Niek Doelman

POSITION: PROFESSOR | CONTROL OF OPTICAL WAVEFIELDS TNO UNIT: INDUSTRY (OPTO-MECHATRONICS) UNIVERSITY: UNIVERSITY OF LEIDEN, LEIDEN OBSERVATORY   TNO LOCATION: DELFT, STIELTJESWEG EMAIL: NIEK.DOELMAN@TNO.NL TEL: +31888668006

RESEARCH AREA

The study and development of novel modeling, control and sensing technologies for Optical Wavefields in Free space. In my research, I focus on astronomical instrumentation and particularly the direct imaging of exoplanets. I aim at improving performance and enabling new system concepts, by:

• Study, development and on-sky testing of dedicated, high-performance control and optimization methods.
• Adaptation of state-of-the-art control methods (theory and technology) towards astronomical instruments.
• Improvement of adaptive optics system performance for ground-based, optical telescopes.

The development of novel modeling, control and sensing technologies in Optical Wavefields in Free-space connects to the TNO roadmaps that involve:

• Optical satellite communication
• Imaging and laser pointing over horizontal paths
• Ground- and space-based Astronomical Instrumentation
• Ultra-accurate projection of EUV waves in semicon applications

RECENT RESULTS

• Detailed description of the anisoplanatic errors in an Adaptive Optics system, quantification of performance limitations and optimized filter approaches to reject these errors.
• Dynamic modelling of the time-varying statistical properties of optical turbulence and methods to perform tracking for wavefield error prediction; verification done on telemetry data.
• Contrast control by Adaptive Optics in direct exoplanet imaging systems

PHD SUPERVISION

• Maaike van Kooten; funding: ELT-Metis, NOVA Instrument Steering Committee, Sterrewacht Leiden and TNO.
• Vikram Radhakrishnan; funding: Sterrewacht Leiden and TNO.

TOP PUBLICATIONS

• Niek Doelman, “The minimum of the time-delay wavefront error in Adaptive Optics”, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2020.
• 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.
• Niek Doelman and James Osborn, “Modelling and prediction of non-stationary optical turbulence behaviour”, Proc. SPIE 9909, Adaptive Optics Systems V, 99091M (2016).

LINKS

Publications: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/26174795_Niek_Doelman