Séminaire ICE : « Adaptive Optics: 50 years of development to serve photonics »
Adaptive Optics (AO) has moved in the last decades from a concept to a nice to have technology and now to a must have technology. AO is used today in the ultraintense laser field, in ophthalmology and bioimaging, in satcom, in space surveillance, in advanced imaging system, in astrophysics and more… No fewer than 4 Nobel Prizes in the last 10 years have been awarded to applications using adaptive optics. AO is a wavefront based technology, using active optical components such as deformable mirror or spatial light modulator, monitored by a wavefront sensor and a closed loop software. An overview of the technology will be given. And the future of adaptive optics will be explored, more especially for nuclear photonics and quantum optics.
Bio
Passionate about innovation and company’s ecosystems, I have developed an expertise in optical metrology (wavefront analysis) and adaptive optics, with the creation of Imagine Optic in 1996 and Imagine Eyes in 2003. Optical metrology is a key process in scientific and industrial developments: measuring leads to know, to diagnose, to correct… Without a good metrology, there is no technically and economically reliable development. Adaptive Optics allows to correct the phase (wavefront) of a light beam in real time, opening a large field of applications.
I was able to develop these two companies without fund raising: Imagine Optic and Imagine Eyes are « Start Soft »: the spirit of aStart Up, the freedom and the balance imposed by a company self-financed, and a harmonious development based as much on its customers as on its suppliers and its collaborators.
I have also been involved in the development of the photonics industry for more than 25 years. I am committed in the professional national trade association (Photonics France) and the clusters supporting photonics (Systematic Optics & Photonics Hub). I am part of the board of EPIC (European Photonics Industrial Consortium). Last but not least, I am involved in IOGS (Institut d’Optique Graduate School) and Alphanov (technologic center in Bordeaux).