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Welcome to the Lightweight Optics Lab. We aim to develop technology required for a future that is increasingly reliant on space infrastructure for communication, understanding our planet, exploration, and astronomy.

Congratulations to Dr. Hayden Wisniewski!

Hayden defended his PhD dissertation (Optical Sciences) on precision metrology techniques for difficult-to-measure surfaces. Hayden will soon be working as a metrology engineer at ASML, helping make the next-generation chips possible.

Photo: (left to right) Dr. Mark Schattenburg (MIT, co-advisor and committee member), Dr. Hayden Wisniewski, and Dr. Brandon Chalifoux.

7/27/2023

Congratulations to Alex St. Peter!

Alex defended his Masters thesis (Optical Sciences) on birefringence imaging to estimate stress states in ultrafast laser-modified fused silica.

4/27/2023

Check out our latest publication: https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.456679

We present a promising new method of accurately figuring thin mirrors, called Ultrafast Laser Stress Figuring.

5/9/2022

New paper by MIT and Chalifoux: https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.445379

This paper describes a precise method of creating Stress Tensor Mesostructures, which are lithographically-patterned film structures that produce a desired state and distribution of stress for accurately shaping thin substrates.

4/14/2022