks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makedonska, Nataliia; Hyman, Jeffrey D.; Karra, Satish

The apertures of natural fractures in fractured rock are highly heterogeneous. However, in-fracture aperture variability is often neglected in flow and transport modeling and individual fractures are assumed to have uniform aperture distribution. The relative importance of in-fracture variability in flow and transport modeling within kilometer-scale fracture networks has been under debate for a long time, since the flow in each single fracture is controlled not only by in-fracture variability but also by boundary conditions. Computational limitations have previously prohibited researchers from investigating the relative importance of in-fracture variability in flow and transport modeling within large-scale fracture networks. We addressmore » this question by incorporating internal heterogeneity of individual fractures into flow simulations within kilometer scale three-dimensional fracture networks, where fracture intensity, P 32 (ratio between total fracture area and domain volume) is between 0.027 and 0.031 [1/m]. The recently developed discrete fracture network (DFN) simulation capability, dfnWorks, is used to generate kilometer scale DFNs that include in-fracture aperture variability represented by a stationary log-normal stochastic field with various correlation lengths and variances. The Lagrangian transport parameters, non-reacting travel time, , and cumulative retention, , are calculated along particles streamlines. As a result, it is observed that due to local flow channeling early particle travel times are more sensitive to in-fracture aperture variability than the tails of travel time distributions, where no significant effect of the in-fracture aperture variations and spatial correlation length is observed.« less

Modeling of biaxial gimbal-less MEMS scanning mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

von Wantoch, Thomas; Gu-Stoppel, Shanshan; Senger, Frank; Mallas, Christian; Hofmann, Ulrich; Meurer, Thomas; Benecke, Wolfgang

2016-03-01

One- and two-dimensional MEMS scanning mirrors for resonant or quasi-stationary beam deflection are primarily known as tiny micromirror devices with aperture sizes up to a few Millimeters and usually address low power applications in high volume markets, e.g. laser beam scanning pico-projectors or gesture recognition systems. In contrast, recently reported vacuum packaged MEMS scanners feature mirror diameters up to 20 mm and integrated high-reflectivity dielectric coatings. These mirrors enable MEMS based scanning for applications that require large apertures due to optical constraints like 3D sensing or microscopy as well as for high power laser applications like laser phosphor displays, automotive lighting and displays, 3D printing and general laser material processing. This work presents modelling, control design and experimental characterization of gimbal-less MEMS mirrors with large aperture size. As an example a resonant biaxial Quadpod scanner with 7 mm mirror diameter and four integrated PZT (lead zirconate titanate) actuators is analyzed. The finite element method (FEM) model developed and computed in COMSOL Multiphysics is used for calculating the eigenmodes of the mirror as well as for extracting a high order (n < 10000) state space representation of the mirror dynamics with actuation voltages as system inputs and scanner displacement as system output. By applying model order reduction techniques using MATLABR a compact state space system approximation of order n = 6 is computed. Based on this reduced order model feedforward control inputs for different, properly chosen scanner displacement trajectories are derived and tested using the original FEM model as well as the micromirror.

[Transmission efficiency analysis of near-field fiber probe using FDTD simulation].

PubMed

Huang, Wei; Dai, Song-Tao; Wang, Huai-Yu; Zhou, Yun-Song

2011-10-01

A fiber probe is the key component of near-field optical technology which is widely used in high resolution imaging, spectroscopy detection and nano processing. How to improve the transmission efficiency of the fiber probe is a very important problem in the application of near-field optical technology. Based on the results of 3D-FDTD computation, the dependence of the transmission efficiency on the cone angle, the aperture diameter, the wavelength and the thickness of metal cladding is revealed. The authors have also made a comparison between naked probe and the probe with metal cladding in terms of transmission efficiency and spatial resolution. In addition, the authors have discovered the fluctuation phenomena of transmission efficiency as the wavelength of incident laser increases.

Measuring and analyzing thermal deformations of the primary reflector of the Tianma radio telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Jian; Fu, Li; Liu, Qinghui; Shen, Zhiqiang

2018-06-01

The primary reflector of the Tianma Radio Telescope (TMRT) distorts due to the varying thermal conditions, which dramatically reduces the aperture efficiency of Q-band observations. To evaluate and overcome the thermal effects, a thermal deformations measurement system has been established based on the extended Out-of-Focus holography (e-OOF). The thermal deformations can be measured in approximately 20 min with an illumination-weighted surface root mean square (RMS) accuracy of approximately 50 μm. We have measured the thermal deformations when the backup and front structure were heated by the sun respectively, and used the active surface system to correct the thermal deformations immediately to confirm the measurements. The thermal deformations when the backup structure is heated are larger than those when the front structure is heated. The values of half power beam width (HPBW) are related to the illumination-weighted surface RMS, and can be used to check the thermal deformations. When the backup structure is heated, the aperture efficiencies can remain above 90% of the maximum efficiency at 40 GHz for approximately two hours after one adjustment. While the front structure is heated, the aperture efficiencies can remain above 90% of the maximum efficiency at 40 GHz, and above 95% after one adjustment in approximately three hours.

NST: Thermal Modeling for a Large Aperture Solar Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coulter, Roy

2011-05-01

Late in the 1990s the Dutch Open Telescope demonstrated that internal seeing in open, large aperture solar telescopes can be controlled by flushing air across the primary mirror and other telescope structures exposed to sunlight. In that system natural wind provides a uniform air temperature throughout the imaging volume, while efficiently sweeping heated air away from the optics and mechanical structure. Big Bear Solar Observatory's New Solar Telescope (NST) was designed to realize that same performance in an enclosed system by using both natural wind through the dome and forced air circulation around the primary mirror to provide the uniform air temperatures required within the telescope volume. The NST is housed in a conventional, ventilated dome with a circular opening, in place of the standard dome slit, that allows sunlight to fall only on an aperture stop and the primary mirror. The primary mirror is housed deep inside a cylindrical cell with only minimal openings in the side at the level of the mirror. To date, the forced air and cooling systems designed for the NST primary mirror have not been implemented, yet the telescope regularly produces solar images indicative of the absence of mirror seeing. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the NST primary mirror system along with measurements of air flows within the dome, around the telescope structure, and internal to the mirror cell are used to explain the origin of this seemingly incongruent result. The CFD analysis is also extended to hypothetical systems of various scales. We will discuss the results of these investigations.

Future Prospects for Very High Angular Resolution Imaging in the UV/Optical

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, R. J.

2004-05-01

Achieving the most demanding science goals outlined by the previous speakers will ultimately require the development of coherent space-based arrays of UV/Optical light collectors spread over distances of hundreds of meters. It is possible to envisage ``in situ" assembly of large segmented filled-aperture telescopes in space using components ferried up with conventional launchers. However, the cost will grow roughly as the mass of material required, and this will ultimately limit the sizes of the apertures we can afford. Furthermore, since the collecting area and the angular resolution are coupled for diffraction-limited filled apertures, the sensitivity may be much higher than is actually required to do the science. Constellations of collectors deployed over large areas as interferometer arrays or sparse apertures offer the possibility of independently tailoring the angular resolution and the sensitivity in order to optimally match the science requirements. Several concept designs have been proposed to provide imaging data for different classes of targets such as protoplanetary disks, the nuclear regions of the nearest active galaxies, and the surfaces of stars of different types. Constellations of identical collectors may be built and launched at lower cost through mass production, but new challenges arise when they have to be deployed. The ``aperture" synthesized is only as good as the accuracy with which the individual collectors can be placed and held to the required figure. This ``station-keeping" problem is one of the most important engineering problems to be solved before the promise of virtually unlimited angular resolution in the UV/Optical can be realized. Among the attractive features of an array of free-flying collectors configured for imaging is the fact that the figure errors of the ``aperture" so produced may be much more random than is the case for monolithic or segmented telescopes. This can result in a significant improvement in the dynamic range and permit imaging of faint objects near much brighter extraneous nearby sources, a task presently reserved for specially-designed coronagraphs on filled apertures.

Sparse synthetic aperture with Fresnel elements (S-SAFE) using digital incoherent holograms

PubMed Central

Kashter, Yuval; Rivenson, Yair; Stern, Adrian; Rosen, Joseph

2015-01-01

Creating a large-scale synthetic aperture makes it possible to break the resolution boundaries dictated by the wave nature of light of common optical systems. However, their implementation is challenging, since the generation of a large size continuous mosaic synthetic aperture composed of many patterns is complicated in terms of both phase matching and time-multiplexing duration. In this study we present an advanced configuration for an incoherent holographic imaging system with super resolution qualities that creates a partial synthetic aperture. The new system, termed sparse synthetic aperture with Fresnel elements (S-SAFE), enables significantly decreasing the number of the recorded elements, and it is free from positional constrains on their location. Additionally, in order to obtain the best image quality we propose an optimal mosaicking structure derived on the basis of physical and numerical considerations, and introduce three reconstruction approaches which are compared and discussed. The super-resolution capabilities of the proposed scheme and its limitations are analyzed, numerically simulated and experimentally demonstrated. PMID:26367947

Standoff Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Using a Miniature Wide Field of View Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer with Sub-Microsteradian Collection Optics.

PubMed

Barnett, Patrick D; Lamsal, Nirmal; Angel, S Michael

2017-04-01

A spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) is described for standoff laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. The spatial heterodyne LIBS spectrometer (SHLS) is a diffraction grating based interferometer with no moving parts that offers a very large field of view, high light throughput, and high spectral resolution in a small package. The field of view of the SHLS spectrometer is shown to be ∼1° in standoff LIBS measurements. In the SHLS system described here, the collection aperture was defined by the 10 mm diffraction gratings in the SHS and standoff LIBS measurements were made up to 20 m with no additional collection optics, corresponding to a collection solid angle of 0.2 μsr, or f/2000, and also using a small telescope to increase the collection efficiency. The use of a microphone was demonstrated to rapidly optimize laser focus for 20 m standoff LIBS measurements.

Double high refractive-index contrast grating VCSEL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gebski, Marcin; Dems, Maciej; Wasiak, Michał; Sarzała, Robert P.; Lott, J. A.; Czyszanowski, Tomasz

2015-03-01

Distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are typically used as the highly reflecting mirrors of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). In order to provide optical field confinement, oxide apertures are often incorporated in the process of the selective wet oxidation of high aluminum-content DBR layers. This technology has some potential drawbacks such as difficulty in controlling the uniformity of the oxide aperture diameters across a large-diameter (≥ 6 inch) production wafers, high DBR series resistance especially for small diameters below about 5 μm despite elaborate grading and doping schemes, free carrier absorption at longer emission wavelengths in the p-doped DBRs, reduced reliability for oxide apertures placed close to the quantum wells, and low thermal conductivity for transporting heat away from the active region. A prospective alternative mirror is a high refractive index contrast grating (HCG) monolithically integrated with the VCSEL cavity. Two HCG mirrors potentially offer a very compact and simplified VCSEL design although the problems of resistance, heat dissipation, and reliability are not completely solved. We present an analysis of a double HCG 980 nm GaAs-based ultra-thin VCSEL. We analyze the optical confinement of such a structure with a total optical thickness is ~1.0λ including the optical cavity and the two opposing and parallel HCG mirrors.

The Effect of Sub-Aperture in DRIA Framework Applied on Multi-Aspect PolSAR Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xue, Feiteng; Yin, Qiang; Lin, Yun; Hong, Wen

2016-08-01

Multi-aspect SAR is a new remote sensing technology, achieves consecutive data in large look angle as platform moves. Multi- aspect observation brings higher resolution and SNR to SAR picture. Multi-aspect PolSAR data can increase the accuracy of target identify and classification because it contains the 3-D polarimetric scattering properties.DRIA(detecting-removing-incoherent-adding)framework is a multi-aspect PolSAR data processing method. In this method, the anisotropic and isotropic scattering is separated by maximum- likelihood ratio test. The anisotropic scattering is removed to gain a removal series. The isotropic scattering is incoherent added to gain a high resolution picture. The removal series describes the anisotropic scattering property and is used in features extraction and classification.This article focuses on the effect brought by difference of sub-aperture numbers in anisotropic scattering detection and removal. The more sub-apertures are, the less look angle is. Artificial target has anisotropic scattering because of Bragg resonances. The increase of sub-aperture number brings more accurate observation in azimuth though the quality of each single image may loss. The accuracy of classification in agricultural fields is affected by the anisotropic scattering brought by Bragg resonances. The size of the sub-aperture has a significant effect in the removal result of Bragg resonances.

Beam Combination for Stellar Imager and its Application to Full-Aperture Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mozurkewich, D.; Carpenter, K. G.; Lyon, R. G.

2007-01-01

Stellar Imager (SI) will be a Space-Based telescope consisting of 20 to 30 separated apertures. It is designed for UV/Optical imaging of stellar surfaces and asteroseismology. This report describes details of an alternative optical design for the beam combiner, dubbed the Spatial Frequency Remapper (SFR). It sacrifices the large field of view of the Fizeau combiner. In return, spectral resolution is obtained with a diffraction grating rather than an array of energy-resolving detectors. The SFR design works in principle and has been implemented with MIRC at CHARA for a small number of apertures. Here, we show the number of optical surfaces can be reduced and the concept scales gracefully to the large number of apertures needed for Stellar Imager. We also describe a potential application of this spatial frequency remapping to improved imaging with filled aperture systems. For filled-aperture imaging, the SFR becomes the core of an improved aperture masking system. To date, aperture-masking has produced the best images with ground-based telescopes but at the expense of low sensitivity due to short exposures and discarding most of the light collected by the telescope. This design eliminates the light-loss problem previously claimed to be inherent in all aperture-masking designs. We also argue that at least in principle, the short-integration time limit can also be overcome. With these improvements, it becomes an ideal camera for TPF-C; since it can form speckle-free images in the presence of wavefront errors, it should significantly relax the stability requirements of the current designs.

Large-field-of-view, modular, stabilized, adaptive-optics-based scanning laser ophthalmoscope.

PubMed

Burns, Stephen A; Tumbar, Remy; Elsner, Ann E; Ferguson, Daniel; Hammer, Daniel X

2007-05-01

We describe the design and performance of an adaptive optics retinal imager that is optimized for use during dynamic correction for eye movements. The system incorporates a retinal tracker and stabilizer, a wide-field line scan scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), and a high-resolution microelectromechanical-systems-based adaptive optics SLO. The detection system incorporates selection and positioning of confocal apertures, allowing measurement of images arising from different portions of the double pass retinal point-spread function (psf). System performance was excellent. The adaptive optics increased the brightness and contrast for small confocal apertures by more than 2x and decreased the brightness of images obtained with displaced apertures, confirming the ability of the adaptive optics system to improve the psf. The retinal image was stabilized to within 18 microm 90% of the time. Stabilization was sufficient for cross-correlation techniques to automatically align the images.

High resolution earth observation from geostationary orbit by optical aperture synthesys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mesrine, M.; Thomas, E.; Garin, S.; Blanc, P.; Alis, C.; Cassaing, F.; Laubier, D.

2017-11-01

In this paper, we describe Optical Aperture Synthesis (OAS) imaging instrument concepts studied by Alcatel Alenia Space under a CNES R&T contract in term of technical feasibility. First, the methodology to select the aperture configuration is proposed, based on the definition and quantification of image quality criteria adapted to an OAS instrument for direct imaging of extended objects. The following section presents, for each interferometer type (Michelson and Fizeau), the corresponding optical configurations compatible with a large field of view from GEO orbit. These optical concepts take into account the constraints imposed by the foreseen resolution and the implementation of the co-phasing functions. The fourth section is dedicated to the analysis of the co-phasing methodologies, from the configuration deployment to the fine stabilization during observation. Finally, we present a trade-off analysis allowing to select the concept wrt mission specification and constraints related to instrument accommodation under launcher shroud and in-orbit deployment.

Large Field of View, Modular, Stabilized, Adaptive-Optics-Based Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope

PubMed Central

Burns, Stephen A.; Tumbar, Remy; Elsner, Ann E.; Ferguson, Daniel; Hammer, Daniel X.

2007-01-01

We describe the design and performance of an adaptive optics retinal imager that is optimized for use during dynamic correction for eye movements. The system incorporates a retinal tracker and stabilizer, a wide field line scan Scanning Laser Ophthalmocsope (SLO), and a high resolution MEMS based adaptive optics SLO. The detection system incorporates selection and positioning of confocal apertures, allowing measurement of images arising from different portions of the double pass retinal point spread function (psf). System performance was excellent. The adaptive optics increased the brightness and contrast for small confocal apertures by more than 2x, and decreased the brightness of images obtained with displaced apertures, confirming the ability of the adaptive optics system to improve the pointspread function. The retinal image was stabilized to within 18 microns 90% of the time. Stabilization was sufficient for cross-correlation techniques to automatically align the images. PMID:17429477

FWT2D: A massively parallel program for frequency-domain full-waveform tomography of wide-aperture seismic data—Part 1: Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sourbier, Florent; Operto, Stéphane; Virieux, Jean; Amestoy, Patrick; L'Excellent, Jean-Yves

2009-03-01

This is the first paper in a two-part series that describes a massively parallel code that performs 2D frequency-domain full-waveform inversion of wide-aperture seismic data for imaging complex structures. Full-waveform inversion methods, namely quantitative seismic imaging methods based on the resolution of the full wave equation, are computationally expensive. Therefore, designing efficient algorithms which take advantage of parallel computing facilities is critical for the appraisal of these approaches when applied to representative case studies and for further improvements. Full-waveform modelling requires the resolution of a large sparse system of linear equations which is performed with the massively parallel direct solver MUMPS for efficient multiple-shot simulations. Efficiency of the multiple-shot solution phase (forward/backward substitutions) is improved by using the BLAS3 library. The inverse problem relies on a classic local optimization approach implemented with a gradient method. The direct solver returns the multiple-shot wavefield solutions distributed over the processors according to a domain decomposition driven by the distribution of the LU factors. The domain decomposition of the wavefield solutions is used to compute in parallel the gradient of the objective function and the diagonal Hessian, this latter providing a suitable scaling of the gradient. The algorithm allows one to test different strategies for multiscale frequency inversion ranging from successive mono-frequency inversion to simultaneous multifrequency inversion. These different inversion strategies will be illustrated in the following companion paper. The parallel efficiency and the scalability of the code will also be quantified.

CubeSats for Astrophysics: The Current Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ardila, David R.; Shkolnik, Evgenya; Gorjian, Varoujan

2017-01-01

Cubesats are small satellites built to multiples of 1U (1000 cm3). The 2016 NRC Report “Achieving Science with CubeSats” indicates that between 2013 and 2018 NASA and NSF sponsored 104 CubeSats. Of those, only one is devoted to astrophysics: HaloSat (PI: P. Kaaret), a 6U CubeSat with an X-ray payload to study the hot galactic halo.Despite this paucity of missions, CubeSats have a lot of potential for astrophysics. To assess the science landscape that a CubeSat astrophysics mission may occupy, we consider the following parameters:1-Wavelength: CubeSats are not competitive in the visible, unless the application (e.g. high precision photometry) is difficult to do from the ground. Thermal IR science is limited by the lack of low-power miniaturized cryocoolers and by the large number of infrared astrophysical missions launched or planned. In the UV, advances in δ-doping processes result in larger sensitivity with smaller apertures. Commercial X-ray detectors also allow for competitive science.2-Survey vs. Pointed observations: All-sky surveys have been done at most wavelengths from X-rays to Far-IR and CubeSats will not be able to compete in sensitivity with them. CubeSat science should then center on specific objects or object classes. Due to poor attitude control, unresolved photometry is scientifically more promising that extended imaging.3-Single-epoch vs. time domain: CubeSat apertures cannot compete in sensitivity with big satellites when doing single-epoch observations. However, time-domain astrophysics is an area in which CubeSats can provide very valuable science return.Technologically, CubeSat astrophysics is limited by:1-Lack of large apertures: The largest aperture CubeSat launched is ~10 cm, although deployable apertures as large as 20 cm could be fitted to 6U buses.2-Poor attitude control: State-of-the-art systems have demonstrated jitter of ~10” on timescales of seconds. Jitter imposes limits on image quality and, coupled with detector errors, limits the S/N.Other technology limitations include the lack of high-bandwidth communication and low-power miniaturized cryocoolers. However, even with today’s technological limitations, astrophysics applications of CubeSats are only limited by our imagination.

Improved ion optics for introduction of ions into a 9.4-T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer

DOE PAGES

Chen, Yu; Leach, Franklin E.; Kaiser, Nathan K.; ...

2015-01-19

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry provides unparalleled mass accuracy and resolving power.[1],[2] With electrospray ionization (ESI), ions are typically transferred into the mass spectrometer through a skimmer, which serves as a conductance-limiting orifice. However, the skimmer allows only a small fraction of incoming ions to enter the mass spectrometer. An ion funnel, originally developed by Smith and coworkers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)[3-5] provides much more efficient ion focusing and transfer. The large entrance aperture of the ion funnel allows almost all ions emanating from a heated capillary to be efficiently captured and transferred, resulting inmore » nearly lossless transmission.« less

Low Voltage, Low Power Organic Light Emitting Transistors for AMOLED Displays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCarthy, M. A.; Liu, B.; Donoghue, E. P.

2011-01-01

Low voltage, low power dissipation, high aperture ratio organic light emitting transistors are demonstrated. The high level of performance is enabled by a carbon nanotube source electrode that permits integration of the drive transistor and the organic light emitting diode into an efficient single stacked device. Given the demonstrated performance, this technology could break the technical logjam holding back widespread deployment of active matrix organic light emitting displays at flat panel screen sizes.

Self-Referencing Hartmann Test for Large-Aperture Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Korechoff, Robert P.; Oseas, Jeffrey M.

2010-01-01

A method is proposed for end-to-end, full aperture testing of large-aperture telescopes using an innovative variation of a Hartmann mask. This technique is practical for telescopes with primary mirrors tens of meters in diameter and of any design. Furthermore, it is applicable to the entire optical band (near IR, visible, ultraviolet), relatively insensitive to environmental perturbations, and is suitable for ambient laboratory as well as thermal-vacuum environments. The only restriction is that the telescope optical axis must be parallel to the local gravity vector during testing. The standard Hartmann test utilizes an array of pencil beams that are cut out of a well-corrected wavefront using a mask. The pencil beam array is expanded to fill the full aperture of the telescope. The detector plane of the telescope is translated back and forth along the optical axis in the vicinity of the nominal focal plane, and the centroid of each pencil beam image is recorded. Standard analytical techniques are then used to reconstruct the telescope wavefront from the centroid data. The expansion of the array of pencil beams is usually accomplished by double passing the beams through the telescope under test. However, this requires a well-corrected, autocollimation flat, the diameter or which is approximately equal to that of the telescope aperture. Thus, the standard Hartmann method does not scale well because of the difficulty and expense of building and mounting a well-corrected, large aperture flat. The innovation in the testing method proposed here is to replace the large aperture, well-corrected, monolithic autocollimation flat with an array of small-aperture mirrors. In addition to eliminating the need for a large optic, the surface figure requirement for the small mirrors is relaxed compared to that required of the large autocollimation flat. The key point that allows this method to work is that the small mirrors need to operate as a monolithic flat only with regard to tip/tilt and not piston because in collimated space piston has no effect on the image centroids. The problem of aligning the small mirrors in tip/tilt requires a two-part solution. First, each mirror is suspended from a two-axis gimbal. The orientation of the gimbal is maintained by gravity. Second, the mirror is aligned such that the mirror normal is parallel to gravity vector. This is accomplished interferometrically in a test fixture. Of course, the test fixture itself needs to be calibrated with respect to gravity.

SU-E-T-395: Multi-GPU-Based VMAT Treatment Plan Optimization Using a Column-Generation Approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tian, Z; Shi, F; Jia, X

Purpose: GPU has been employed to speed up VMAT optimizations from hours to minutes. However, its limited memory capacity makes it difficult to handle cases with a huge dose-deposition-coefficient (DDC) matrix, e.g. those with a large target size, multiple arcs, small beam angle intervals and/or small beamlet size. We propose multi-GPU-based VMAT optimization to solve this memory issue to make GPU-based VMAT more practical for clinical use. Methods: Our column-generation-based method generates apertures sequentially by iteratively searching for an optimal feasible aperture (referred as pricing problem, PP) and optimizing aperture intensities (referred as master problem, MP). The PP requires accessmore » to the large DDC matrix, which is implemented on a multi-GPU system. Each GPU stores a DDC sub-matrix corresponding to one fraction of beam angles and is only responsible for calculation related to those angles. Broadcast and parallel reduction schemes are adopted for inter-GPU data transfer. MP is a relatively small-scale problem and is implemented on one GPU. One headand- neck cancer case was used for test. Three different strategies for VMAT optimization on single GPU were also implemented for comparison: (S1) truncating DDC matrix to ignore its small value entries for optimization; (S2) transferring DDC matrix part by part to GPU during optimizations whenever needed; (S3) moving DDC matrix related calculation onto CPU. Results: Our multi-GPU-based implementation reaches a good plan within 1 minute. Although S1 was 10 seconds faster than our method, the obtained plan quality is worse. Both S2 and S3 handle the full DDC matrix and hence yield the same plan as in our method. However, the computation time is longer, namely 4 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively. Conclusion: Our multi-GPU-based VMAT optimization can effectively solve the limited memory issue with good plan quality and high efficiency, making GPUbased ultra-fast VMAT planning practical for real clinical use.« less

Exo-C: A Space Mission for Direct Imaging and Spectroscopy of Extrasolar Planetary Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stapelfeldt, Karl; Belikov, Ruslan; Marley, Mark; Bryden, Geoff; Serabyn, Eugene; Trauger, John; Cahoy, Kerri; Chakrabarti, Supriya; McElwain, Michael; Meadows, Victoria;

Current Status of the High Contrast Imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) Testbed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brooks, Keira; Brady, Gregory; Brito, Arturo; Comeau, Tom; Dillon, Thomas; Choquet, Elodie; Egron, Sylvain; Rob, Gontrum; John, Hagopian; Leboulleux, Lucie; Perrin, Marshall; Petrone, Peter; Pueyo, Laurent; Mazoyer, Johan; Moriarty, Christopher; N’Diaye, Mamadou; Eldorado Riggs, A. J.; Shiri, Ron; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; St. Laurent, Kathryn; Valenzuela, Ana Maria; Zimmerman, Neil; Soummer, Remi; JHU Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team

2018-01-01

The coming decades will bring the next space telescopes to take on the ambitious goal of exoplanet discovery via direct imaging, driving the development of innovative coronagraphic solutions. High contrast imager for Complex Aperture Telescopes (HiCAT) is an optical testbed meant to test such solutions for complex aperture telescopes, such as the Large UV/Optical/InfraRed surveyor (LUVOIR), or any other segmented space observatory. High contrast imaging becomes more demanding with the addition of segments, a secondary mirror obscuration, and support structure. LUVOIR, a candidate for the next-next generation major space telescope funded in part by NASA, will have all three. In the past year, HiCAT has made significant hardware and software updates in order to meet the needs of LUVOIR. In addition to completely overhauling the software that runs the testbed, we have received the first two custom-made apodizers for the Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph (APLC) that we are testing for LUVOIR, and are continuing the development of the wavefront sensing and control. This poster will serve to give an update on these, and other, changes, as well as the most recent results.

Broadband high-efficiency dielectric metasurfaces for the visible spectrum

PubMed Central

Devlin, Robert C.; Khorasaninejad, Mohammadreza; Chen, Wei Ting; Oh, Jaewon; Capasso, Federico

2016-01-01

Metasurfaces are planar optical elements that hold promise for overcoming the limitations of refractive and conventional diffractive optics. Original dielectric metasurfaces are limited to transparency windows at infrared wavelengths because of significant optical absorption and loss at visible wavelengths. Thus, it is critical that new materials and nanofabrication techniques be developed to extend dielectric metasurfaces across the visible spectrum and to enable applications such as high numerical aperture lenses, color holograms, and wearable optics. Here, we demonstrate high performance dielectric metasurfaces in the form of holograms for red, green, and blue wavelengths with record absolute efficiency (>78%). We use atomic layer deposition of amorphous titanium dioxide with surface roughness less than 1 nm and negligible optical loss. We use a process for fabricating dielectric metasurfaces that allows us to produce anisotropic, subwavelength-spaced dielectric nanostructures with shape birefringence. This process is capable of realizing any high-efficiency metasurface optical element, e.g., metalenses and axicons. PMID:27601634

A Fast Synthetic Aperture Radar Raw Data Simulation Using Cloud Computing.

PubMed

Li, Zhixin; Su, Dandan; Zhu, Haijiang; Li, Wei; Zhang, Fan; Li, Ruirui

2017-01-08

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) raw data simulation is a fundamental problem in radar system design and imaging algorithm research. The growth of surveying swath and resolution results in a significant increase in data volume and simulation period, which can be considered to be a comprehensive data intensive and computing intensive issue. Although several high performance computing (HPC) methods have demonstrated their potential for accelerating simulation, the input/output (I/O) bottleneck of huge raw data has not been eased. In this paper, we propose a cloud computing based SAR raw data simulation algorithm, which employs the MapReduce model to accelerate the raw data computing and the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) for fast I/O access. The MapReduce model is designed for the irregular parallel accumulation of raw data simulation, which greatly reduces the parallel efficiency of graphics processing unit (GPU) based simulation methods. In addition, three kinds of optimization strategies are put forward from the aspects of programming model, HDFS configuration and scheduling. The experimental results show that the cloud computing based algorithm achieves 4_ speedup over the baseline serial approach in an 8-node cloud environment, and each optimization strategy can improve about 20%. This work proves that the proposed cloud algorithm is capable of solving the computing intensive and data intensive issues in SAR raw data simulation, and is easily extended to large scale computing to achieve higher acceleration.

Swift/BAT Calibration and Spectral Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parsons, A.

2004-01-01

The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) aboard NASA#s Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer is a large coded aperture gamma-ray telescope consisting of a 2.4 m (8#) x 1.2 m (4#) coded aperture mask supported 1 meter above a 5200 square cm area detector plane containing 32,768 individual 4 mm x 4 mm x 2 mm CZT detectors. The BAT is now completely assembled and integrated with the Swift spacecraft in anticipation of an October 2004 launch. Extensive ground calibration measurements using a variety of radioactive sources have resulted in a moderately high fidelity model for the BAT spectral and photometric response. This paper describes these ground calibration measurements as well as related computer simulations used to study the efficiency and individual detector properties of the BAT detector array. The creation of a single spectral response model representative of the fully integrated BAT posed an interesting challenge and is at the heart of the public analysis tool #batdrmgen# which computes a response matrix for any given sky position within the BAT FOV. This paper will describe the batdrmgen response generator tool and conclude with a description of the on-orbit calibration plans as well as plans for the future improvements needed to produce the more detailed spectral response model that is required for the construction of an all-sky hard x-ray survey.

The analysis of the wavefront aberration caused by the gravity of the tunable-focus liquid-filled membrane lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei; Liu, Pengfei; Wei, Xiaona; Zhuang, Songlin; Yang, Bo

2010-11-01

Liquid lens is a novel optical device which can implement active zooming. With liquid lens, zoom camera can be designed with more miniature size and simpler structure than before. It is thought that the micro zoom system with liquid lens has a very wide potential applications in many fields, in which the volume and weight of the system are critically limited, such as endoscope, mobile, PDA and so on. There are mainly three types of tunable-focus liquid lens: liquid crystal lens, electrowetting effect based liquid lens and liquid-filled membrane lens. Comparing with the other two kinds of liquid lens, the liquid-filled membrane lens has the advantages of simple structure, flexible aperture and high zooming efficiency. But its membrane surface will have an initial shape deformation caused by the gravity when the aperture of the lens is at large size, which will lead to the wave front aberration and the imaging quality impairing. In this paper, the initial deformation of the lens caused by the gravity was simulated based on the theory of Elastic Mechanics, which was calculated by the Finite Element Analysis method. The relationship between the diameter of the lens and the wave front aberration caused by the gravity was studied. And the Optical path difference produced by different liquid density was also analyzed.

Imaging Protoplanets: Observing Transition Disks with Non-Redundant Masking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sallum, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Transition disks - protoplanetary disks with inner, solar system sized clearings - may be shaped by young planets. Directly imaging protoplanets in these objects requires high contrast and resolution, making them promising targets for future extremely large telescopes. The interferometric technique of non-redundant masking (NRM) is well suited for these observations, enabling companion detection for contrasts of 1:100 - 1:1000 at or within the diffraction limit. My dissertation focuses on searching for and characterizing companions in transition disk clearings using NRM. I will briefly describe the technique and present spatially resolved observations of the T Cha and LkCa 15 transition disks. Both of these objects hosted posited substellar companions. However multi-epoch T Cha datasets cannot be explained by planets orbiting in the disk plane. Conversely, LkCa 15 data taken with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in single-aperture mode reveal the presence of multiple forming planets. The dual aperture LBT will provide triple the angular resolution of these observations, dramatically increasing the phase space for exoplanet detection. I will also present new results from the dual-aperture LBT, with similar resolution to that expected for next generation facilities like GMT.

The Impact of the Condenser on Cytogenetic Image Quality in Digital Microscope System

PubMed Central

Ren, Liqiang; Li, Zheng; Li, Yuhua; Zheng, Bin; Li, Shibo; Chen, Xiaodong; Liu, Hong

2013-01-01

Background: Optimizing operational parameters of the digital microscope system is an important technique to acquire high quality cytogenetic images and facilitate the process of karyotyping so that the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis can be improved. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality and system working performance using a prototype digital microscope image scanning system. Methods: Both theoretical analysis and experimental validations through objectively evaluating a resolution test chart and subjectively observing large numbers of specimen were conducted. Results: The results show that the optimal image quality and large depth of field (DOF) are simultaneously obtained when the numerical aperture of condenser is set as 60%–70% of the corresponding objective. Under this condition, more analyzable chromosomes and diagnostic information are obtained. As a result, the system shows higher working stability and less restriction for the implementation of algorithms such as autofocusing especially when the system is designed to achieve high throughput continuous image scanning. Conclusions: Although the above quantitative results were obtained using a specific prototype system under the experimental conditions reported in this paper, the presented evaluation methodologies can provide valuable guidelines for optimizing operational parameters in cytogenetic imaging using the high throughput continuous scanning microscopes in clinical practice. PMID:23676284

Large-area PSPMT based gamma-ray imager with edge reclamation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ziock, K-P; Nakae, L

2000-09-21

We describe a coded aperture, gamma-ray imager which uses a CsI(Na) scintillator coupled to an Hamamatsu R3292 position-sensitive photomultiplier tube (PSPMT) as the position-sensitive detector. We have modified the normal resistor divider readout of the PSPMT to allow use of nearly the full 10 cm diameter active area of the PSPMT with a single scintillator crystal one centimeter thick. This is a significant performance improvement over that obtained with the standard readout technique where the linearity and position resolution start to degrade at radii as small as 3.5 cm with a crystal 0.75 crn thick. This represents a recovery ofmore » over 60% of the PSPMT active area. The performance increase allows the construction of an imager with a field of view 20 resolution elements in diameter with useful quantum efficiency from 60-700 keV. In this paper we describe the readout technique, its implementation in a coded aperture imager and the performance of that imager.« less

Materials, Structures and Manufacturing: An Integrated Approach to Develop Expandable Structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belvin, W. Keith; Zander, Martin E.; Sleight, Daid W.; Connell, John; Holloway, Nancy; Palmieri, Frank

2012-01-01

Membrane dominated space structures are lightweight and package efficiently for launch; however, they must be expanded (deployed) in-orbit to achieve the desired geometry. These expandable structural systems include solar sails, solar power arrays, antennas, and numerous other large aperture devices that are used to collect, reflect and/or transmit electromagnetic radiation. In this work, an integrated approach to development of thin-film damage tolerant membranes is explored using advanced manufacturing. Bio-inspired hierarchical structures were printed on films using additive manufacturing to achieve improved tear resistance and to facilitate membrane deployment. High precision, robust expandable structures can be realized using materials that are both space durable and processable using additive manufacturing. Test results show this initial work produced higher tear resistance than neat film of equivalent mass. Future research and development opportunities for expandable structural systems designed using an integrated approach to structural design, manufacturing, and materials selection are discussed.

The establishment and application of direct coupled electrostatic-structural field model in electrostatically controlled deployable membrane antenna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Yongzhen; Duan, Baoyan; Du, Jingli

2018-05-01

The electrostatically controlled deployable membrane antenna (ECDMA) is a promising space structure due to its low weight, large aperture and high precision characteristics. However, it is an extreme challenge to describe the coupled field between electrostatic and membrane structure accurately. A direct coupled method is applied to solve the coupled problem in this paper. Firstly, the membrane structure and electrostatic field are uniformly described by energy, considering the coupled problem is an energy conservation phenomenon. Then the direct coupled electrostatic-structural field governing equilibrium equations are obtained by energy variation approach. Numerical results show that the direct coupled method improves the computing efficiency by 36% compared with the traditional indirect coupled method with the same level accuracy. Finally, the prototype has been manufactured and tested and the ECDMA finite element simulations show good agreement with the experiment results as the maximum surface error difference is 6%.

Analytical prediction with multidimensional computer programs and experimental verification of the performance, at a variety of operating conditions, of two traveling wave tubes with depressed collectors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dayton, J. A., Jr.; Kosmahl, H. G.; Ramins, P.; Stankiewicz, N.

1979-01-01

Experimental and analytical results are compared for two high performance, octave bandwidth TWT's that use depressed collectors (MDC's) to improve the efficiency. The computations were carried out with advanced, multidimensional computer programs that are described here in detail. These programs model the electron beam as a series of either disks or rings of charge and follow their multidimensional trajectories from the RF input of the ideal TWT, through the slow wave structure, through the magnetic refocusing system, to their points of impact in the depressed collector. Traveling wave tube performance, collector efficiency, and collector current distribution were computed and the results compared with measurements for a number of TWT-MDC systems. Power conservation and correct accounting of TWT and collector losses were observed. For the TWT's operating at saturation, very good agreement was obtained between the computed and measured collector efficiencies. For a TWT operating 3 and 6 dB below saturation, excellent agreement between computed and measured collector efficiencies was obtained in some cases but only fair agreement in others. However, deviations can largely be explained by small differences in the computed and actual spent beam energy distributions. The analytical tools used here appear to be sufficiently refined to design efficient collectors for this class of TWT. However, for maximum efficiency, some experimental optimization (e.g., collector voltages and aperture sizes) will most likely be required.

Many-body Study of Core-valence Partitioning and Correlation in Systems with Large-Z Element

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zehtabi-Oskuie, Ana

This thesis presents optical trapping of various single nanoparticles, and the method for integrating the optical trap system into a microfluidic channel to examine the trapping stiffness and to study binding at the single molecule level. Optical trapping is the capability to immobilize, move, and manipulate small objects in a gentle way. Conventional trapping methods are able to trap dielectric particles with size greater than 100 nm. Optical trapping using nanostructures has overcome this limitation so that it has been of interest to trap nanoparticles for bio-analytical studies. In particular, aperture optical trapping allows for trapping at low powers, and easy detection of the trapping events by noting abrupt jumps in the transmission intensity of the trapping beam through the aperture. Improved trapping efficiency has been achieved by changing the aperture shape from a circle; for example, to a rectangle, double nanohole (DNH), or coaxial aperture. The DNH has the advantage of a well-defined trapping region between the two cusps where the nanoholes overlap, which typically allows only single particle trapping due to steric hindrance. Trapping of 21 nm encapsulated quantum dot has been achieved which shows optical trapping can be used in technologies that seek to place a quantum dot at a specific location in a plasmonic or nanophotonic structure. The DNH has been used to trap and unfold a single protein. The high signal-to-noise ratio of 33 in monitoring single protein trapping and unfolding shows a tremendous potential for using the double nanohole as a sensor for protein binding events at a single molecule level. The DNH integrated in a microfluidic chip with flow to show that stable trapping can be achieved under reasonable flow rates of a few microL/min. With such stable trapping under flow, it is possible to envision co-trapping of proteins to study their interactions. Co-trapping is achieved for the case where we flow in a protein (bovine serum albumin -- BSA) and co-trap its antibody (anti-BSA).

A novel software and conceptual design of the hardware platform for intensity modulated radiation therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nguyen, Dan; Ruan, Dan; O’Connor, Daniel

Purpose: To deliver high quality intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) using a novel generalized sparse orthogonal collimators (SOCs), the authors introduce a novel direct aperture optimization (DAO) approach based on discrete rectangular representation. Methods: A total of seven patients—two glioblastoma multiforme, three head & neck (including one with three prescription doses), and two lung—were included. 20 noncoplanar beams were selected using a column generation and pricing optimization method. The SOC is a generalized conventional orthogonal collimators with N leaves in each collimator bank, where N = 1, 2, or 4. SOC degenerates to conventional jaws when N = 1. For SOC-basedmore » IMRT, rectangular aperture optimization (RAO) was performed to optimize the fluence maps using rectangular representation, producing fluence maps that can be directly converted into a set of deliverable rectangular apertures. In order to optimize the dose distribution and minimize the number of apertures used, the overall objective was formulated to incorporate an L2 penalty reflecting the difference between the prescription and the projected doses, and an L1 sparsity regularization term to encourage a low number of nonzero rectangular basis coefficients. The optimization problem was solved using the Chambolle–Pock algorithm, a first-order primal–dual algorithm. Performance of RAO was compared to conventional two-step IMRT optimization including fluence map optimization and direct stratification for multileaf collimator (MLC) segmentation (DMS) using the same number of segments. For the RAO plans, segment travel time for SOC delivery was evaluated for the N = 1, N = 2, and N = 4 SOC designs to characterize the improvement in delivery efficiency as a function of N. Results: Comparable PTV dose homogeneity and coverage were observed between the RAO and the DMS plans. The RAO plans were slightly superior to the DMS plans in sparing critical structures. On average, the maximum and mean critical organ doses were reduced by 1.94% and 1.44% of the prescription dose. The average number of delivery segments was 12.68 segments per beam for both the RAO and DMS plans. The N = 2 and N = 4 SOC designs were, on average, 1.56 and 1.80 times more efficient than the N = 1 SOC design to deliver. The mean aperture size produced by the RAO plans was 3.9 times larger than that of the DMS plans. Conclusions: The DAO and dose domain optimization approach enabled high quality IMRT plans using a low-complexity collimator setup. The dosimetric quality is comparable or slightly superior to conventional MLC-based IMRT plans using the same number of delivery segments. The SOC IMRT delivery efficiency can be significantly improved by increasing the leaf numbers, but the number is still significantly lower than the number of leaves in a typical MLC.« less

A novel software and conceptual design of the hardware platform for intensity modulated radiation therapy.

PubMed

Nguyen, Dan; Ruan, Dan; O'Connor, Daniel; Woods, Kaley; Low, Daniel A; Boucher, Salime; Sheng, Ke

2016-02-01

To deliver high quality intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) using a novel generalized sparse orthogonal collimators (SOCs), the authors introduce a novel direct aperture optimization (DAO) approach based on discrete rectangular representation. A total of seven patients-two glioblastoma multiforme, three head & neck (including one with three prescription doses), and two lung-were included. 20 noncoplanar beams were selected using a column generation and pricing optimization method. The SOC is a generalized conventional orthogonal collimators with N leaves in each collimator bank, where N = 1, 2, or 4. SOC degenerates to conventional jaws when N = 1. For SOC-based IMRT, rectangular aperture optimization (RAO) was performed to optimize the fluence maps using rectangular representation, producing fluence maps that can be directly converted into a set of deliverable rectangular apertures. In order to optimize the dose distribution and minimize the number of apertures used, the overall objective was formulated to incorporate an L2 penalty reflecting the difference between the prescription and the projected doses, and an L1 sparsity regularization term to encourage a low number of nonzero rectangular basis coefficients. The optimization problem was solved using the Chambolle-Pock algorithm, a first-order primal-dual algorithm. Performance of RAO was compared to conventional two-step IMRT optimization including fluence map optimization and direct stratification for multileaf collimator (MLC) segmentation (DMS) using the same number of segments. For the RAO plans, segment travel time for SOC delivery was evaluated for the N = 1, N = 2, and N = 4 SOC designs to characterize the improvement in delivery efficiency as a function of N. Comparable PTV dose homogeneity and coverage were observed between the RAO and the DMS plans. The RAO plans were slightly superior to the DMS plans in sparing critical structures. On average, the maximum and mean critical organ doses were reduced by 1.94% and 1.44% of the prescription dose. The average number of delivery segments was 12.68 segments per beam for both the RAO and DMS plans. The N = 2 and N = 4 SOC designs were, on average, 1.56 and 1.80 times more efficient than the N = 1 SOC design to deliver. The mean aperture size produced by the RAO plans was 3.9 times larger than that of the DMS plans. The DAO and dose domain optimization approach enabled high quality IMRT plans using a low-complexity collimator setup. The dosimetric quality is comparable or slightly superior to conventional MLC-based IMRT plans using the same number of delivery segments. The SOC IMRT delivery efficiency can be significantly improved by increasing the leaf numbers, but the number is still significantly lower than the number of leaves in a typical MLC.

Performance analysis of fiber-based free-space optical communications with coherent detection spatial diversity.

PubMed

Li, Kangning; Ma, Jing; Tan, Liying; Yu, Siyuan; Zhai, Chao

2016-06-10

The performances of fiber-based free-space optical (FSO) communications over gamma-gamma distributed turbulence are studied for multiple aperture receiver systems. The equal gain combining (EGC) technique is considered as a practical scheme to mitigate the atmospheric turbulence. Bit error rate (BER) performances for binary-phase-shift-keying-modulated coherent detection fiber-based free-space optical communications are derived and analyzed for EGC diversity receptions through an approximation method. To show the net diversity gain of a multiple aperture receiver system, BER performances of EGC are compared with a single monolithic aperture receiver system with the same total aperture area (same average total incident optical power on the aperture surface) for fiber-based free-space optical communications. The analytical results are verified by Monte Carlo simulations. System performances are also compared for EGC diversity coherent FSO communications with or without considering fiber-coupling efficiencies.

Effect of planar dielectric interfaces on fluorescence emission and detection. Evanescent excitation with high-aperture collection.

PubMed Central

Burghardt, T P; Thompson, N L

1984-01-01

We consider the effect of planar dielectric interfaces (e.g., solid/liquid) on the fluorescence emission of nearby probes. First, we derive an integral expression for the electric field radiated by an oscillating electric dipole when it is close to a dielectric interface. The electric field depends on the refractive indices of the interface, the orientation of the dipole, the distance from the dipole to the interface, and the position of observation. We numerically calculate the electric field intensity for a dipole on an interface, as a function of observation position. These results are applicable to fluorescent molecules excited by the evanescent field of a totally internally reflected laser beam and thus very close to a solid/liquid interface. Next, we derive an integral expression for the electric field radiated when a second dielectric interface is also close to the fluorescent molecule. We numerically calculate this intensity as observed through the second interface. These results are useful when the fluorescence is collected by a high-aperture microscope objective. Finally, we define and calculate a "dichroic factor," which describes the efficiency of collection, in the two-interface system, of polarized fluorescence. The limit when the first interface is removed is applicable for any high-aperture collection of polarized or unpolarized fluorescence. The limit when the second interface is removed has application in the collection of fluorescence with any aperture from molecules close to a dielectric interface. The results of this paper are required for the interpretation of order parameter measurements on fluorescent probes in supported phospholipid monolayers (Thompson, N.L., H. M. McConnell, and T. P. Burghardt, 1984, Biophys. J., 46:739-747). PMID:6518253

Efficiency of a multilayer-Laue-lens with a 102 μm aperture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Macrander, Albert T., E-mail: atm@anl.gov; Wojcik, Michael; Maser, Jorg

2015-08-24

A multilayer-Laue-lens (MLL) comprised of WSi{sub 2}/Al layers stacked to a full thickness of 102 μm was characterized for its diffraction efficiency and dynamical diffraction properties by x-ray measurements made in the far field. The achieved aperture roughly doubles the previous maximum reported aperture for an MLL, thereby doubling the working distance. Negative and positive first orders were found to have 14.2% and 13.0% efficiencies, respectively. A section thickness of 9.6 μm was determined from Laue-case thickness fringes in the diffraction data. A background gas consisting of 90% Ar and 10% N{sub 2} was used for sputtering. This material system wasmore » chosen to reduce grown-in stress as the multilayer is deposited. Although some regions of the full MLL exhibited defects, the presently reported results were obtained for a region devoid of defects. The data compare well to dynamical diffraction calculations with Coupled Wave Theory (CWT) which provided confirmation of the optical constants and densities assumed for the CWT calculations.« less

Efficiency of a multilayer-Laue-lens with a 102 μm aperture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Macrander, Albert T.; Kubec, Adam; Conley, Raymond

2015-08-25

A multilayer-Laue-lens (MLL) comprised of WSi 2/Al layers stacked to a full thickness of 102 microns was characterized for its diffraction efficiency and dynamical diffraction properties by x-ray measurements made in the far field. The achieved aperture roughly doubles the previous maximum reported aperture for an MLL, thereby doubling the working distance. Negative and positive first orders were found to have 14.2 % and 13.0 % efficiencies, respectively. A section thickness of 9.6 μm was determined from Laue-case thickness fringes in the diffraction data. A background gas consisting of 90 % Ar and 10 % N 2 was used formore » sputtering. This material system was chosen to reduce grown-in stress as the multilayer is deposited. Although some regions of the full MLL exhibited defects, the presently reported results were obtained for a region devoid of defects. The data compare well to dynamical diffraction calculations with Coupled Wave Theory (CWT) which provided confirmation of the optical constants and densities assumed for the CWT calculations.« less

Large aperture segmented optics for space-to-ground communications.

PubMed

Lucy, R F

1968-08-01

A large aperture, moderate quality segmented optical array for use in noncoherent space-to-ground laser communications is determined as a function of resolution, diameter, focal length, and number of segments in the array. Secondary optics and construction tolerances are also discussed. Performance predictions show a typical receiver to be capable of megahertz communications at Mars distances during daylight operation.

Planetary Remote Sensing Science Enabled by MIDAS (Multiple Instrument Distributed Aperture Sensor)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pitman, Joe; Duncan, Alan; Stubbs, David; Sigler, Robert; Kendrick, Rick; Chilese, John; Lipps, Jere; Manga, Mike; Graham, James; dePater, Imke

2004-01-01

The science capabilities and features of an innovative and revolutionary approach to remote sensing imaging systems, aimed at increasing the return on future space science missions many fold, are described. Our concept, called Multiple Instrument Distributed Aperture Sensor (MIDAS), provides a large-aperture, wide-field, diffraction-limited telescope at a fraction of the cost, mass and volume of conventional telescopes, by integrating optical interferometry technologies into a mature multiple aperture array concept that addresses one of the highest needs for advancing future planetary science remote sensing.

Mission Concepts for High-Resolution Solar Imaging with a Photon Sieve

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabin, Douglas M.; Davila, Joseph; Daw, Adrian N.; Denis, Kevin L.; Novo-Gradac, Anne-Marie; Shah, Neerav; Widmyer, Thomas R.

2017-08-01

The best EUV coronal imagers are unable to probe the expected energy dissipation scales of the solar corona (<100 km) because conventional optics cannot be figured to near diffraction-limited accuracy at these wavelengths. Davila (2011) has proposed that a photon sieve, a diffractive imaging element similar to a Fresnel zone plate, provides a technically feasible path to the required angular resolution. We have produced photon sieves as large as 80 mm clear aperture. We discuss laboratory measurements of these devices and the path to larger apertures. The focal length of a sieve with high EUV resolution is at least 10 m. Options for solar imaging with such a sieve include a sounding rocket, a single spacecraft with a deployed boom, and two spacecraft flying in precise formation.

RF Performance of Membrane Aperture Shells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flint, Eirc M.; Lindler, Jason E.; Thomas, David L.; Romanofsky, Robert

2007-01-01

This paper provides an overview of recent results establishing the suitability of Membrane Aperture Shell Technology (MAST) for Radio Frequency (RF) applications. These single surface shells are capable of maintaining their figure with no preload or pressurization and minimal boundary support, yet can be compactly roll stowed and passively self deploy. As such, they are a promising technology for enabling a future generation of RF apertures. In this paper, we review recent experimental and numerical results quantifying suitable RF performance. It is shown that candidate materials possess metallic coatings with sufficiently low surface roughness and that these materials can be efficiently fabricated into RF relevant doubly curved shapes. A numerical justification for using a reflectivity metric, as opposed to the more standard RF designer metric of skin depth, is presented and the resulting ability to use relatively thin coating thickness is experimentally validated with material sample tests. The validity of these independent film sample measurements are then confirmed through experimental results measuring RF performance for reasonable sized doubly curved apertures. Currently available best results are 22 dBi gain at 3 GHz (S-Band) for a 0.5m aperture tested in prime focus mode, 28dBi gain for the same antenna in the C-Band (4 to 6 GHz), and 36.8dBi for a smaller 0.25m antenna tested at 32 GHz in the Ka-Band. RF range test results for a segmented aperture (one possible scaling approach) are shown as well. Measured antenna system actual efficiencies (relative to the unachievable) ideal for these on axis tests are generally quite good, typically ranging from 50 to 90%.

A program for the calculation of paraboloidal-dish solar thermal power plant performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowyer, J. M., Jr.

1985-01-01

A program capable of calculating the design-point and quasi-steady-state annual performance of a paraboloidal-concentrator solar thermal power plant without energy storage was written for a programmable calculator equipped with suitable printer. The power plant may be located at any site for which a histogram of annual direct normal insolation is available. Inputs required by the program are aperture area and the design and annual efficiencies of the concentrator; the intercept factor and apparent efficiency of the power conversion subsystem and a polynomial representation of its normalized part-load efficiency; the efficiency of the electrical generator or alternator; the efficiency of the electric power conditioning and transport subsystem; and the fractional parasitic loses for the plant. Losses to auxiliaries associated with each individual module are to be deducted when the power conversion subsystem efficiencies are calculated. Outputs provided by the program are the system design efficiency, the annualized receiver efficiency, the annualized power conversion subsystem efficiency, total annual direct normal insolation received per unit area of concentrator aperture, and the system annual efficiency.

Emerging Array Antenna Technologies at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, J.

1998-01-01

JPL/NASA's Earth remote sensing and deep-space exploration programs have been placing emphasis on their spacecraft's high-gain and large-aperture antennas. At the same time, however, low mass and small storage volume are demanded in order to reduce payload weight and reduce shroud size and thus reduce launch cost.

APT: Aperture Photometry Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laher, Russ

2012-08-01

Aperture Photometry Tool (APT) is software for astronomers and students interested in manually exploring the photometric qualities of astronomical images. It has a graphical user interface (GUI) which allows the image data associated with aperture photometry calculations for point and extended sources to be visualized and, therefore, more effectively analyzed. Mouse-clicking on a source in the displayed image draws a circular or elliptical aperture and sky annulus around the source and computes the source intensity and its uncertainty, along with several commonly used measures of the local sky background and its variability. The results are displayed and can be optionally saved to an aperture-photometry-table file and plotted on graphs in various ways using functions available in the software. APT is geared toward processing sources in a small number of images and is not suitable for bulk processing a large number of images, unlike other aperture photometry packages (e.g., SExtractor). However, APT does have a convenient source-list tool that enables calculations for a large number of detections in a given image. The source-list tool can be run either in automatic mode to generate an aperture photometry table quickly or in manual mode to permit inspection and adjustment of the calculation for each individual detection. APT displays a variety of useful graphs, including image histogram, and aperture slices, source scatter plot, sky scatter plot, sky histogram, radial profile, curve of growth, and aperture-photometry-table scatter plots and histograms. APT has functions for customizing calculations, including outlier rejection, pixel “picking” and “zapping,” and a selection of source and sky models. The radial-profile-interpolation source model, accessed via the radial-profile-plot panel, allows recovery of source intensity from pixels with missing data and can be especially beneficial in crowded fields.

New inverse synthetic aperture radar algorithm for translational motion compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bocker, Richard P.; Henderson, Thomas B.; Jones, Scott A.; Frieden, B. R.

1991-10-01

Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is an imaging technique that shows real promise in classifying airborne targets in real time under all weather conditions. Over the past few years a large body of ISAR data has been collected and considerable effort has been expended to develop algorithms to form high-resolution images from this data. One important goal of workers in this field is to develop software that will do the best job of imaging under the widest range of conditions. The success of classifying targets using ISAR is predicated upon forming highly focused radar images of these targets. Efforts to develop highly focused imaging computer software have been challenging, mainly because the imaging depends on and is affected by the motion of the target, which in general is not precisely known. Specifically, the target generally has both rotational motion about some axis and translational motion as a whole with respect to the radar. The slant-range translational motion kinematic quantities must be first accurately estimated from the data and compensated before the image can be focused. Following slant-range motion compensation, the image is further focused by determining and correcting for target rotation. The use of the burst derivative measure is proposed as a means to improve the computational efficiency of currently used ISAR algorithms. The use of this measure in motion compensation ISAR algorithms for estimating the slant-range translational motion kinematic quantities of an uncooperative target is described. Preliminary tests have been performed on simulated as well as actual ISAR data using both a Sun 4 workstation and a parallel processing transputer array. Results indicate that the burst derivative measure gives significant improvement in processing speed over the traditional entropy measure now employed.

Performance characteristics of two volume phase holographic grisms produced for the ESPRESSO spectrograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arns, James A.

2016-08-01

The ESPRESSO spectrograph [1], a new addition to the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), requires two volume phase holographic (VPH) grisms, one blue and the other red, splitting the overall spectral range of the instrument to maximize throughput while achieving high resolution. The blue grism covers the spectral range from 375 nm to 520 nm with a dispersion of 0.88 degrees/nm at the central wavelength of 438 nm. The red grism operates from 535 nm to 780 nm with a dispersion of 0.47 degrees/nm at 654.8 nm. Both designs use a single input prism to enhance the dispersion of the grism assembly. The grisms are relatively large in size with a working aperture of 185 mm x 185 mm for the blue grism and 215 nm x 185 mm for the red grism respectively. This paper describes the specifications of the two grating types, gives the rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) theoretical performances of diffraction efficiency for the production designs and presents the measured performances of each of the delivered grisms.

Real-time and sub-wavelength ultrafast coherent diffraction imaging in the extreme ultraviolet.

PubMed

Zürch, M; Rothhardt, J; Hädrich, S; Demmler, S; Krebs, M; Limpert, J; Tünnermann, A; Guggenmos, A; Kleineberg, U; Spielmann, C

2014-12-08

Coherent Diffraction Imaging is a technique to study matter with nanometer-scale spatial resolution based on coherent illumination of the sample with hard X-ray, soft X-ray or extreme ultraviolet light delivered from synchrotrons or more recently X-ray Free-Electron Lasers. This robust technique simultaneously allows quantitative amplitude and phase contrast imaging. Laser-driven high harmonic generation XUV-sources allow table-top realizations. However, the low conversion efficiency of lab-based sources imposes either a large scale laser system or long exposure times, preventing many applications. Here we present a lensless imaging experiment combining a high numerical aperture (NA = 0.8) setup with a high average power fibre laser driven high harmonic source. The high flux and narrow-band harmonic line at 33.2 nm enables either sub-wavelength spatial resolution close to the Abbe limit (Δr = 0.8λ) for long exposure time, or sub-70 nm imaging in less than one second. The unprecedented high spatial resolution, compactness of the setup together with the real-time capability paves the way for a plethora of applications in fundamental and life sciences.

Demonstration of ultra-low NA rare-earth doped step index fiber for applications in high power fiber lasers.

PubMed

Jain, Deepak; Jung, Yongmin; Barua, Pranabesh; Alam, Shaiful; Sahu, Jayanta K

2015-03-23

In this paper, we report the mode area scaling of a rare-earth doped step index fiber by using low numerical aperture. Numerical simulations show the possibility of achieving an effective area of ~700 um² (including bend induced effective area reduction) at a bend diameter of 32 cm from a 35 μm core fiber with a numerical aperture of 0.038. An effective single mode operation is ensured following the criterion of the fundamental mode loss to be lower than 0.1 dB/m while ensuring the higher order modes loss to be higher than 10 dB/m at a wavelength of 1060 nm. Our optimized modified chemical vapor deposition process in conjunction with solution doping process allows fabrication of an Yb-doped step index fiber having an ultra-low numerical aperture of ~0.038. Experimental results confirm a Gaussian output beam from a 35 μm core fiber validating our simulation results. Fiber shows an excellent laser efficiency of ~81%and aM² less than 1.1.

Shock wave absorber having apertured plate

DOEpatents

Shin, Y.W.; Wiedermann, A.H.; Ockert, C.E.

1983-08-26

The shock or energy absorber disclosed herein utilizes an apertured plate maintained under the normal level of liquid flowing in a piping system and disposed between the normal liquid flow path and a cavity pressurized with a compressible gas. The degree of openness (or porosity) of the plate is between 0.01 and 0.60. The energy level of a shock wave travelling down the piping system thus is dissipated by some of the liquid being jetted through the apertured plate toward the cavity. The cavity is large compared to the quantity of liquid jetted through the apertured plate, so there is little change in its volume. The porosity of the apertured plate influences the percentage of energy absorbed.

Shock wave absorber having apertured plate

DOEpatents

Shin, Yong W.; Wiedermann, Arne H.; Ockert, Carl E.

1985-01-01

The shock or energy absorber disclosed herein utilizes an apertured plate maintained under the normal level of liquid flowing in a piping system and disposed between the normal liquid flow path and a cavity pressurized with a compressible gas. The degree of openness (or porosity) of the plate is between 0.01 and 0.60. The energy level of a shock wave travelling down the piping system thus is dissipated by some of the liquid being jetted through the apertured plate toward the cavity. The cavity is large compared to the quantity of liquid jetted through the apertured plate, so there is little change in its volume. The porosity of the apertured plate influences the percentage of energy absorbed.

Power Spectrum of Atmospheric Scintillation for the Deep Space Network Goldstone Ka-Band Downlink

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ho, C.; Wheelon, A.

2004-01-01

Dynamic signal fluctuations due to atmospheric scintillations may impair the Ka-band (around 32-GHz) link sensitivities for a low-margin Deep Space Network (DSN) receiving system. The ranges of frequency and power of the fast fluctuating signals (time scale less than 1 min) are theoretically investigated using the spatial covariance and turbulence theory. Scintillation power spectrum solutions are derived for both a point receiver and a finite-aperture receiver. The aperture-smoothing frequency ((omega(sub s)), corner frequency ((omega(sub c)), and damping rate are introduced to define the shape of the spectrum for a finite-aperture antenna. The emphasis is put on quantitatively describing the aperture-smoothing effects and graphically estimating the corner frequency for a large aperture receiver. Power spectral shapes are analyzed parametrically in detail through both low- and high-frequency approximations. It is found that aperture-averaging effects become significant when the transverse correlation length of the scintillation is smaller than the antenna radius. The upper frequency or corner frequency for a finite-aperture receiver is controlled by both the Fresnel frequency and aperture-smoothing frequency. Above the aperture-smoothing frequency, the spectrum rolls off at a much faster rate of exp (-omega(sup 2)/omega(sup 2, sub s), rather than omega(sup -8/3), which is customary for a point receiver. However, a relatively higher receiver noise level can mask the fast falling-off shape and make it hard to be identified. We also predict that when the effective antenna radius a(sub r) less than or = 6 m, the corner frequency of its power spectrum becomes the same as that for a point receiver. The aperture-smoothing effects are not obvious. We have applied these solutions to the scenario of a DSN Goldstone 34-m-diameter antenna and predicted the power spectrum shape for the receiving station. The maximum corner frequency for the receiver (with omega(sub s) = 0.79 omega(sub 0) is found to be 0.44 Hz (or 1.0 omega(sub 0), while the fading rate (or fading slope) is about 0.06 dB/s.

Form control in atmospheric pressure plasma processing of ground fused silica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Duo; Wang, Bo; Xin, Qiang; Jin, Huiliang; Wang, Jun; Dong, Wenxia

2014-08-01

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Processing (APPP) using inductively coupled plasma has demonstrated that it can achieve comparable removal rate on the optical surface of fused silica under the atmosphere pressure and has the advantage of inducing no sub-surface damage for its non-contact and chemical etching mechanism. APPP technology is a cost effective way, compared with traditional mechanical polishing, magnetorheological finishing and ion beam figuring. Thus, due to these advantages, this technology is being tested to fabricate large aperture optics of fused silica to help shorten the polishing time in optics fabrication chain. Now our group proposes to use inductively coupled plasma processing technology to fabricate ground surface of fused silica directly after the grinding stage. In this paper, form control method and several processing parameters are investigated to evaluate the removal efficiency and the surface quality, including the robustness of removal function, velocity control mode and tool path strategy. However, because of the high heat flux of inductively coupled plasma, the removal depth with time can be non-linear and the ground surface evolvement will be affected. The heat polishing phenomenon is founded. The value of surface roughness is reduced greatly, which is very helpful to reduce the time of follow-up mechanical polishing. Finally, conformal and deterministic polishing experiments are analyzed and discussed. The form error is less 3%, before and after the APPP, when 10μm depth of uniform removal is achieved on a 60×60mm ground fused silica. Also, a basin feature is fabricated to demonstrate the figuring capability and stability. Thus, APPP is a promising technology in processing the large aperture optics.

Telescope aperture optimization for spacebased coherent wind lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Xian-ying; Zhu, Jun; Cao, Qipeng; Zhang, Yinchao; Yin, Huan; Dong, Xiaojing; Wang, Chao; Zhang, Yongchao; Zhang, Ning

2015-08-01

Many studies have indicated that the optimum measurement approach for winds from space is a pulsed coherent wind lidar, which is an active remote sensing tool with the characteristics that high spatial and temporal resolutions, real-time detection, high mobility, facilitated control and so on. Because of the significant eye safety, efficiency, size, and lifetime advantage, 2μm wavelength solid-state laser lidar systems have attracted much attention in spacebased wind lidar plans. In this paper, the theory of coherent detection is presented and a 2μm wavelength solid-state laser lidar system is introduced, then the ideal aperture is calculated from signal-to-noise(SNR) view at orbit 400km. However, considering real application, even if the lidar hardware is perfectly aligned, the directional jitter of laser beam, the attitude change of the lidar in the long round trip time of the light from the atmosphere and other factors can bring misalignment angle. So the influence of misalignment angle is considered and calculated, and the optimum telescope diameter(0.45m) is obtained as the misalignment angle is 4 μrad. By the analysis of the optimum aperture required for spacebased coherent wind lidar system, we try to present the design guidance for the telescope.

Mitigation Atmospheric Effects in Interferogram with Using Integrated Meris/modis Data and a Case Study Over Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, X.; Zhang, P.; Sun, Z.

2018-04-01

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar(InSAR), as a space geodetictechnology, had been testified a high potential means of earth observation providing a method fordigital elevation model (DEM) and surface deformation monitoring of high precision. However, the accuracy of the interferometric synthetic aperture radar is mainly limited by the effects of atmospheric water vapor. In order to effectively measure topography or surface deformations by synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR), it is necessary to mitigate the effects of atmospheric water vapor on the interferometric signals. This paper analyzed the atmospheric effects on the interferogram quantitatively, and described a result of estimating Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) from the the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the ground-based GPS, compared the MERIS/MODIS PWV with the GPS PWV. Finally, a case study for mitigating atmospheric effects in interferogramusing with using the integration of MERIS and MODIS PWV overSouthern California is given. The result showed that such integration approach benefits removing or reducing the atmospheric phase contribution from the corresponding interferogram, the integrated Zenith Path Delay Difference Maps (ZPDDM) of MERIS and MODIS helps reduce the water vapor effects efficiently, the standard deviation (STD) of interferogram is improved by 23 % after the water vapor correction than the original interferogram.

High-Resolution Experimental Investigation of mass transfer enhancement by chemical oxidation from DNAPL entrapped in variable-aperture fractures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arshadi, M.; Rajaram, H.; Detwiler, R. L.; Jones, T.

2012-12-01

Permanganate oxidation of DNAPL- contaminated fractured rock is an effective remediation technology. Permanganate ion reacts with dissolved DNAPL in a bi-molecular oxidation-reduction reaction. The consumption of dissolved DNAPL in this reaction results in increased concentration gradients away from the free-phase DNAPL, resulting in reaction-enhanced mass transfer, which accelerates contaminant removal. The specific objective of our research was to perform high-resolution non-intrusive experimental studies of permanganate oxidation in a 15.24 × 15.24 cm, transparent, analog, variable-aperture fracture with complex initial TCE entrapped phase geometry. Our experimental system uses light-transmission techniques to accurately measure both fracture aperture and the evolution of individual entrapped DNAPL blobs during the remediation experiments at high resolution (pixel size : 6.2×10-3 cm). Three experiments were performed with different flow rates and permanganate inflow concentrations to observe DNAPL-permanganate interactions across a broader range of conditions. Prior to initiating each experiment, the aperture field within the fracture was measured. The oxidation experiment was initiated by TCE injection into the water saturated fracture till the TCE reached the outflow end, followed by water re-injection through the fracture. The flowing water mobilized some TCE. We continued injection of water till TCE mobilization ceased, leaving behind the residual TCE entrapped within the variable-aperture fracture. Subsequently, permanganate injection through the fracture resulted in propagation of a fingered reaction front into the fracture. We developed image processing algorithms to analyze the evolution of DNAPL phase geometry over the duration of the experiment. The permanganate consumption rate varied significantly within the fracture due to the complex flow and DNAPL concentration fields. Precipitated MnO2 was clearly evident on the downstream side of DNAPL blobs near the inflow boundary indicating high reaction rates in these regions. This behavior is explained by the diversion of permanganate around entrapped DNAPL blobs and downstream advection of dissolved DNAPL. Our results indicate that the total rate of mass transfer from the DNAPL blobs is higher at early times, when not much MnO2 has formed and precipitated. With time, MnO2 precipitation in the fracture leads to changes the aperture field and flow field. Precipitated MnO2 around TCE blobs also decreases the DNAPL accessible surface area. By comparing the results of three experiments, we conclude that low permanganate concentrations and high flow rates lead to more efficient DNAPL remediation, resulting from the fact that under these conditions there would be slower MnO2 formation and less precipitation within the fracture. We also present results on the time-evolution of fracture-scale permanganate consumption and DNAPL removal rates. The experimental observations are being used to develop improved high-resolution numerical models of reactive transport in variable-aperture fractures. The overall goal is to relate the coupled processes of DNAPL removal, permanganate consumption, MnO2 formation and associated changes in aperture and interface area; to derive fracture-scale effective representations of these processes.

850-nm Zn-diffusion vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with with oxide-relief structure for high-speed and energy-efficient optical interconnects from very-short to medium (2km) reaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Jin-Wei; Wei, Chia-Chien; Chen, Jason (Jyehong); Yang, Ying-Jay

2015-03-01

High-speed and "green" ~850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have lately attracted lots of attention due to their suitability for applications in optical interconnects (OIs). To further enhance the speed and its maximum allowable linking distance of VCSELs are two major trends to meet the requirement of OI in next generation data centers. Recently, by use of the advanced 850 nm VCSEL technique, data rate as high as 64 Gbit/sec over 57m and 20 Gbit/sec over 2km MMF transmission have been demonstrated, respectively. Here, we will review our recent work about 850 nm Zn-diffusion VCSELs with oxide-relief apertures to further enhance the above-mentioned performances. By using Zn-diffusion, we can not only reduce the device resistance but also manipulate the number of optical modes to benefit transmission. Combing such device, which has excellent single-mode (SMSR >30 dB) and high-power (~7mW) performance, with advanced modulation format (OFDM), record-high bit-rate-distance-product through MMF (2.3 km×28 Gbit/sec) has been demonstrated. Furthermore, by selective etching away the oxide aperture inside Zn-diffusion VCSEL, significant enhancement of device speed, D-factor, and reliability can be observed. With such unique VCSEL structure, >40 Gbit/sec energy-efficient transmission over 100m MMF under extremely low-driving current density (<10kA/cm2) has been successfully demonstrated.

Features and technologies of ERS-1 (ESA) and X-SAR antennas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schuessler, R.; Wagner, R.

1986-01-01

Features and technologies of planar waveguide array antennas developed for spaceborne microwave sensors are described. Such antennas are made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) employing special manufacturing and metallization techniques to achieve satisfactory electrical properties. Mechanical design enables deployable antenna structures necessary for satellite applications (e.g., ESA ERS-1). The slotted waveguide concept provides high aperture efficiency, good beamshaping capabilities, and low losses. These CFRP waveguide antennas feature low mass, high accuracy and stiffness, and can be operated within wide temperature ranges.

Diffusion engineering of ions and charge carriers for stable efficient perovskite solar cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bi, Enbing; Chen, Han; Xie, Fengxian; Wu, Yongzhen; Chen, Wei; Su, Yanjie; Islam, Ashraful; Grätzel, Michael; Yang, Xudong; Han, Liyuan

2017-06-01

Long-term stability is crucial for the future application of perovskite solar cells, a promising low-cost photovoltaic technology that has rapidly advanced in the recent years. Here, we designed a nanostructured carbon layer to suppress the diffusion of ions/molecules within perovskite solar cells, an important degradation process in the device. Furthermore, this nanocarbon layer benefited the diffusion of electron charge carriers to enable a high-energy conversion efficiency. Finally, the efficiency on a perovskite solar cell with an aperture area of 1.02 cm2, after a thermal aging test at 85 °C for over 500 h, or light soaking for 1,000 h, was stable of over 15% during the entire test. The present diffusion engineering of ions/molecules and photo generated charges paves a way to realizing long-term stable and highly efficient perovskite solar cells.

Advanced designs for non-imaging submillimeter-wave Winston cone concentrators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, A. O.; Grossman, E. N.

2014-05-01

We describe the design and simulation of several non-imaging concentrators designed to couple submillimeter wavelength radiation from free space into highly overmoded, rectangular, WR-10 waveguide. Previous designs are altered to improve the uniformity of efficiency rather than the efficiency itself. The concentrators are intended for use as adapters between instruments using overmoded WR-10 waveguide as input or output and sources propagating through free space. Previous simulation and measurement have shown that the angular response is primarily determined by the Winston cone and is well predicted by geometric optics theory while the efficiencies are primarily determined by the transition section. Additionally, previous work has shown insensitivity to polarization, orientation and beam size. Several separate concentrator designs are studied, all of which use a Winston cone (also known as a compound parabolic concentrator) with an input diameter ranging from 4 mm to 16 mm, and "throat" diameters of less than 0.5 mm to 4 mm as the initial interface. The use of various length adiabatic circular-to-rectangular transition sections is investigated, along with the effect of an additional, 25 mm waveguide section designed to model the internal waveguide of the power meter. Adapters without a transition section and a rectangular Winston cone throat aperture and double cone configurations are also studied. Adapters are analyzed in simulation for consistent efficiency across the opening aperture.

Tie Points Extraction for SAR Images Based on Differential Constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiong, X.; Jin, G.; Xu, Q.; Zhang, H.

2018-04-01

Automatically extracting tie points (TPs) on large-size synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is still challenging because the efficiency and correct ratio of the image matching need to be improved. This paper proposes an automatic TPs extraction method based on differential constraints for large-size SAR images obtained from approximately parallel tracks, between which the relative geometric distortions are small in azimuth direction and large in range direction. Image pyramids are built firstly, and then corresponding layers of pyramids are matched from the top to the bottom. In the process, the similarity is measured by the normalized cross correlation (NCC) algorithm, which is calculated from a rectangular window with the long side parallel to the azimuth direction. False matches are removed by the differential constrained random sample consensus (DC-RANSAC) algorithm, which appends strong constraints in azimuth direction and weak constraints in range direction. Matching points in the lower pyramid images are predicted with the local bilinear transformation model in range direction. Experiments performed on ENVISAT ASAR and Chinese airborne SAR images validated the efficiency, correct ratio and accuracy of the proposed method.

BLAST: The Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Devlin, Mark; Ade, Peter; Bock, Jamie; Dicker, Simon; Griffin, Matt; Gunderson, Josh; Halpern, Mark; Hargrave, Peter; Hughes, David; Klein, Jeff

2004-01-01

BLAST is the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope. It will fly from a Long Duration Balloon (LDB) platform from Antarctica. The telescope design incorporates a 2 m primary mirror with large-format bolometer arrays operating at 250, 350 and 500 microns. By providing the first sensitive large-area (10 sq. deg.) sub-mm surveys at these wavelengths, BLAST will address some of the most important galactic and cosmological questions regarding the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and clusters. Galactic and extragalactic BLAST surveys will: (1) identify large numbers of high-redshift galaxies; (2) measure photometric redshifts, rest-frame FIR luminosities and star formation rates thereby constraining the evolutionary history of the galaxies that produce the FIR and sub-mm background; (3) measure cold pre-stellar sources associated with the earliest stages of star and planet formation; (4) make high-resolution maps of diffuse galactic emission over a wide range of galactic latitudes. In addition to achieving the above scientific goals, the exciting legacy of the BLAST LDB experiment will be a catalogue of 3000-5000 extragalactic sub-mm sources and a 100 sq. deg. sub-mm galactic plane survey. Multi-frequency follow-up observations from SIRTF, ASTRO-F, and Herschel, together with spectroscopic observations and sub-arcsecond imaging from ALMA are essential to understand the physical nature of the BLAST sources.

Variable transmittance electrochromic windows

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rauh, R.D.

1983-11-01

Electrochromic apertures based on RF sputtered thin films of WO3 are projected to have widely different sunlight attenuation properties when converted to MxWO3 (M H, Li, Na, Ag, etc.), depending on the initial preparation conditions. Amorphous WO3, prepared at low temperature, has a coloration spectrum centered in the visible, while high temperature crystalline WO3 attenuates infrared light most efficiently, but appears to become highly reflective at high values of x. The possibility therefore exists of producing variable light transmission apertures of the general form (a-MxWO3/FIC/c-WO3), where the FIC is an ion conducting thin film, such as LiAlF4 (for M Li).more » The attenuation of 90% of the solar spectrum requires an injected charge of 30 to 40 mcoul/sq cm in either amorphous or crystalline WO3, corresponding to 0.2 Whr/sq m per coloration cycle. In order to produce windows with very high solar transparency in the bleached form, new counter electrode materials must be found with complementary electrochromism to WO3.« less

ESA study of XEUS, a potential follow-on to XMM-Newton

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rando, N.; Lyngvi, A.; Gondoin, P.; Lumb, D.; Bavdaz, M.; Verhoeve, P.; de Wilde, D.; Parmar, A.; Peacock, A.

2017-11-01

In October 2005, based on a massive response by the Science Community to ESA's call for themes in space science, a large aperture X-ray Observatory (XRO) was identified as a candidate project for Europe within the frame of the 2015-2025 Cosmic Vision program. Such a mission would represent the natural follow-on to XMM Newton, providing a large aperture X-ray telescope combined with high spectral and time resolution instruments, capable of investigating matter under extreme conditions and the evolution of the early universe. The paper summarises the results of the most recent ESA internal study activities, leading to an updated mission configuration, with a mirror and a detector spacecraft flying in formation around L2 and a consolidated scientific payload design. The paper also describes the ongoing technology development activities for the payload and for the spacecraft that will play a crucial role in case ESA would decide to develop such a mission.

Selecting Pixels for Kepler Downlink

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryson, Stephen T.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Klaus, Todd C.; Cote, Miles T.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Hall, Jennifer R.; Ibrahim, Khadeejah; Chandrasekaran, Hema; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey E.;

A layered microchip conductance detector with through-layer access to detection fields and high sensitivity to dielectric constant.

PubMed

Suganuma, Y; Dhirani, A-A

2011-04-01

The present study explores a novel apertured microchip conductance detector (AMCD) that is sensitive to dielectric constant. Fashioned on silicon oxide/silicon using optical microlithography, the detector has novel parallel-plate geometry with a top mesh electrode, a middle apertured insulator, and a bottom conducting electrode. This monolithic apertured architecture is planar and may be provided with a thin insulator layer enabling large capacitances, while the top mesh electrode and middle apertured-insulator enable access to regions of the capacitor where electric fields are strong. Hence, the detector is sensitive yet mechanically robust. To test its response, the AMCD was immersed in various solvents, namely water, methanol, acetonitrile, and hexanes. Its response was found to vary in proportion to the solvents' respective dielectric constants. The AMCD was also able to distinguish quantitatively the presence of various molecules in solution, including molecules with chromophores [such as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)] in methanol and those without chrompohores [such as polyethylene glycol 200 Daltons (PEG200)] in methanol or water. The universal nature of dielectric constant and the microchip detector's sensitivity point to a wide range of potential applications. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

Investigations on nucleation, HRXRD, optical, piezoelectric, polarizability and Z-scan analysis of L-arginine maleate dihydrate single crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakthy Priya, S.; Alexandar, A.; Surendran, P.; Lakshmanan, A.; Rameshkumar, P.; Sagayaraj, P.

2017-04-01

An efficient organic nonlinear optical single crystal of L-arginine maleate dihydrate (LAMD) has been grown by slow evaporation solution technique (SEST) and slow cooling technique (SCT). The crystalline perfection of the crystal was examined using high-resolution X-ray diffractometry (HRXRD) analysis. Photoluminescence study confirmed the optical properties and defects level in the crystal lattice. Electromechanical behaviour was observed using piezoelectric co-efficient (d33) analysis. The photoconductivity analysis confirmed the negative photoconducting nature of the material. The dielectric constant and loss were measured as a function of frequency with varying temperature and vice-versa. The laser damage threshold (LDT) measurement was carried out using Nd:YAG Laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm (Focal length is 35 cm) and the obtained results showed that LDT value of the crystal is high compared to KDP crystal. The high laser damage threshold of the grown crystal makes it a potential candidate for second and higher order nonlinear optical device application. The third order nonlinear optical parameters of LAMD crystal is determined by open-aperture and closed-aperture studies using Z-scan technique. The third order linear and nonlinear optical parameters such as the nonlinear refractive index (n2), two photon absorption coefficient (β), Real part (Reχ3) and imaginary part (Imχ3) of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility are calculated.

Developing magnetorheological finishing (MRF) technology for the manufacture of large-aperture optics in megajoule class laser systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menapace, Joseph A.

2010-11-01

Over the last eight years we have been developing advanced MRF tools and techniques to manufacture meter-scale optics for use in Megajoule class laser systems. These systems call for optics having unique characteristics that can complicate their fabrication using conventional polishing methods. First, exposure to the high-power nanosecond and sub-nanosecond pulsed laser environment in the infrared (>27 J/cm2 at 1053 nm), visible (>18 J/cm2 at 527 nm), and ultraviolet (>10 J/cm2 at 351 nm) demands ultra-precise control of optical figure and finish to avoid intensity modulation and scatter that can result in damage to the optics chain or system hardware. Second, the optics must be super-polished and virtually free of surface and subsurface flaws that can limit optic lifetime through laser-induced damage initiation and growth at the flaw sites, particularly at 351 nm. Lastly, ultra-precise optics for beam conditioning are required to control laser beam quality. These optics contain customized surface topographical structures that cannot be made using traditional fabrication processes. In this review, we will present the development and implementation of large-aperture MRF tools and techniques specifically designed to meet the demanding optical performance challenges required in large aperture high-power laser systems. In particular, we will discuss the advances made by using MRF technology to expose and remove surface and subsurface flaws in optics during final polishing to yield optics with improve laser damage resistance, the novel application of MRF deterministic polishing to imprint complex topographical information and wavefront correction patterns onto optical surfaces, and our efforts to advance the technology to manufacture largeaperture damage resistant optics.

Continuum generation in ultra high numerical aperture fiber with application to multiphoton microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sayler, Nicholas

Nonlinear microscopy benefits from broadband laser sources, enabling efficient excitation of an array of fluorophores, for example. This work demonstrates broadening of a narrow band input pulse (6 nm to 40 nm) centered at 1040 nm with excellent shot-to-shot stability. In a preliminary demonstration, multiphoton imaging with pulses from the fiber is performed. In particular second harmonic imaging of corn starch is performed.

Oceanography from satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, W. S.

1981-01-01

It is pointed out that oceanographers have benefited from the space program mainly through the increased efficiency it has brought to ship operations. For example, the Transit navigation system has enabled oceanographers to compile detailed maps of sea-floor properties and to more accurately locate moored subsurface instrumentation. General descriptions are given of instruments used in satellite observations (altimeter, color scanner, infrared radiometer, microwave radiometer, scatterometer, synthetic aperture radar). It is pointed out that because of the large volume of data that satellite instruments generate, the development of algorithms for converting the data into a form expressed in geophysical units has become especially important.

Slip-Effect Functional Air Filter for Efficient Purification of PM2.5

PubMed Central

Zhao, Xinglei; Wang, Shan; Yin, Xia; Yu, Jianyong; Ding, Bin

2016-01-01

Fabrication of air filtration materials (AFM) that allow air to easily flow through while retaining particles is a significant and urgent need due to the harmful airborne particulate matter pollution; however, this is still a challenging research area. Herein, we report novel slip-effect functional nanofibrous membranes with decreased air resistance (reduction rate of 40%) due to the slip flow of air molecules on the periphery of nanofibers. This was achieved through careful control over the diameters of electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers and aperture size of fiber assembly. Fiber assembly with 86% of fiber diameters between 60–100 nm was found to be most effective for slip flow, as these diameters are close to the mean free path of air molecules (65.3 nm). Significantly, an equilibrium factor τ = df/d2 has been introduced to elucidate the effect of distance of adjacent fibers on the drag force of airflow. Furthermore, the most effective aperture size (>3.5 μm) for slip-effect has been determined. Ultimately, the new material displayed low air resistance of 29.5 Pa, high purification efficiency of 99.09%, good transmittance of 77%, and long service life. The successful fabrication of such materials can facilitate the development of high-performance AFMs for various applications. PMID:27748419

Slip-Effect Functional Air Filter for Efficient Purification of PM2.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Xinglei; Wang, Shan; Yin, Xia; Yu, Jianyong; Ding, Bin

2016-10-01

Fabrication of air filtration materials (AFM) that allow air to easily flow through while retaining particles is a significant and urgent need due to the harmful airborne particulate matter pollution; however, this is still a challenging research area. Herein, we report novel slip-effect functional nanofibrous membranes with decreased air resistance (reduction rate of 40%) due to the slip flow of air molecules on the periphery of nanofibers. This was achieved through careful control over the diameters of electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers and aperture size of fiber assembly. Fiber assembly with 86% of fiber diameters between 60-100 nm was found to be most effective for slip flow, as these diameters are close to the mean free path of air molecules (65.3 nm). Significantly, an equilibrium factor τ = df/d2 has been introduced to elucidate the effect of distance of adjacent fibers on the drag force of airflow. Furthermore, the most effective aperture size (>3.5 μm) for slip-effect has been determined. Ultimately, the new material displayed low air resistance of 29.5 Pa, high purification efficiency of 99.09%, good transmittance of 77%, and long service life. The successful fabrication of such materials can facilitate the development of high-performance AFMs for various applications.

A Millimeter-Wave Cavity-Backed Suspended Substrate Stripline Antenna

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simons, Rainee N.

1999-01-01

Future generation satellite communication systems in near-Earth orbit will operate at frequencies in the higher mm-wave frequency bands. These satellite systems require low-profile, high gain, light weight and low cost antennas for communications to and from Earth as well as for inter-satellite links (ISL). At higher mm-wave frequencies, the conductor loss of conventional microstrip line is high and consequently the feed network loss of patch antenna arrays is also high. The high loss lowers the array efficiency, and in addition lowers the G/T ratio in a receiving array. Recently a radial line slot antenna array has been demonstrated to have high gain and efficiency at 60 GHz. In this paper, the design, fabrication and characterization of a V-Band (50-75 GHz), cavity backed, circular aperture antenna with suspended substrate stripline (SSS) feed is presented.

Study on power coupling of annular vortex beam propagating through a two-Cassegrain-telescope optical system in turbulent atmosphere.

PubMed

Wu, Huiyun; Sheng, Shen; Huang, Zhisong; Zhao, Siqing; Wang, Hua; Sun, Zhenhai; Xu, Xiegu

2013-02-25

As a new attractive application of the vortex beams, power coupling of annular vortex beam propagating through a two- Cassegrain-telescope optical system in turbulent atmosphere has been investigated. A typical model of annular vortex beam propagating through a two-Cassegrain-telescope optical system is established, the general analytical expression of vortex beams with limited apertures and the analytical formulas for the average intensity distribution at the receiver plane are derived. Under the H-V 5/7 turbulence model, the average intensity distribution at the receiver plane and power coupling efficiency of the optical system are numerically calculated, and the influences of the optical topological charge, the laser wavelength, the propagation path and the receiver apertures on the power coupling efficiency are analyzed. These studies reveal that the average intensity distribution at the receiver plane presents a central dark hollow profile, which is suitable for power coupling by the Cassegrain telescope receiver. In the optical system with optimized parameters, power coupling efficiency can keep in high values with the increase of the propagation distance. Under the atmospheric turbulent conditions, great advantages of vortex beam in power coupling of the two-Cassegrain-telescope optical system are shown in comparison with beam without vortex.

DiPOLE: a scalable laser architecture for pumping multi-Hz PW systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ertel, Klaus; Banerjee, Saumyabrata; Mason, Paul D.; Phillips, P. Jonathan; Greenhalgh, R. Justin S.; Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina; Collier, John L.

2013-05-01

DiPOLE is a concept for a large aperture gas-cooled cryogenic multislab DPSSL amplifier based on ceramic Yb:YAG. It is designed to amplify ns-pulses at multi-Hz repetition rates and is scalable up the kJ-level. The concept was first tested on a small scale prototype which has so far produced 7.4 J at 10 Hz, with the aim of reaching 10 J at an optical-to-optical efficiency of 25 %. The design of an additional amplifier stage producing 100 J at 10 Hz is underway. When used to pump short-pulse Ti:S or OPCPA systems, PW peak power levels can be produced at repetition rates and efficiencies that lie orders of magnitude above what is achievable today.

Dispersion of speckle suppression efficiency for binary DOE structures: spectral domain and coherent matrix approaches.

PubMed

Lapchuk, Anatoliy; Prygun, Olexandr; Fu, Minglei; Le, Zichun; Xiong, Qiyuan; Kryuchyn, Andriy

2017-06-26

We present the first general theoretical description of speckle suppression efficiency based on an active diffractive optical element (DOE). The approach is based on spectral analysis of diffracted beams and a coherent matrix. Analytical formulae are obtained for the dispersion of speckle suppression efficiency using different DOE structures and different DOE activation methods. We show that a one-sided 2D DOE structure has smaller speckle suppression range than a two-sided 1D DOE structure. Both DOE structures have sufficient speckle suppression range to suppress low-order speckles in the entire visible range, but only the two-sided 1D DOE can suppress higher-order speckles. We also show that a linear shift 2D DOE in a laser projector with a large numerical aperture has higher effective speckle suppression efficiency than the method using switching or step-wise shift DOE structures. The generalized theoretical models elucidate the mechanism and practical realization of speckle suppression.

Synthetic-Aperture Coherent Imaging From A Circular Path

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jin, Michael Y.

1995-01-01

Imaging algorithms based on exact point-target responses. Developed for use in reconstructing image of target from data gathered by radar, sonar, or other transmitting/receiving coherent-signal sensory apparatus following circular observation path around target. Potential applications include: Wide-beam synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) from aboard spacecraft in circular orbit around target planet; SAR from aboard airplane flying circular course at constant elevation around central ground point, toward which spotlight radar beam pointed; Ultrasonic reflection tomography in medical setting, using one transducer moving in circle around patient or else multiple transducers at fixed positions on circle around patient; and Sonar imaging of sea floor to high resolution, without need for large sensory apparatus.

Exo-Earth Discovery and Characterization with Large UV-Optical-IR Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandell, Avi; Stark, Christopher; Roberge, Aki; Domagal-Goldman, Shawn; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Robinson, Tyler; Clampin, Mark; Postman, Marc; Thronson, Harley

2015-07-01

A Large UV-Optical-InfraRed (LUVOIR) telescope was recommended by the recent AURA Beyond JWST report [1] and our study team is developing the concept further for consideration by the US National Research Council 2020 Decadal Survey. A critical metric for constraining requirements of this mission is the discovery and characterization of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars using high-contrast imaging, and we have focused on using exo-Earth yield to provide constraints on technical requirements early in the design process. An estimate of the detection yield for Earth-like planets can be calculated using a Monte Carlo simulation of a design reference mission (DRM), allowing the exploration of a variety of mission design and astrophysical parameters. We have developed a new strategy called altruistic yield optimazation (AYO) that optimizes the target list, exposure times, and number of revisits to maximize mission yield for a specific set of mission parameters [2]. In this presentation we discuss the various physical and technological parameters that go into the DRM simulations, and the associated uncertainties based on the current state of research. We will also discuss the potential follow-up science capabilities for spectroscopic characterization facilitated by a large aperture. For example, a telescope of aperture ≥10 meters would be able to measure integrated exo-Earth fluxes with multi-hour integration times, providing a map of albedo variations as the planet rotates. A large aperture would also provide reasonable inner working angles for coronographic observations beyond the visible wavelength range, enabling detections of important atmospheric molecules such as CH4 and CO2.

A future large-aperture UVOIR space observatory: reference designs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rioux, Norman; Thronson, Harley; Feinberg, Lee; Stahl, H. Philip; Redding, Dave; Jones, Andrew; Sturm, James; Collins, Christine; Liu, Alice

2015-09-01

Our joint NASA GSFC/JPL/MSFC/STScI study team has used community-provided science goals to derive mission needs, requirements, and candidate mission architectures for a future large-aperture, non-cryogenic UVOIR space observatory. We describe the feasibility assessment of system thermal and dynamic stability for supporting coronagraphy. The observatory is in a Sun-Earth L2 orbit providing a stable thermal environment and excellent field of regard. Reference designs include a 36-segment 9.2 m aperture telescope that stows within a five meter diameter launch vehicle fairing. Performance needs developed under the study are traceable to a variety of reference designs including options for a monolithic primary mirror.

A Future Large-Aperture UVOIR Space Observatory: Reference Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thronson, Harley; Rioux, Norman; Feinberg, Lee; Stahl, H. Philip; Redding, Dave; Jones, Andrew; Sturm, James; Collins, Christine; Liu, Alice

2015-01-01

Our joint NASA GSFC/JPL/MSFC/STScI study team has used community-provided science goals to derive mission needs, requirements, and candidate mission architectures for a future large-aperture, non-cryogenic UVOIR space observatory. We describe the feasibility assessment of system thermal and dynamic stability for supporting coronagraphy. The observatory is in a Sun-Earth L2 orbit providing a stable thermal environment and excellent field of regard. Reference designs include a 36-segment 9.2 m aperture telescope that stows within a five meter diameter launch vehicle fairing. Performance needs developed under the study are traceable to a variety of reference designs including options for a monolithic primary mirror.

The impact of different aperture distribution models and critical stress criteria on equivalent permeability in fractured rocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bisdom, Kevin; Bertotti, Giovanni; Nick, Hamidreza M.

2016-05-01

Predicting equivalent permeability in fractured reservoirs requires an understanding of the fracture network geometry and apertures. There are different methods for defining aperture, based on outcrop observations (power law scaling), fundamental mechanics (sublinear length-aperture scaling), and experiments (Barton-Bandis conductive shearing). Each method predicts heterogeneous apertures, even along single fractures (i.e., intrafracture variations), but most fractured reservoir models imply constant apertures for single fractures. We compare the relative differences in aperture and permeability predicted by three aperture methods, where permeability is modeled in explicit fracture networks with coupled fracture-matrix flow. Aperture varies along single fractures, and geomechanical relations are used to identify which fractures are critically stressed. The aperture models are applied to real-world large-scale fracture networks. (Sub)linear length scaling predicts the largest average aperture and equivalent permeability. Barton-Bandis aperture is smaller, predicting on average a sixfold increase compared to matrix permeability. Application of critical stress criteria results in a decrease in the fraction of open fractures. For the applied stress conditions, Coulomb predicts that 50% of the network is critically stressed, compared to 80% for Barton-Bandis peak shear. The impact of the fracture network on equivalent permeability depends on the matrix hydraulic properties, as in a low-permeable matrix, intrafracture connectivity, i.e., the opening along a single fracture, controls equivalent permeability, whereas for a more permeable matrix, absolute apertures have a larger impact. Quantification of fracture flow regimes using only the ratio of fracture versus matrix permeability is insufficient, as these regimes also depend on aperture variations within fractures.

Photometric Characterization of the Dark Energy Camera

DOE PAGES

Bernstein, G. M.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Armstrong, R.; ...

2018-04-02

We characterize the variation in photometric response of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) across its 520 Mpix science array during 4 years of operation. These variations are measured using high signal-to-noise aperture photometry of >10 7 stellar images in thousands of exposures of a few selected fields, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. A calibration procedure based on these results brings the rms variation in aperture magnitudes of bright stars on cloudless nights down to 2–3 mmag, with <1 mmag of correlated photometric errors for stars separated by ≥20''. On cloudless nights, any departures ofmore » the exposure zeropoints from a secant airmass law exceeding 1 mmag are plausibly attributable to spatial/temporal variations in aperture corrections. These variations can be inferred and corrected by measuring the fraction of stellar light in an annulus between 6'' and 8'' diameter. Key elements of this calibration include: correction of amplifier nonlinearities; distinguishing pixel-area variations and stray light from quantum-efficiency variations in the flat fields; field-dependent color corrections; and the use of an aperture-correction proxy. The DECam response pattern across the 2° field drifts over months by up to ±9 mmag, in a nearly wavelength-independent low-order pattern. Here, we find no fundamental barriers to pushing global photometric calibrations toward mmag accuracy.« less

Astrometric Calibration and Performance of the Dark Energy Camera

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bernstein, G. M.; Armstrong, R.; Plazas, A. A.

2017-05-30

We characterize the variation in photometric response of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) across its 520~Mpix science array during 4 years of operation. These variations are measured using high signal-to-noise aperture photometry ofmore » $>10^7$ stellar images in thousands of exposures of a few selected fields, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. A calibration procedure based on these results brings the RMS variation in aperture magnitudes of bright stars on cloudless nights down to 2--3 mmag, with <1 mmag of correlated photometric errors for stars separated by $$\\ge20$$". On cloudless nights, any departures of the exposure zeropoints from a secant airmass law exceeding >1 mmag are plausibly attributable to spatial/temporal variations in aperture corrections. These variations can be inferred and corrected by measuring the fraction of stellar light in an annulus between 6" and 8" diameter. Key elements of this calibration include: correction of amplifier nonlinearities; distinguishing pixel-area variations and stray light from quantum-efficiency variations in the flat fields; field-dependent color corrections; and the use of an aperture-correction proxy. The DECam response pattern across the 2-degree field drifts over months by up to $$\\pm7$$ mmag, in a nearly-wavelength-independent low-order pattern. We find no fundamental barriers to pushing global photometric calibrations toward mmag accuracy.« less

Photometric Characterization of the Dark Energy Camera

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bernstein, G. M.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Armstrong, R.

We characterize the variation in photometric response of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) across its 520 Mpix science array during 4 years of operation. These variations are measured using high signal-to-noise aperture photometry of >10 7 stellar images in thousands of exposures of a few selected fields, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. A calibration procedure based on these results brings the rms variation in aperture magnitudes of bright stars on cloudless nights down to 2–3 mmag, with <1 mmag of correlated photometric errors for stars separated by ≥20''. On cloudless nights, any departures ofmore » the exposure zeropoints from a secant airmass law exceeding 1 mmag are plausibly attributable to spatial/temporal variations in aperture corrections. These variations can be inferred and corrected by measuring the fraction of stellar light in an annulus between 6'' and 8'' diameter. Key elements of this calibration include: correction of amplifier nonlinearities; distinguishing pixel-area variations and stray light from quantum-efficiency variations in the flat fields; field-dependent color corrections; and the use of an aperture-correction proxy. The DECam response pattern across the 2° field drifts over months by up to ±9 mmag, in a nearly wavelength-independent low-order pattern. Here, we find no fundamental barriers to pushing global photometric calibrations toward mmag accuracy.« less

Photometric Characterization of the Dark Energy Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernstein, G. M.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Armstrong, R.; Burke, D. L.; Diehl, H. T.; Gruendl, R. A.; Johnson, M. D.; Li, T. S.; Rykoff, E. S.; Walker, A. R.; Wester, W.; Yanny, B.

2018-05-01

We characterize the variation in photometric response of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) across its 520 Mpix science array during 4 years of operation. These variations are measured using high signal-to-noise aperture photometry of >107 stellar images in thousands of exposures of a few selected fields, with the telescope dithered to move the sources around the array. A calibration procedure based on these results brings the rms variation in aperture magnitudes of bright stars on cloudless nights down to 2–3 mmag, with <1 mmag of correlated photometric errors for stars separated by ≥20″. On cloudless nights, any departures of the exposure zeropoints from a secant airmass law exceeding 1 mmag are plausibly attributable to spatial/temporal variations in aperture corrections. These variations can be inferred and corrected by measuring the fraction of stellar light in an annulus between 6″ and 8″ diameter. Key elements of this calibration include: correction of amplifier nonlinearities; distinguishing pixel-area variations and stray light from quantum-efficiency variations in the flat fields; field-dependent color corrections; and the use of an aperture-correction proxy. The DECam response pattern across the 2° field drifts over months by up to ±9 mmag, in a nearly wavelength-independent low-order pattern. We find no fundamental barriers to pushing global photometric calibrations toward mmag accuracy.

Embedded electronics for a video-rate distributed aperture passive millimeter-wave imager

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Curt, Petersen F.; Bonnett, James; Schuetz, Christopher A.; Martin, Richard D.

2013-05-01

Optical upconversion for a distributed aperture millimeter wave imaging system is highly beneficial due to its superior bandwidth and limited susceptibility to EMI. These features mean the same technology can be used to collect information across a wide spectrum, as well as in harsh environments. Some practical uses of this technology include safety of flight in degraded visual environments (DVE), imaging through smoke and fog, and even electronic warfare. Using fiber-optics in the distributed aperture poses a particularly challenging problem with respect to maintaining coherence of the information between channels. In order to capture an image, the antenna aperture must be electronically steered and focused to a particular distance. Further, the state of the phased array must be maintained, even as environmental factors such as vibration, temperature and humidity adversely affect the propagation of the signals through the optical fibers. This phenomenon cannot be avoided or mitigated, but rather must be compensated for using a closed-loop control system. In this paper, we present an implementation of embedded electronics designed specifically for this purpose. This novel architecture is efficiently small, scalable to many simultaneously operating channels and sufficiently robust. We present our results, which include integration into a 220 channel imager and phase stability measurements as the system is stressed according to MIL-STD-810F vibration profiles of an H-53E heavy-lift helicopter.

An experimental comparison of conventional two-bank and novel four-bank dynamic MLC tracking.

PubMed

Davies, G A; Clowes, P; McQuaid, D; Evans, P M; Webb, S; Poludniowski, G

2013-03-07

The AccuLeaf mMLC featuring four multileaf-collimator (MLC) banks has been used for the first time for an experimental comparison of conventional two-bank with novel four-bank dynamic MLC tracking of a two-dimensional sinusoidal respiratory motion. This comparison was performed for a square aperture, and for three conformal treatment apertures from clinical radiotherapy lung cancer patients. The system latency of this prototype tracking system was evaluated and found to be 1.0 s and the frequency at which MLC positions could be updated, 1 Hz, and therefore accurate MLC tracking of irregular patient motion would be difficult with the system in its current form. The MLC leaf velocity required for two-bank-MLC and four-bank-MLC tracking was evaluated for the apertures studied and a substantial decrease was found in the maximum MLC velocity required when four-banks were used for tracking rather than two. A dosimetric comparison of the two techniques was also performed and minimal difference was found between two-bank-MLC and four-bank-MLC tracking. The use of four MLC banks for dynamic MLC tracking is shown to be potentially advantageous for increasing the delivery efficiency compared with two-bank-MLC tracking where difficulties are encountered if large leaf shifts are required to track motion perpendicular to the direction of leaf travel.

Fast-neutron, coded-aperture imager

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woolf, Richard S.; Phlips, Bernard F.; Hutcheson, Anthony L.; Wulf, Eric A.

2015-06-01

This work discusses a large-scale, coded-aperture imager for fast neutrons, building off a proof-of concept instrument developed at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The Space Science Division at the NRL has a heritage of developing large-scale, mobile systems, using coded-aperture imaging, for long-range γ-ray detection and localization. The fast-neutron, coded-aperture imaging instrument, designed for a mobile unit (20 ft. ISO container), consists of a 32-element array of 15 cm×15 cm×15 cm liquid scintillation detectors (EJ-309) mounted behind a 12×12 pseudorandom coded aperture. The elements of the aperture are composed of 15 cm×15 cm×10 cm blocks of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The arrangement of the aperture elements produces a shadow pattern on the detector array behind the mask. By measuring of the number of neutron counts per masked and unmasked detector, and with knowledge of the mask pattern, a source image can be deconvolved to obtain a 2-d location. The number of neutrons per detector was obtained by processing the fast signal from each PMT in flash digitizing electronics. Digital pulse shape discrimination (PSD) was performed to filter out the fast-neutron signal from the γ background. The prototype instrument was tested at an indoor facility at the NRL with a 1.8-μCi and 13-μCi 252Cf neutron/γ source at three standoff distances of 9, 15 and 26 m (maximum allowed in the facility) over a 15-min integration time. The imaging and detection capabilities of the instrument were tested by moving the source in half- and one-pixel increments across the image plane. We show a representative sample of the results obtained at one-pixel increments for a standoff distance of 9 m. The 1.8-μCi source was not detected at the 26-m standoff. In order to increase the sensitivity of the instrument, we reduced the fastneutron background by shielding the top, sides and back of the detector array with 10-cm-thick HDPE. This shielding configuration led to a reduction in the background by a factor of 1.7 and thus allowed for the detection and localization of the 1.8 μCi. The detection significance for each source at different standoff distances will be discussed.

Performance of large aperture tapered fiber phase conjugate mirror with high pulse energy and 1-kHz repetition rate.

PubMed

Zhao, Zhigang; Dong, Yantao; Pan, Sunqiang; Liu, Chong; Chen, Jun; Tong, Lixin; Gao, Qingsong; Tang, Chun

2012-01-16

A large aperture fused silica tapered fiber phase conjugate mirror is presented with a maximum 70% stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) reflectivity, which is obtained with 1 kHz repetition rate, 15 ns pulse width and 38 mJ input pulse energy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest SBS reflectivity ever reported by using optical fiber as a phase conjugate mirror for such high pulse repetition rate (1 kHz) and several tens of millijoule (mJ) input pulse energy. The influences of fiber end surface quality and pump pulse widths on SBS reflectivity are investigated experimentally. The results show that finer fiber end surface quality and longer input pulse widths are preferred for obtaining higher SBS reflectivity with higher input pulse energy. Double passing amplification experiments are also performed. 52 mJ pulse energy is achieved at 1 kHz repetition rate, with a reflected SBS pulse width of 1.5 ns and a M(2) factor of 2.3. The corresponding peak power reaches 34.6 MW. Obvious beam quality improvement is observed.

Transparent electrode for optical switch

DOEpatents

Goldhar, J.; Henesian, M.A.

1984-10-19

The invention relates generally to optical switches and techniques for applying a voltage to an electro-optical crystal, and more particularly, to transparent electodes for an optical switch. System architectures for very large inertial confinement fusion (ICF) lasers require active optical elements with apertures on the order of one meter. Large aperture optical switches are needed for isolation of stages, switch-out from regenerative amplifier cavities and protection from target retroreflections.

Pseudo-color coding method for high-dynamic single-polarization SAR images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Zicheng; Liu, Xiaolin; Pei, Bingzhi

2018-04-01

A raw synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image usually has a 16-bit or higher bit depth, which cannot be directly visualized on 8-bit displays. In this study, we propose a pseudo-color coding method for high-dynamic singlepolarization SAR images. The method considers the characteristics of both SAR images and human perception. In HSI (hue, saturation and intensity) color space, the method carries out high-dynamic range tone mapping and pseudo-color processing simultaneously in order to avoid loss of details and to improve object identifiability. It is a highly efficient global algorithm.

Software-based high-level synthesis design of FPGA beamformers for synthetic aperture imaging.

PubMed

Amaro, Joao; Yiu, Billy Y S; Falcao, Gabriel; Gomes, Marco A C; Yu, Alfred C H

2015-05-01

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can potentially be configured as beamforming platforms for ultrasound imaging, but a long design time and skilled expertise in hardware programming are typically required. In this article, we present a novel approach to the efficient design of FPGA beamformers for synthetic aperture (SA) imaging via the use of software-based high-level synthesis techniques. Software kernels (coded in OpenCL) were first developed to stage-wise handle SA beamforming operations, and their corresponding FPGA logic circuitry was emulated through a high-level synthesis framework. After design space analysis, the fine-tuned OpenCL kernels were compiled into register transfer level descriptions to configure an FPGA as a beamformer module. The processing performance of this beamformer was assessed through a series of offline emulation experiments that sought to derive beamformed images from SA channel-domain raw data (40-MHz sampling rate, 12 bit resolution). With 128 channels, our FPGA-based SA beamformer can achieve 41 frames per second (fps) processing throughput (3.44 × 10(8) pixels per second for frame size of 256 × 256 pixels) at 31.5 W power consumption (1.30 fps/W power efficiency). It utilized 86.9% of the FPGA fabric and operated at a 196.5 MHz clock frequency (after optimization). Based on these findings, we anticipate that FPGA and high-level synthesis can together foster rapid prototyping of real-time ultrasound processor modules at low power consumption budgets.

Phenomenology of electromagnetic coupling: Conductors penetrating an aperture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, D. B.; King, R. J.

1987-06-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the coupling effects of penetrating conductors through free-standing apertures. This penetrating conductor and aperture arrangement are referred to as a modified aperture. A penetrating conductor is defined here to be a thin, single wire bent twice at 90 angles. The wire was inserted through a rectangular aperture in a metal wall. Vertical segments on both sides of the wall coupled energy from one region to the other. Energy was incident upon the modified aperture from what is referred to as the exterior region. The amount of coupling was measured by a D sensor on the other (interior) side of the wall. This configuration of an aperture in a metal wall was used as opposed to an aperture in a cavity in order to simplify the interpretation of resulting data. The added complexity of multiple cavity resonances was therefore eliminated. Determining the effects of penetrating conductors on aperture coupling is one of several topics being investigated as part of on-going research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the phenomenology of electromagnetic coupling. These phenomenology studies are concerned with the vulnerability of electronic systems to high intensity electromagnetic fields. The investigation is relevant to high altitude EMP (HEMP), enhanced HEMP (EHEMP), and high power microwave (HPM) coupling.

Low-Gain Circularly Polarized Antenna with Torus-Shaped Pattern

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Amaro, Luis R.; Kruid, Ronald C.; Vacchione, Joseph D.; Prata, Aluizio

2012-01-01

The Juno mission to Jupiter requires an antenna with a torus-shaped antenna pattern with approximately 6 dBic gain and circular polarization over the Deep Space Network (DSN) 7-GHz transmit frequency and the 8-GHz receive frequency. Given the large distances that accumulate en-route to Jupiter and the limited power afforded by the solar-powered vehicle, this toroidal low-gain antenna requires as much gain as possible while maintaining a beam width that could facilitate a +/-10deg edge of coverage. The natural antenna that produces a toroidal antenna pattern is the dipole, but the limited approx. = 2.2 dB peak gain would be insufficient. Here a shaped variation of the standard bicone antenna is proposed that could achieve the required gains and bandwidths while maintaining a size that was not excessive. The final geometry that was settled on consisted of a corrugated, shaped bicone, which is fed by a WR112 waveguide-to-coaxial- waveguide transition. This toroidal low-gain antenna (TLGA) geometry produced the requisite gain, moderate sidelobes, and the torus-shaped antenna pattern while maintaining a very good match over the entire required frequency range. Its "horn" geometry is also low-loss and capable of handling higher powers with large margins against multipactor breakdown. The final requirement for the antenna was to link with the DSN with circular polarization. A four-layer meander-line array polarizer was implemented; an approach that was fairly well suited to the TLGA geometry. The principal development of this work was to adapt the standard linear bicone such that its aperture could be increased in order to increase the available gain of the antenna. As one increases the aperture of a standard bicone, the phase variation across the aperture begins to increase, so the larger the aperture becomes, the greater the phase variation. In order to maximize the gain from any aperture antenna, the phase should be kept as uniform as possible. Thus, as the standard bicone fs aperture increases, the gain increase becomes less until one reaches a point of diminishing returns. In order to overcome this problem, a shaped aperture is used. Rather than the standard linear bicone, a parabolic bicone was found to reduce the amount of phase variation as the aperture increases. In fact, the phase variation is half of the standard linear bicone, which leads to higher gain with smaller aperture sizes. The antenna pattern radiated from this parabolic-shaped bicone antenna has fairly high side lobes. The Juno project requested that these sidelobes be minimized. This was accomplished by adding corrugations to the parabolic shape. This corrugated-shaped bicone antenna had reasonably low sidelobes, and the appropriate gain and beamwidth to meet project requirements.

High-efficiency L-band T/R Module: Development Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edelstein, Wendy N.; Andricos, Constantine; Wang, Feiyu; Rutled, David B.

2005-01-01

Future interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) systems require electronically scanned phased-array antennas, where the transmit/receive (T/R) module is a key component. The T/R module efficiency is a critical figure of merit and has direct implications on the power dissipation and power generation requirements of the system. Significant improvements in the efficiency of the T/R module will make SAR missions more feasible and affordable. The results of two high-efficiency T/R modules are presented, each based on different power amplifier technologies. One module uses a 30W GaAs Class-AlB power amplifier and the second module uses a 70W LD-MOS Class-ElF power amplifier, where both modules use a common low power section. Each module operates over an 80MHz bandwidth at L-band (1.2GHz) with an overall module efficiency greater than 58%. We will present the results of these two T/R modules that have been designed, built and tested.

Wavefront-aberration measurement and systematic-error analysis of a high numerical-aperture objective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zhixiang; Xing, Tingwen; Jiang, Yadong; Lv, Baobin

2018-02-01

A two-dimensional (2-D) shearing interferometer based on an amplitude chessboard grating was designed to measure the wavefront aberration of a high numerical-aperture (NA) objective. Chessboard gratings offer better diffraction efficiencies and fewer disturbing diffraction orders than traditional cross gratings. The wavefront aberration of the tested objective was retrieved from the shearing interferogram using the Fourier transform and differential Zernike polynomial-fitting methods. Grating manufacturing errors, including the duty-cycle and pattern-deviation errors, were analyzed with the Fourier transform method. Then, according to the relation between the spherical pupil and planar detector coordinates, the influence of the distortion of the pupil coordinates was simulated. Finally, the systematic error attributable to grating alignment errors was deduced through the geometrical ray-tracing method. Experimental results indicate that the measuring repeatability (3σ) of the wavefront aberration of an objective with NA 0.4 was 3.4 mλ. The systematic-error results were consistent with previous analyses. Thus, the correct wavefront aberration can be obtained after calibration.

Optical transmission through silver film with compound periodic array of annular apertures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yue; Yao, Wen-jie; Yu, Hong

2015-03-01

Recently, some kinds of structures have been found to show the property of extraordinary optical transmission (EOT). In this paper, we present a novel composite structure based on array of annular apertures (AAA) with compound lattice. The lattice includes two kinds of annular apertures with the same outer radius and different inner radii. The transmission spectrum of this compound periodic AAA can be achieved by adding up the spectra of two corresponding simple periodic AAAs, and the transmission shows EOT property. The transmission peaks of this kind of structure can be adjusted to desire wavelengths by changing the inner radius of aperture or the index of the dielectric material in the aperture. This structure can be used as a filter with dual pass bands when the difference between inner radii or indices of dielectric inside is large enough for two kinds of apertures.

Characterization of tapered slot antenna feeds and feed arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Young-Sik; Yngvesson, K. Sigfrid

1990-01-01

A class of feed antennas and feed antenna arrays used in the focal plane of paraboloid reflectors and exhibiting higher than normal levels of cross-polarized radiation in the diagonal planes is addressed. A model which allows prediction of element gain and aperture efficiency of the feed/reflector system is presented. The predictions are in good agreement with experimental results. Tapered slot antenna (TSA) elements are used an example of an element of this type. It is shown that TSA arrays used in multibeam systems with small beam spacings are competitive in terms of aperture efficiency with other, more standard types of arrays incorporating waveguide type elements.

Aperture-free star formation rate of SDSS star-forming galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duarte Puertas, S.; Vilchez, J. M.; Iglesias-Páramo, J.; Kehrig, C.; Pérez-Montero, E.; Rosales-Ortega, F. F.

2017-03-01

Large area surveys with a high number of galaxies observed have undoubtedly marked a milestone in the understanding of several properties of galaxies, such as star-formation history, morphology, and metallicity. However, in many cases, these surveys provide fluxes from fixed small apertures (e.g. fibre), which cover a scant fraction of the galaxy, compelling us to use aperture corrections to study the global properties of galaxies. In this work, we derive the current total star formation rate (SFR) of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) star-forming galaxies, using an empirically based aperture correction of the measured Hα flux for the first time, thus minimising the uncertainties associated with reduced apertures. All the Hα fluxes have been extinction-corrected using the Hα/ Hβ ratio free from aperture effects. The total SFR for 210 000 SDSS star-forming galaxies has been derived applying pure empirical Hα and Hα/ Hβ aperture corrections based on the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. We find that, on average, the aperture-corrected SFR is 0.65 dex higher than the SDSS fibre-based SFR. The relation between the SFR and stellar mass for SDSS star-forming galaxies (SFR-M⋆) has been obtained, together with its dependence on extinction and Hα equivalent width. We compare our results with those obtained in previous works and examine the behaviour of the derived SFR in six redshift bins, over the redshift range 0.005 ≤ z ≤ 0.22. The SFR-M⋆ sequence derived here is in agreement with selected observational studies based on integral field spectroscopy of individual galaxies as well as with the predictions of recent theoretical models of disc galaxies. A table of the aperture-corrected fluxes and SFR for 210 000 SDSS star-forming galaxies and related relevant data is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/599/A71 Warning, no authors found for 2017A&A...599A..51.