Bertin Winlight, a brand of Bertin Technologies, has signed a contract with Macquarie University to design and supply image slicers to be integrated into the VLT of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This collaboration with the Australian Astronomical Optics department reflects the trust placed in Bertin Winlight’s expertise.
MAVIS, an acronym for MCAO Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph, is an instrument under construction for ESO’s VLT (UT4 Yepun). It is intended to be installed at the A Nasmyth focus of the VLT UT4, replacing Hawk-I/GRAAL with the AOF. MAVIS comprises two main parts: an adaptive optics (AO) system that cancels out the image blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence and its post-focal instrumentation, including an imager and an IFU spectrograph, covering the visible portion of the light spectrum.
Bertin Technologies is responsible for developing image slicers, referred to as the slicer module, using the Image Slicer Stack technique. This system includes a stack of 50 slices, each with the same radius of curvature, forming an offset section of a common parabolic surface. The fabrication of this slicer module follows a process developed and patented in partnership with LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille). This process enables the production of high-performance image slicers using glass components while reducing production costs and timelines. Additionally, the image slicers are assembled using molecular adhesion, a precision technique that ensures system stability.
Bertin Technologies continues to participate in several major system projects involving the manufacturing of image slicers, such as the spectrograph HARMONI mission for the ELT. To learn more about HARMONI and Bertin Technologies’ contribution, read the following article: The image slicers of Bertin Technologies to equip the ELT’s HARMONI spectrograph – Bertin Technologies