Towards a large, lightweight mirror for AO - Development ofa 1m Ni coated CFRP mirror

摘要

We present our recent developments towards the construction of a large, thin, single-piece mirror for adaptive optics (AO). Our current research program aims to have completed fabrication and testing of a lm diameter, nickel coated carbon-fibre reinforced cyanate ester resin mirror by the last quarter of 2009. This composite mirror material is being developed to provide a lightweight and robust alternative to thin glass shell mirrors, with the challenge of future large deformable mirrors such as the 2.5 m M4 on the E-ELT in mind. A detailed analysis of the material properties of test mirror samples is being performed at the University of Birmingham (UK), the first results of which are discussed and presented here. We discuss the project progress achieved so far, including fabrication of the 1 m fiat moulds for the replication process, manufacturing and testing methods for 20 cm diameter sample mirrors and system simulations.