Optical Surfaces has reported that its off-axis parabolic mirrors are particularly suitable for coating using an Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS) technique that provides near 100% reflectivity thereby providing high protection from thermal damage that often arises from high power continuous wave lasers.

Optical Surfaces has reported delivery to the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) of high precision disperser prisms and folding mirror components that lie at the heart of the SPIRou / SPIP near infrared spectrograph.

Off-axis parabolic mirrors are the most common type of aspherical mirrors used in optical instruments because they are free from spherical aberrations, and can focus a parallel beam to a point or point source to infinity.

Using specialist production techniques, and benefiting from a stable manufacturing environment, Optical Surfaces’ experienced and skilled engineering team are known for producing ultra-smooth mirrors with surface accuracy, surface quality and surface slope errors.

Optical Surfaces offers a range of high precision mounts developed to support off-axis paraboloids, spheres and optical flats up to 600mm diameter in applications where stability is important. Constructed in black anodized aluminium – four models of OS Mounts provide a secure and stable platform for mirror diameters from 100 to 254mm.

Optical Surfaces has reported how a motorised UV-Vis-NIR collimator and interferometric alignment system it supplied to the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) in Berlin, Germany has been used to set-up the ground breaking DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS).

Optical Surfaces is an international manufacturer of Off-Axis Parabolic Mirrors (OAPs) for demanding imaging applications. Off-axis parabolic mirrors can be a useful tool in optical design. OAPs combine the achromatic and diffraction limited imaging properties of a parabolic mirror with the ability to deviate the light path off-axis, which is useful for most imaging systems.

Benefiting from a facility where temperatures remain constant year-round and vibration is practically non-existent, Optical Surfaces has been able to routinely produce and test demanding telescope spectrograph optics (aspheres, flats, lenses, mirrors and prisms) that aims to stretch the limits of conventional optical fabrication techniques.

The optimal beamsplitter can take on many forms including cubes, plates, hexagons, pentagons, polarising, non-polarising or wedge designs in a wide variety of reflection / transmission ratios and substrates depending upon your application.

Optical Surfaces is manufacturer of large, high quality prisms for spectroscopic, surveying and telescope applications. Prisms are solid optics that are ground and polished into geometrical and optically significant shapes where the angle, position, and number of surfaces help define the type and function. Spectroscopic applications typically demand that prisms must be manufactured with very strict tolerances and accuracies.

Optical Surfaces has undertaken a study to determine how microroughness impacts the performance of Aspheric lenses and mirrors. Microroughness is a quantity which considers features which are even smaller than slope errors and is often expressed in RMS terms after integrating over spatial periods that are usually less than 0.25mm.

Optical Surfaces has developed a hyperbolic mirror for deep space observation. A hyperbolic mirror is the optical component of choice for precisely and accurately focusing light in a telescope from one focal point to the other focal point. Hyperbolic mirrors are used in a telescope design to correct certain distortions caused by an extremely fast f-ratio design.

Nuclear research laser facilities around the world today commonly use powerful amplified ultra-short duration pulses of coherent light to deliver massive energy densities at a given target. The synchronised delivery of such high-power pulses generates extreme conditions that allow scientists to carry out state of the art nuclear research and to study the conditions that exist in exotic and distant to us environments, such as the core of our sun.

Using ultra smooth transmission optics supplied by Optical Surfaces, the MAX IV Laboratory has managed to achieve measurement of the smallest ever electron beam emittance on their 3 GeV synchrotron storage ring. The MAX IV Laboratory is Sweden's national synchrotron radiation facility.

An article titled 'Unveiling the Cosmos' has been published by Optical Surfaces, which discusses the latest challenges and trends in modern astronomy and describes how these advances have acted as a significant driver towards the improvement of their optical technologies.

Benefiting from an ultra-stable production environment and proprietary polishing techniques, Optical Surfaces, is reportedly able to routinely produce high-power laser windows up to 600mm in diameter with typical wavefront error of lambda/10 and surface finish of 40/20 to 10/5.

  Working with highly-stable materials such as fused quartz and Zerodur, Optical Surfaces is able to produce reference and transmission flats with a surface accuracy of better than lambda/20 p.v. and surface roughness of less than one nanometre.

It has been announced that Optical Surfaces has received an order from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) for two high precision reference mirrors to accelerate the precise alignment and testing of their Earth Observation Satellite Telescopes. SSTL manufacture and operate small to medium sized satellites, covering a range of use cases, from telecoms to Earth observation. 

  Optical Surfaces has announced that it has received an order from the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) for twelve ultra-fast focusing 370mm diameter aspheric lenses for its Orion petawatt laser research facility.

An order has been received from Strathclyde Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS) Group, from University of Strathclyde (UK) to Optical Surfaces, for three ultra-high performance off-axis parabolic mirrors in special custom vacuum motorised mounts. The mounted mirrors to be developed by Optical Surfaces will be used on several beamlines of the facilities 350TW laser which is designed to support an extensive research portfolio in laser-plasma ...