Although tasks requested for ESA projects are generally given priority the Opto-Electronics Laboratory offers services for other European space programmes and companies, including SMEs (although not in competition with commercial laboratories) that meet the criteria described below.

A candidate customer can request a quotation to perform a test by contacting Laboratory manager Errico Armandillo (contact details below). To qualify, the candidate customer (or end customer they are acting for) must be a person or body under the jurisdiction of an ESA Member State. The project in question must correspond to standard ESA Directorate of Technical and Quality Management research and development, and have a peaceful purpose.

The Laboratory assesses the performance of experimental opto-electronic components. The services it provides include:

• Laser induced contamination tests
• Laser-induced damage threshold tests
• Optical coatings shift characterization during air-vacuum transition
• Laser-diode lifetime testing under space representative conditions
• Characterisation of lasers and verification of laser designs, including mechanical stability and beam quality
• Spectral measurements from near-infrared to ultraviolet spectral range
• Lidar atmospheric measurements
• Fibre-optic component testing.

Contact

Errico Armandillo, Errico.Armandillo @ esa.int,