Cryogenic Deformable Mirror Technology Development

摘要

Xinetics is working with NASA to develop a cryogenic deformable mirror (DM) specific to the needs of future Origins Program missions such as TPF and JWST. Of utmost importance was the development of an electroceramic material that exhibited electrostrictive properties at cryogenic temperatures. In this paper, the actuator developmental tests and subsequent cryogenic deformable mirror design and cryogenic testing performance of the 349-channel discrete actuator deformable mirror demonstrator are discussed. The cofired actuator stroke response was nearly constant from 35 to 65 K such that at 150V the actuator free-stroke was ～3 microns. The 349-ch cryogenic DM was designed and built with as few parts and materials as possible to minimize the CTE mismatch. The polished mirror was cycled twice from 300 to 35 K. The rms surface figure was monitored using a Zygo interferometer on cooling and consistent data was measured during both temperature cycles. The figure changed from 0.5 waves (P-V) at 300 K to 5 waves at 35 K and returned to 0.6 waves at 300K. The actuators were powered and the influence functions were measured between 35 and 65 K. Even though it is not a functional DM at 35 K, it is a substantial step forward in the development of a cryogenic deformable mirror technology.