Liquid optics: technological developments and astronomical applications

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The Liquid Mirror (LM ) technology allows the construction of essentially perfect optical elements at very low cost. Several LM Telescopes have been built and employed as research instruments for use in Astronomy, Atmospheric Sciences and Optics. My research over the next 5 years will continue my LM work and consist of three main activities: Astronomical observations with a 4-m LMT, work on a lunar LMT and development of  Nanoengineered LMs (NLMs). NLMs are an entirely new class of optical elements consisting of highly reflective metallic films deposited on liquids. By coating ferromagnetic liquids we create reflective surfaces that can be shaped with magnetic fields, allowing us to make complex surfaces that can vary rapidly in time. The technology promises to deliver on an ambitious goal: To allow an incoming wavefront of arbitrary shape to be transformed upon reflection to an outgoing wavefront of any desired shape. This capability is at the very heart of optics. Consequently, this project has the potential to produce a revolutionary technology.  Magnetic LMs are far more inexpensive and versatile than conventional adaptive optics. By coating viscous liquids we can also make rotating liquid mirrors tiltable by more than 10 degrees. This will be a spectacular development that will greatly increase the versatility of LMTs with a significant impact on optical Astronomy. We will work on two fronts: improving the characteristics of reflecting liquids and testing the mirrors. An international consortium has initiated the International Liquid Mirror Telescope project, which consists of a 4-m diameter LMT observatory. It will obtain deep images in a strip of sky covering 150 square degrees. The same strip will be observed night after night for four years through a standard set of colored filters resulting in unique astrophysical information for each celestial object. The resulting data set will be unique because of its faintness, wide area, and, foremost, the variability information provided. NASA and CSA have given grants to an international collaboration to look into the feasibility of a lunar LMT. Laval's work, funded by CSA, consists in developing cryogenic reflecting liquids.