Rob Harris (Durham University, CfAI)
Micro optics for large telescopes
To understand the mysteries the universe astronomers require more and more photons. To allow the collection of those photons the telescopes we build grow larger with every generation. This increase in telescope size is matched by the instruments that go behind them, which increase in size roughly as the diameter of the telescope squared, pushing up costs, creating difficulties with materials and meaning instrument development teams grow to hundreds of people.
In this talk I will detail the work I do trying to find ways to reduce the difficulties created by the latest generation of telescopes. I will discuss how to get light from 8 m class telescopes into single mode fibers and what we can do with it once we have it there. I will delve into the technologies I use, from multicore fibres, to ultrafast laser inscribed waveguides and finally two-photon polymerisation.