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Eyeglass. 1. Very large aperture diffractive telescopes

Journal Article · · Applied Optics
 [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Stop L-477, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
The Eyeglass is a very large aperture (25{endash}100-m) space telescope consisting of two distinct spacecraft, separated in space by several kilometers. A diffractive lens provides the telescope{close_quote}s large aperture, and a separate, much smaller, space telescope serves as its mobile eyepiece. Use of a transmissive diffractive lens solves two basic problems associated with very large aperture space telescopes; it is inherently launchable (lightweight, packagable, and deployable) it and virtually eliminates the traditional, very tight surface shape tolerances faced by reflecting apertures. The potential drawback to use of a diffractive primary (very narrow spectral bandwidth) is eliminated by corrective optics in the telescope{close_quote}s eyepiece; the Eyeglass can provide diffraction-limited imaging with either single-band ({Delta}{lambda}/{lambda}{approximately}0.1), multiband, or continuous spectral coverage. {copyright} 1999 Optical Society of America
OSTI ID:
701004
Journal Information:
Applied Optics, Journal Name: Applied Optics Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 38; ISSN APOPAI; ISSN 0003-6935
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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