Hybrid sol-gel planar optics for astronomy

A. Ghasempour, A. M. P. Leite, F. Reynaud, P. V. S. Marques, P. J. V. Garcia, D. Alexandre, P. Moreira

Abstract
Hybrid sol-gel planar optics devices for astronomy are produced for the first time. This material system can operate from the visible (0.5 μm) up to the edge of astronomical J-band (1.4 μm). The design, fabrication and characterization results of a coaxial three beam combiner are given as an example. Fringe contrasts above 94% are obtained with a source with spectral bandwidth of 50 nm. These results demonstrate that hybrid sol-gel technology can produce devices with high quality, opening the possibility of rapid prototyping of new designs and concepts for astronomical applications.

Optics Express
Volume 17, Page 1970
February 2009

DOI: 10.1364/OE.17.001970
ADS Bibliographic code: 2009OExpr..17.1970G