Optical Surfaces Ltd has developed a new approach, using a series of pre-aligned beam collimator sub-assemblies, for Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) testing of large diameter military optical systems. MTF is a technique, trusted by optical designers, for objectively evaluating the image-forming capability of military optical systems. As reflective beam collimators can be used to replicate a target at infinity or interim distances without parallax, they are the device of choice for...

Optical Surfaces Ltd is a leading producer of ultra-high precision optical components and systems for telescope spectrographs. The main function of a telescope spectrograph is to separate light into its component colours (or wavelengths) to reveal information about the chemical content, temperature and motion of distant planets, comets, stars, interstellar gas clouds and galaxies. Benefiting from a unique underground facility, where temperatures remain constant year-round and vibration is...

Optical Surfaces Ltd. has received a follow-on order from the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (SCAPA) at the University of Strathclyde (UK), for two ultra-high performance off-axis parabolic mirrors.   These new mirrors will be deployed in a state-of-the-art laser-driven proton and ion beam accelerator on campus. The newly procured off-axis parabolic mirrors, supplied by Optical Surfaces, are short focal length (210 mm) optics dedicated to enabling...

Optical Surfaces Ltd. has pioneered a pitch-polishing technique, that produces consistently low surface microroughness on off-axis parabolic mirrors used as key focusing elements for high power laser experiments. Microroughness is a component of surface texture, it can be determined by looking at deviations from the mean line profile of a mirror surface. Several renowned plasma physics groups have reported that as microroughness becomes more pronounced, it causes effects akin to mild...

Dichroic beamsplitters from Optical Surfaces Ltd are commonly used as light guiding optics in telescope spectrographs and to enable multichannel CCD cameras to simultaneously acquire images in different colours. Beamsplitters operate by dividing an incident beam of light into two parts. One part is transmitted through the beamsplitter, the other is reflected. In a dichroic beamsplitter the light is either reflected or transmitted based on wavelength. By varying the coating on a dichroic...