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Stiff and Lightweight Optical Mirrors Made by Glass Slumping with Foamed Core

Journal article published in 2009 by G. Pareschi, M. Ghigo, L. Proserpio, O. Citterio, Rodolfo Canestrari ORCID, S. Basso
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

At the Brera Astronomical Observatory (Milan-Italy) an innovative technique is under development aiming at permitting the manufacturing of high quality astronomical mirrors, with a drastic reduction of the mirror weight, cost, and production time. The method foresees two main steps: a) a thin mirror shell is produced using a hot slumping technique. A flat glass sheet having a thickness of few mm is placed onto a convex ceramic mould having a high optical quality. During a suitable thermal cycle the glass sheet will slump onto the mould and the glass will copy with high accuracy the shape of the mould. This step produces a thin and floppy concave glass shell having a good intrinsic optical shape. b) the curved shell (maintained in its intrinsic shape) is assembled and glued to a stiff substrate made in a foamed and pre-shaped material. To obtain a sandwich structure, on the back of the substrate it is also glued a flat sheet of the same glass. Due to this replica approach, the system could be in principle used for the mass production of identical mirrors for a number of applications, as e.g. faced large primary mirrors. This paper describes the process of production of a prototype optical segment and the status of the investigation.