Niek Doelman TNO

Niek Doelman

Functie:
Principal scientist at TNO and professor at University of Leiden on Control of Optical Wavefields
Niek Doelman TNO

Niek Doelmans' research has a focus on novel technologies in modeling, control, sensing and correction of Optical Wavefields in Free Space.

Professorship chair

Control of Optical Wavefields (University of Leiden).

Research area

The Control of Optical Wavefields – my research has a focus on novel technologies in modeling, control, sensing and correction of Optical Wavefields in Free Space. I aim at improving the imaging resolution of optical telescopes (ground & space), increasing the data rate of Free Space Optical communication links, improving the contrast in the direct imaging and characterization of exo-planets, enhancing the secret key-rate in QKD over Free Space Optical channels and improving the ground resolution of Earth-observation satellites.

Specific Topics:

  • Active and Adaptive Wavefield correction,
  • Adaptive Optics, High-performance MIMO Control,
  • Non-stationary disturbances,
  • Adaptive control,
  • Deformable mirrors,
  • Wavefront sensing,
  • Optical turbulence modeling,
  • Fading in Free Space Optical channels
  • Wavefield propagation through turbulent media.

The research connects well to the TNO roadmaps of:

  • Industry/ Space: Laser Satellite Communication, Space Science, Astronomy and Earth Observation and Industry/Semiconductor Equipment
  • Defence, Safety and Security: Information and Sensor systems
  • ICT: Digital Infrastructure and Quantum-safe Technologies

Recent publications

  • Niek Doelman, “The minimum of the time-delay wavefront error in Adaptive Optics”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 491, Issue 4, February 2020, Pages 4719–4723.
  • Niek Doelman and James Osborn, “Modelling and prediction of non-stationary optical turbulence behaviour”, Proc. SPIE 9909, Adaptive Optics Systems V, 99091M (2016).
  • Maaike van Kooten, Niek Doelman and Matthew Kenworthy, “Impact of time-variant turbulence behavior on prediction for adaptive optics systems”, Journal of the Optical Society of America A 36 (5), 731-740, 2019.
  • Wimar Klop, Rudolf Saathof, Niek Doelman et al., “QKD optical ground terminal developments”, International Conference on Space Optics, 2021.
  • Vikram Radhakrishnan, Christoph Keller and Niek Doelman, “Estimating non-common path aberrations with an Adaptive Coronagraph”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 670, A137.

Delft - Stieltjesweg

Stieltjesweg 1
NL-2628 CK Delft

Postal address

P.O. Box 155
NL-2600 AD Delft