Realizing an all-glass beam splitter for space by using advanced joining technologies

Joining technologies are of great importance for space-based applications. Given the very low environmental temperatures, high temperature differences, vacuum, and high acceleration loads during rocket launch, the (thermo-)mechanical requirements on the joining technologies are demanding. Plasma-activated bonding (PAB) and silicate bonding (SB) meet all these requirements. We developed PAB and SB to assemble an all-glass four-channel beam splitter. This development was initiated by a satellite mission concept, devoted to transient astronomy. Central part of this satellite mission is a novel beam splitter that divides the incoming telescope beam into four near infrared channels (λ = 800 − 1700 nm), by using a Kosters prism type design. As a final result, we built a demonstrator for the validation of the developed technological concept. Additional presentation content can be accessed on the supplemental content page.