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Adaptive Optics
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Deformable mirrors & adaptive optics
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CILAS deformable mirrors to focus your light and enhance your vision.
Pioneer in adaptive optics
The initial deformable mirror developments started as early as 1973 at CILAS. The aim was to focus the laser beams through atmosphere for military applications.
In the mid-1980s, the astronomy community began to show a strong interest in these innovative techniques for ground telescopes. As early as 1989, CILAS developed and manufactured the deformable mirror of the Adaptive Optics system called COME-ON. It was the first demonstration of real-time correction of wavefront deformations, generated by the atmospheric turbulence.
Since then, Adaptive Optics has become a necessity in astronomy and today most large telescopes in the world have a CILAS deformable mirror in operation.
Based on piezoelectric technology, CILAS designs and manufactures :
- Stack Array Mirrors (SAM) for astronomy
- Monomorph Mirrors (MONO) for laser, astronomy and space
An expert team will design the most appropriate mirror type matching the requirements.
CILAS deformable mirrors are an absolute necessity for a better and sharper observation of the sky. All our deformable mirrors perform high optical quality and lead to unmatched correction performances.
Suited to night and solar telescopes and their environment conditions
SAM Mirrors have :
- 50 to 5000 actuators
- 50 to 500mm diameter
- High order and high frequency correction
- High optical quality
- Tip tilt mount
- For large telescopes
MONO Mirrors have :
- 25 to 250mm diameter
- High optical quality
- No print-through effect
- Tip tilt mount
High intensity or ultra-fast laser systems rely on many optical elements, which make it difficult to obtain an aberration-free laser beam. With a MONO deformable mirror positioned in the path of the laser, distortions can be efficiently reduced.
High wavefront correction performances, for high intensity and ultra-fast laser systems
The MONOs feature:
- 25 to 250mm diameter
- A very high efficiency of the correction: >80% for Zernike modes up to 10th order
- Metallic and dielectric coatings with high LIDT
- A vacuum compatibility
- In situ return of experience with unfailing reliability
Based on the MONOmorph technology, CILAS is currently developing deformable mirrors for space telescopes compatible with:
- 1 billion cycles without failure
- Space environment
- ESA standards
