Thorlabs Inc. of Newton, N.J., and Boston Micromachines Corp. of Watertown, Mass., have formed a partnership that will enable the latter company, a supplier of microelectromechanical systems-based mirror products, to bring its deformable mirrors into the photonics research community. The agreement represents a step forward in the commercialization of adaptive optics technology. Alex Cable, president and founder of Thorlabs, has joined Boston Micromachines’ board of directors, has invested in the company and will serve as its adviser. In an earlier collaboration between the companies, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., developed the adaptive scanning optical microscope, which incorporates Boston Micromachines technology and which was licensed by Thorlabs earlier this year.