Bimorph Mirrors

Bimorph mirrors are assembled by gluing together two pairs of bi-layers consisting of an active element (zirconate lead titanate PZT ceramic) and a neutral fused silica plate, which is then polished. A specific feature of a bimorph is that the bending mechanism is intrinsic to the mirror.

Advantages of Bimorphs are:

• Up to 32 electrodes available, this allows correction of high spatial frequency errors (a mechanical bender can only correct for the length if one actuator or half the length if
• fitted with two actuators)
• Can correct optical defects from the whole beamline
• Adaptive zonal control
• Compact and lightweight
• No mechanical moving parts

Bimorph mirrors are used on monochromatic beamlines as they are currently limited to low heat loads.