Speaker
Description
Deformable mirrors are a type of optical element with a reflective surface that can change shape, through different mechanisms. These devices allow for adaptive control of reflected wavefronts offering a method for real-time aberration correction. For this reason, deformable mirrors have a wide range of optical applications from correcting for distortions due to atmospheric turbulence in astronomy to improving the quality of biological images. Other than shaping wavefronts by correcting for distortions, deformable mirrors can be used to impose a particular structure onto the reflected wavefront. This is useful because beam shapes different from the standard Gaussian profile of a laser are often desired for industrial applications such as laser materials processing and photolithography. Here we present an overview of the different types of deformable mirrors and their applications. Since deformable mirrors are usually used for aberration correction, some are readily controllable using aberrations characterised by Zernike polynomials. We demonstrate how we can use these aberrations to shape a Gaussian beam into an elongated spot – a beam shape commonly used for applications in industry and microscopy.
| Apply for student award at which level: | MSc |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |