Abstract:
Low-cost, large-aperture optical receivers are required to form an affordable optical ground receiver network for laser
communications. Among the ground receiver station’s multiple subsystems, here, we only discuss the ongoing research
activities aimed at reducing the cost of the large-size optics on the receiver. Experimental results of two different
approaches for fabricating low-cost mirrors of wavefront quality on the order of 100-200X the diffraction limit are
described. Laboratory-level effort are underway to improve the surface figure to better than 20X the diffraction limit.
