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Optical Systems Development and Fabrication
The Optical Systems Development and Fabrication section of The College of Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona, is a fully functional optical design and fabrication facility. This department, headed by Martin Valente, houses a large optics shop, a small optics shop, opto-mechanical engineering facility, instrument shop, optical generation equipment, and optical testing equipment.
The small optics shop opticians have vast
experience in fabricating precision optical components from many different types of
glasses, ceramics and metals. Completed in the small optics shop was an all metal
matrix composite 16" R-C telescope and spectrograph launched on the Space Shuttle on
10/29/98. Other work done in the small optics shop includes two facetted quartz blocks
for the Gravity Probe B spaceborne experiment. These
blocks are roughly 7" in diameter and 22" long with geometrically constrained
facets which prevent the use of standard polishing equipment. These facets were hand
polished and held to one arcsecond orthogonality requirements in two planes. Other work includes several f/0.5 EUV Imager mirrors with eighth wave surfaces and three
Angstrom roughness, an all SXA(Silicon Carbide/Aluminum) Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a
16 inch diameter foam SXA primary and 15 element lens bench, and a 10" aperture
astrographic lens with diffraction limited performance and zero distortion over a 10
degree field of view.
The large optics shop facilities include
various polishing machines with turntables up to 170 inches in diameter, a temperature
stabilized environment, a 125 foot vertical optical test tower, and a 26 foot vertical
optical test tower. The large optics shop is equipped with IR and visible
interferometers, and has developed a high speed CCD based interferometer, which has excellent
performance over long optical path lengths or in non-ideal testing environments. Examples
of work done in the large optics shop include the technology demonstrator for the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
and a convex
mold to be used for the technology demonstrator in the Far Infrared Space
Telescope (FIRST) program. The NGST demonstrator is a 2 meter diameter 2 mm thick
shell which will be actively controlled for figure correction. The FIRST mold is a 2 meter
diameter f/1 convex sphere which will be used for demonstrating replicating technology for
graphite-composite based optics.
Currently underway in the large optics shop is an approximately three year project to grind and polish the primary mirror for the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) which is to be housed at Lowell Observatory. The capacity of the turntable was increased, and a computer controlled polisher was designed for the completion of the project. The f/1.9 mirror blank is approximately 4.3 meters. If the completed mirror were expanded to the size of the United States, the maximum deviation would be a mere one inch.
The opto-mechanical engineering and instrument shop personnel design and fabricate such
devices as optical support structures, space and ground based telescopes, precision
optical test instruments, and related equipment. They also perform mirror structural
design, structural analysis and opto-mechanical research on various subjects, including
optimization and mounting of lens systems and mirrors. Among other projects, they have
designed large optical telescopes and telescope subsystems, space-based detectors, and
airborne optical instruments for government and industry.