AME Seminar: Brandon Chalifoux
Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.
Brandon Chalifoux
Assistant Professor
James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona
"Fabrication, alignment, and testing of ultralight mirrors for future X-ray telescopes"
AME Lecture Hall, Room S202
Zoom: 873 0364 5198
Abstract: X-ray space telescopes may soon be capable of imaging black holes and other hot and energetic objects in the universe with sub-arcsecond angular resolution and high throughput. We may one day push the resolution limits even farther by creating diffraction-limited X-ray optics if ultralight mirrors and structures can be fabricated and aligned with extreme accuracy. My group’s research aims to fabricate, align, and test thin lightweight optical components for a range of applications on Earth and in space. This talk will focus on our efforts aimed at pushing the accuracy limits of X-ray telescope optics. This entails three prongs: nanometer-accurate surface metrology of challenging surfaces, figuring of thin optics after coating, and nanometer-level alignment after bonding. All three challenges are at the limit of our abilities to create ultraprecision systems today.
Bio: Dr. Brandon Chalifoux is an Assistant Professor at the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2019, and he was a postdoctoral associate in the Space Nanotechnology Laboratory at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Before graduate school, he worked on concentrated solar energy generation as an engineer at a Vermont startup, Solaflect Energy. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2008.