Calculation, design and production of optical and optoelectronic systems

In October 2014, it will make forty-five years since the creation of the Open Joint-Stock Company Scientific Research Institute of Optoelectronic Instrumentation (OAO NII OÉP). The enterprise was known until March 2012 as the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Institute of Comprehensive Testing of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems (FGUP NIIKI OÉP), and before 1990 it was part of the S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute as Branch No. 2.
The new name of the enterprise reflects not only the changed form of ownership (the main stockholder is OAO Corporation Kometa), but also the evolution that has occurred from scientific research work established on the existing unique test-stand and experimental basis into the area of instrumentation, including the establishment of optical production for the rocket and space industry.
Today the main activity of the institute consists of the following topical specializations:
• the development, fabrication, and ground-based testing of the optical systems of space-based optoelectronic apparatus for the observation and remote probing of the earth;
• the development and batch production of optoelectronic devices for high-accuracy spatial orientation of transported objects and optical retroreflector devices and modules;
• the development of optical-radar, IR, and television channels and systems of information and informational-measurement optoelectronic complexes;
• applied studies in the area of laser engineering, including the development and fabrication of test samples of solid-state lasers and components;
• applied studies of the stability of optoelectronic devices and optical implements against the action of lasers and light.
The articles presented in this issue to some extent reflect the topical specializations indicated above. A number of articles have been prepared in coauthorship with representatives of outside enterprises who are coparticipants in the results obtained here (Russian Federal Nuclear Center—All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, GSKB Almaz-Anteı˘, Kometa Corp., and S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute All-Russia Science Center).
For a number of reasons, no articles appear in this issue that are directly associated with the improvement of technologies for producing high-accuracy optical systems—in particular, off-axis aspheric optics and optics fabricated by diamond microfinishing. High-accuracy optoelectronic devices and optical systems, as well as the corresponding set of optical components, are today the main product of the test-and-experiment factory, which in recent decades has become an important and integral part of the institute and without which the prospects of developing the enterprise would be unthinkable.
This issue includes the heading “Experience Exchange.” Along with an article by V. I. Venzel’, A. V. Gorelov, E. S. Egorova et al. on “Monitoring the optical homogeneity of materials for the IR region,” by recommendation of the staff, two additional articles, by V. N. Alekseev et al., are included under this heading on the topic of solid-state lasers with diode pumping. I assume that the practical results of the studies carried out by Alekseev and his colleagues will be of interest to specialists in the area of laser engineering.