The next generation Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) are promising a profound transformation of humanity’s understanding of the universe by opening our eyes to a myriad of previously unseen astronomical objects across cosmic space time. Some of the key observational contributions to this transformation will, once again, be made through large-scale ultradeep spectroscopic surveys. Such surveys will call for a wide-field system to expand field of view and correct atmospheric dispersion beyond what an uncorrected ELT is canonically capable of. Although the traditional monolithic form of field correctors served our needs very well on 2- to 8-m class telescopes, we recognize challenges around scaling this traditional design to the ELT level, and hence, as detailed here, present a fundamentally different architecture, called the arrayed wide-field astronomical corrector system or AWACS, for the ELTs of two-mirror construction. The AWACS accomplishes field expansion via an array of small units populated over a telescope’s focal surface, compensating for field aberrations and atmospheric dispersion locally but simultaneously. The AWACS units share one common electro-opto-mechanical design, permitting cost-effective high-volume part manufacturing. We detail the architectural features and proof-of-concept on-sky demonstration of the AWACS. In addition, we highlight our recent development results of randomly nano-textured antireflective (AR) surface structures in terms of an immediately viable, super-broadband, high-performance AR solution for not only the AWACS optics, but also broader ranges of electro-optical devices, particularly those subjected to harsh environments such as high-power laser, cryogenic, and space systems. With continuous advances in other relevant fields, the AWACS is uniquely positioned to enable, either by itself or by complementing traditional correctors, wide-field multi-object spectroscopic surveys in the ELT era and beyond.

中文翻译：

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用于超大望远镜光谱测量的阵列宽视场天文相机系统：系统架构、概念验证和使能技术

下一代超大望远镜 (ELT) 有望通过让我们睁开眼睛看到跨越宇宙时空的无数以前看不见的天文物体，从而深刻改变人类对宇宙的理解。对这一转变的一些关键观测贡献将再次通过大规模超深光谱调查做出。此类调查将需要一个宽视场系统来扩大视野并校正大气扩散，这超出了未校正 ELT 的标准能力。尽管传统的整体式场校正器在 2 米到 8 米级望远镜上很好地满足了我们的需求，但我们认识到将这种传统设计扩展到 ELT 级别的挑战，因此，正如这里所详述的，提出了一种根本不同的架构，称为阵列宽视场天文校正器系统或 AWACS，用于两镜结构的 ELT。AWACS 通过安装在望远镜焦面上的小单元阵列实现视场扩展，在局部但同时补偿视场像差和大气色散。AWACS 装置采用一种通用的电光机械设计，可实现具有成本效益的大批量零件制造。我们详细介绍了 AWACS 的架构特征和概念验证空中演示。此外，我们强调了我们最近在随机纳米纹理抗反射 (AR) 表面结构方面的开发成果，这些结果不仅适用于 AWACS 光学器件，还适用于更广泛的电-光学设备，特别是那些经受恶劣环境的环境，如高功率激光、低温和空间系统。随着其他相关领域的不断进步，AWACS 具有独特的优势，可以单独或通过补充传统校正器，在 ELT 时代及以后进行宽视场多目标光谱调查。