Abstract
A GAS lens is capable of focusing light if the temperature, and therefore refractive index, of a gas is made to vary across an optical aperture in a suitable manner. Practical applications of gas lenses were pursued thirty years ago1,2 in the context of power transmission by laser beams, but little work has been done since then. It was recently shown, however, that a gas lens can focus a laser beam well enough to drill holes in a metal sheet3, and it has been argued4 that gas lenses are 'varifocal' devices with negligible dispersion from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths, and that they may be able to transmit and focus more powerful laser beams than conventional lenses can cope with. They may therefore find some application in laser-driven thermonuclear experiments5. Here we describe another application of gas lenses: telescopy. We have constructed a simple gas lens telescope, and have used it to make images of the Sun and the Moon.
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Michaelis, M., Dempers, C., Kosch, M. et al. A gas-lens telescope. Nature 353, 547–548 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/353547a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/353547a0
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