TIME is a mm-wavelength grating spectrometer array that will map fluctuations of the 157.7 µm emission line of singly ionized carbon ([CII]) during the Epoch of Reionization (redshift z ∼ 5 to 9). 60 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers populate the output arc of each of the 32 spectrometers, for a total of 1920 detectors. Each bolometer consists of gold absorber on a ∼ 3 x 3 mm silicon nitride micro-mesh suspended near the corners by 1 x 1 x 500 µm silicon nitride legs targeting a photon-noise-dominated NEP ∼ 1 × 10 −17 W/ √ Hz. Hafnium films are explored as a lower-T c alternative to Ti (500 mK) for TIME TESs, allowing thicker support legs for improved yield. Hf T c is shown to vary between 250 mK and 450 mK when varying the resident Ar pressure during deposition. Magnetic shielding designs and simulations are presented for the TIME first-stage SQUIDs. Total axial field suppression is predicted to be 5 × 10 7 .
We present a novel deflectometry implementation termed Infinite Deflectometry. The technique provides a full aperture surface reconstruction sag map of freeform surfaces, including previously challenging to measure optics such as highly convex surfaces. The method relies on the creation of a virtual source enclosure around the tested optic, which creates a virtual 2π-steradian measurement range. To demonstrate the performance, a fast f/1.26 convex optical surface was measured with a commercial interferometer and with the Infinite Deflectometry system. After removing Zernike terms 1 through 37, the metrology tests resulted in absolute RMS surface values of 18.48 nm and 16.26 nm, respectively. Additionally, a freeform Alvarez lens was measured with the new technique and measured 22.34 m of surface sag RMS after piston, tip/tilt, and defocus had been removed. The result deviated by 488 nm RMS from a profilometer measurement while standard interferometry failed to measure the Alvarez lens due to its non-nulled wavefront dynamic range limitation.
The LSST M1/M3 combines an 8.4 m primary mirror and a 5.1 m tertiary mirror on one glass substrate. The combined mirror was completed at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona in October 2014. Interferometric measurements show that both mirrors have surface accuracy better than 20 nm rms over their clear apertures, in nearsimultaneous tests, and that both mirrors meet their stringent structure function specifications. Acceptance tests showed that the radii of curvature, conic constants, and alignment of the 2 optical axes are within the specified tolerances. The mirror figures are obtained by combining the lab measurements with a model of the telescope's active optics system that uses the 156 support actuators to bend the glass substrate. This correction affects both mirror surfaces simultaneously. We showed that both mirrors have excellent figures and meet their specifications with a single bending of the substrate and correction forces that are well within the allowed magnitude. The interferometers do not resolve some small surface features with high slope errors. We used a new instrument based on deflectometry to measure many of these features with sub-millimeter spatial resolution, and nanometer accuracy for small features, over 12.5 cm apertures. Mirror Lab and LSST staff created synthetic models of both mirrors by combining the interferometric maps and the small highresolution maps, and used these to show the impact of the small features on images is acceptably small.
The Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona is responsible for production of the eight 8.4 m segments for the primary mirror of the Giant Magellan Telescope, including one spare off-axis segment. We report on the successful casting of Segment 4, the center segment. Prior to generating the optical surface of Segment 2, we carried out a major upgrade of our 8.4 m Large Optical Generator. The upgrade includes new hardware and software to improve accuracy, safety, reliability and ease of use. We are currently carrying out an upgrade of our 8.4 m polishing machine that includes improved orbital polishing capabilities. We added and modified several components of the optical tests during the manufacture of Segment 1, and we have continued to improve the systems in preparation for Segments 2-8. We completed two projects that were prior commitments before GMT Segment 2: casting and polishing the combined primary and tertiary mirrors for the LSST, and casting and generating a 6.5 m mirror for the Tokyo Atacama Observatory.
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