Overview of research areas in CfAI

In this series of one-hour seminars, you will learn about the diverse range of research areas that CfAI works in. The seminars are designed to be accessible to a first year PhD student and above or those with an interest in the field. The seminars are informal, with questions on the subject being welcomed throughout the duration. The seminar topics are as follows:

- Fusion (Marco Cecconello)

- Diamond Machining (Cyril Bourgenot)

- Biophotonics (John Girkin)

- Astrophotonics (Robert Harris)

- Adaptive Optics (Tim Morris)

- KIDs (Kieran O’Brien)

- Free-space optics (James Osborn)

- Turbulence Profiling (Richard Wilson)

- Drones (Anthony Brown)

- Gamma Ray Astronomy (Paula Chadwick)

- Free Space Optical Communications (Andrew Reeves)

Learning objectives:

- To develop an understanding of each of the research areas CfAI covers

- To recognise the terminology associated with those research areas

CfAI Outreach Workshops

Communication of research to the wider public is an important part of being a scientist and working in academia. I run a series of four afternoon workshops (3 hours each) in which we will explore outreach and public engagement opportunities at CfAI. The aim of the workshops is to work together in small groups to produce demonstrations and other materials that we can take to University outreach events such as Celebrate Science (https://www.durham.ac.uk/celebrate-science/). All PhD students are welcome to attend these workshops and this is an opportunity to get to know the current students in an informal setting.

Learning objectives:

· Understand the key concepts and goals of public science communication

· Develop outreach demos/materials alongside other students

Mechanical and Instrumentation Design

In this course, delivered as three one-hour discussions and with some self-study work set over a week, you will learn about the basics of mechanical design and the considerations that go into designing an instrument incorporating optics, electronics and mechanics. The self-study work includes conceptual design of a precision opto-mechanical device, and a team exercise, set over three days, to design an instrument that incorporates optical detection, pneumatics, electronics and some consideration of user centred design.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand basic technical drawing

2. Appreciate basic instrument design to incorporate optics, mechanics and electronics

3. How to present and explain a design concept and implementation

4. Team working in instrumentation design

Optical Design

Introduction to Optical Engineering

The course begins with the fundamentals of Geometrical and Matrix Optics, progresses into Aberration Theory, covering both monochromatic and chromatic aberrations, and focuses on understanding which parameters in an optical system or surface contribute to each aberration. The final part of the course covers Diffraction and Image Quality.

The complete program is as follows: Geometrical Optics

· General Theory

· Fermat’s Principle

· Gaussian Optics and the paraxial behaviour of components and surfaces Optical Systems and Aberrations

· Matrix Ray Tracing

· Stops and Pupils

· Introduction to Monochromatic Aberrations Monochromatic Aberrations

· Gauss-Seidel Aberrations

· Behaviour of Lenses and Mirrors – Aplanatic Points

· Impact of Pupil on Aberrations Aspheric Surfaces and Chromatic Aberration

· Use of symmetric aspheric surfaces, dispersion, and chromatic aberration

· Use of Zernike Polynomials to define OPD or WFE profiles Diffraction and Image Quality

· Diffraction: ‘Near Field’ and ‘Far Field’

· Gaussian Beam Propagation

· Definitions of Image Quality

Learning Objectives

· To address gaps in optics and optical engineering knowledge for PhD students from diverse academic backgrounds.

· To introduce the concept of aberrations, understand how they are produced, and prepare students for the upcoming “Optical Systems Design with Zemax OpticStudio” course.

Introduction to ZEMAX

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Zemax OpticStudio, focusing on sequential ray tracing, optical system optimization, and tolerance analysis. Through practical exercises, participants will learn to design, optimize, and analyze optical components and systems, such as singlet lenses, telescopes, and aspheric surfaces.

The complete program is as follows: Introduction to Zemax

· Introduction to Zemax and sequential ray tracing

· Paraxial lens

· Coordinate breaks

· Singlet lens

· Lens catalogue

· Exercise: optimisation of a real 4f folded relay system Sequential Ray Tracing and optimisation

· Optimisation of a singlet lens

· Optimisation of an achromatic doublet

· Optimisation of Ritchey Chretien telescope

· Exercise: Optimise an achromatic doublet, a Cassegrain telescope Tolerance Analysis with Zemax

· Tolerancing of an aspheric singlet

· Type of tolerancing – Monte Carlo

· Exercise: tolerancing a Cook triplet

Learning Objectives

· To provide students with the confidence to autonomously use Zemax for their PhD projects.

· To teach students how to import catalogue lenses from suppliers such as Thorlabs or Edmund Optics.

· To enable students to perform full optimization of customized optical systems.

· To introduce the concept of manufacturing tolerances and demonstrate how to evaluate their impact on optical system quality.