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
2009 February
