Optics of 'Laser Trapped Mirrors' for large telescopes and hypertelescopes in space

摘要

Laboratory testing is undertaken for exploring the feasibility of "Laser Trapped Mirrors". These involve a soft membrane or two-dimensional array of nano-spheres having sub-micrometer thickness. It is constrained to an accurate optical figure by radiation pressure trapping in polychromatic standing waves formed by a pair of diverging and counter-propagating laser beams. The optical design and resulting properties are discussed as well as the mission aspects for several architectures of telescopes and hypertelescopes at scales from meters to hundreds of kilometers.