MICADO is the ELT first light instrument, an imager working at the diffraction limit of the telescope thanks to two adaptive optics (AO) modes: a single conjugate one (SCAO), available at the instrument first light and developed by the MICADO consortium, and a multi conjugate one (MCAO), developed by the MORFEO consortium. Although the project final design review process is about to be completed, the review board and ESO acknowledged that "the review of the final design can be considered complete for the majority of the MICADO sub-systems" and agreed that MICADO can start manufacturing. For the MICADO SCAO module, we have started the manufacturing of several parts: the majority of the SCAO optics and of the SCAO mechanics, the real-time computer software and the instrument control software. This manufacturing is ordered in several steps to allow the progressive integration of a first full AO close loop with the final SCAO parts. In this contribution, we will focus on the first two steps: on our AO Sésame bench and the so-called "β flat configuration". We will present the status of this manufacturing and the first results obtained.
MICADO is a first light instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), set to start operating later this decade. It will provide diffraction limited imaging, astrometry, high contrast imaging, and long slit spectroscopy at near-infrared wavelengths. During the initial phase operations, adaptive optics (AO) correction will be provided by its own natural guide star wavefront sensor. In its final configuration, that AO system will be retained and complemented by the laser guide star multi-conjugate adaptive optics module MORFEO (formerly known as MAORY). Among many other things, MICADO will study exoplanets, distant galaxies and stars, and investigate black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way. After their final design phase, most components of MICADO have moved on to the manufacturing and assembly phase. Here we summarize the final design of the instrument and provide an overview about its current manufacturing status and the timeline. Some lessons learned from the final design review process will be presented in order to help future instrumentation projects to cope with the challenges arising from the substantial differences between projects for 8-10m class telescopes (e.g. ESO’s VLT) and the next generation Extremely Large Telescopes (e.g. ESO’s ELT). Finally, MICADO's expected performance will be discussed in the context of the current landscape of astronomical observatories and instruments. For instance, MICADO will have similar sensitivity as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but with six times the spatial resolution.
One of the main goals of the canceled Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), was to reveal the evidence of the influence of magnetic field in the structuration of different astrophysical objects, as for example the filamentary structure of star-forming regions. For this purpose, “instrument-in-pixel” detector arrays were developed under ESA, CNES and FOCUS contracts, to propose sensitive, compact and easy to integrate detection solutions for a Space Observatory. Magnetic field influences the light emission or absorption of small grains and molecules imprinting its characteristics in the received electromagnetic message in terms of polarization, degree, angle and intensity. Each pixel of the developed detectors absorb the radiation through two orthogonal dipole networks. The detector array is organized like a chessboard with every other pixel having absorbers rotated by 45° in order to unveil simultaneously the linear Stokes parameters without any optical loss. A very large absorption efficiency is obtained, as usual since PACS detectors, by a backshort-under-grid scheme. To obtain the goal sensitivity of 1 attoW/√Hz, detectors are cooled to 50 mK and linked to an Above IC CMOS readout circuit. For each pixel, four interleaved spiral silicon sensors gather the absorber power. They are organized in a Wheatstone bridge configuration that allows fully differential outputs: total power and polarization unbalanced intensity.
The B-BOP instrument for the SPICA mission will use a brand new generation of submillimeter bolometers.
An ultra-low background testbed for these bolometers has been developed for phase A of ESA. Inside the test cryostat lies a submillimeter light source designed to emit different flux, each of them with the same spectrum, at high temperature. To make sure the light arriving on the bolometers is faint, we use an inversed telescope to dilute the light.
This allowed us to perform the first measurements on bolometer arrays produced by CEA-Leti.
KEYWORDS: Bolometers, Sensors, Polarization, Polarimetry, Silicon, Space observatories, Mirrors, Magnetism, Semiconductors, Picture Archiving and Communication System
We present the B-BOP instrument, a polarimetric camera on board the future ESA-JAXA SPICA far-infrared space observatory. B-BOP will allow the study of the magnetic field in various astrophysical environments thanks to its unprecedented ability to measure the linear polarization of the submillimeter light. The maps produced by B-BOP will contain not only information on total power, but also on the degree and the angle of polarization, simultaneously in three spectral bands (70, 200 and 350 microns). The B-BOP detectors are ultra-sensitive silicon bolometers that are intrinsically sensitive to polarization. Their NEP is close to 10E-18 W/sqrt(Hz). We will present the optical and thermal architectures of the instrument, we will detail the bolometer design and we will show the expected performances of the instrument based on preliminary lab work.
Mueller polarimetry has been shown to effectively detect multiple pathologies on a striking variety of biological tissues. The ongoing challenge is to implement Mueller polarimetry into the clinical practice in-vivo. This technique is suitable for this purpose since it provides wide field images (up to 20 cm2) well adapted to the exploration of entire organs while revealing information on their microstructure. In addition, it is non-invasive, label-free and non-destructive. One instrument of great interest for biomedical diagnostics in vivo is the conventional rigid endoscope, also called laparoscope. This instrument is used to explore the inner cavities of the human body and is a standard in many minimally invasive surgery applications. However, it is implemented by using conventional white light intensity imaging which does not provide enough contrast to identify, for example, tumor margins during surgical resection. Mueller polarimetric imaging could provide useful contrast which can considerably improve the definition of these margins. However, to adapt a conventional laparoscope to Mueller polarimetric imaging is an instrumental challenge due to its complex polarimetric response. In this work, we provide a detailed characterization of the polarimetric properties of a conventional laparoscope. It is shown that a conventional laparoscope is characterized at the same time by birefringence and strong spectral depolarization that can be reduced by reducing the spectral bandwidth. The origin of these polarimetric effects have been investigated and modeled. Our work provides useful knowledge about implementing rigid endoscopes in polarimetric applications.
Mueller polarimetric imaging appeared to be very promising to detect the modifications in the microstructure of the uterine cervix due to the development of a precancerous lesion, thus providing very useful information for diagnostics to which practitioner cannot to access with classic color imaging. The first multispectral Mueller Polarimetric Colposcope (MPC) for the in vivo analysis of the uterine cervix will be presented. It has been obtained by miniaturizing a Mueller polarimetric imaging system and “grafting” it on a conventional colposcope, which is a low magnification binocular system, currently used in medical practice to examine the uterine cervix for detection of precancerous lesions. The multispectral MPC enables to obtain reliable Mueller polarimetric images in less than 2 seconds with a spatial resolution of 100 μm simultaneously at 450, 550 and 650 nm. Currently, it is being tested in vivo in the University Hospital of Kremlin Bicêtre in France. In order to evaluate the performance of the technique, polarimetric images need to be compared with histological analyses of biopsies. The procedure developed in collaboration with medical doctors to obtain an accurate correlation between polarimetric images and biopsies will be described.
Mueller Polarimetric Imaging (MPI) showed promising results in biomedical applications, especially for early detection of precancerous lesions on biological tissues. This technique is label-free, non-invasive and can be implemented with a large field of view (up to several cm2) to image wide areas of biological tissues while providing information on its microstructure. The development of innovative (MPI) systems, able to analyze biological tissues in vivo on human patients, remains an instrumental challenge. Our goal is to build miniaturized and compact full-field MPI systems based on Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals (FLCs) capable of performing a multispectral accurate analysis of biological tissues in vivo. In this work, an innovative approach is showed to realize optimized and fast FLCs-based MPI systems able to perform full-field imaging acquisitions in the spectral range between 450 and 700nm with error less than 1% on all the elements of measured Mueller matrices. This system can be accurately calibrated by using the Eigenvalue Calibration Method (ECM) also in presence of high residual instrumental depolarization. This approach enables us to realize compact and reliable MPI systems which can be easily integrated into existing instruments currently used in medical practice.
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