Enabling Novel Anti-Reflection Coatings for Millimeter and Submillimeter-Wave Astrophysics

为毫米波和亚毫米波天体物理学提供新型抗反射涂层

• 批准号: 2206087
• 负责人: Shaul Hanany
• 金额: $ 85.96万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206087&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Enabling; Novel; Anti; Reflection; Coatings

The investigators will improve the performance of telescopes that study the large scale properties of the early Universe. For best performance such telescopes utilize optics made from alumina, sapphire, and silicon. The investigators seek to develop a new technique to modify the surfaces of such optics to increase the amount of light that can be utilized. The techniques developed will also allow the optics to operate over a larger range of temperatures. Such improvements will enable astronomers to collect light more efficiently and collect better scientific observations. . Successful development will lead to a technique that can then be industrialized on large scales.This work will involve the efforts of graduate student. An expansion of an outreach program that reaches tens of thousands of school-age kids and families annually is also planned.The search by cosmic microwave background (CMB) instruments to find the signatures of inflation, constrain the sum of neutrino masses, and trace the formation of cosmic structures requires ever larger throughput from the optical systems utilized. In response, optical designers are increasingly using optical elements made of alumina, silicon, and sapphire for higher throughput. This project aims to develop broad-band, cryogenically-robust, anti-reflection coating (ARC) for optical elements made of alumina, sapphire, and silicon using laser ablation of sub-wavelength structures (SWS). Maturing this technology will solve a technology bottleneck in millimeter and sub-millimeter astrophysics for CMB instruments. This resulting scalable and reproducible ARC fabrication approach, will be transferred to industrial partners. This will permit researchers to have purchasable, turn-key solutions for their ARC needs instead of solving the challenge anew with every project. The project looks to develop a prescription for the processing steps need to manufacture such ARCs that can be transferred to corporate entities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

研究人员将改善研究早期宇宙大规模特性的望远镜的性能。为了获得最佳性能，此类望远镜使用氧化铝，蓝宝石和硅制成的光学元件。研究人员试图开发一种新技术来修改这种光学的表面，以增加可以利用的光量。 开发的技术还将允许光学元件在较大的温度范围内运行。这种改进将使天文学家能够更有效地收集光线并收集更好的科学观察。 。成功的开发将导致一项可以大规模工业化的技术。这项工作将涉及研究生的努力。还计划了一项扩展的外展计划，该计划每年还计划到成千上万的学龄儿童和家庭。宇宙微波背景（CMB）的搜索是找到通货膨胀的签名，限制了中微子群众的总和，并追踪宇宙结构的形成需要所使用的光学系统的更大吞吐量。作为响应，光学设计人员越来越多地使用由氧化铝，硅和蓝宝石制成的光学元素来获得更高的吞吐量。该项目旨在使用氧化铝，蓝宝石和硅制成的光学元素（使用子波长结构（SWS）的激光消融）开发宽带，低温，反射涂层（ARC）。 将这项技术融入该技术将解决CMB仪器的毫米和次毫米天体物理学的技术瓶颈。这种可扩展和可重现的弧形制造方法将转移给工业伙伴。这将使研究人员能够为其弧线需求购买可购买的，键的解决方案，而不是在每个项目中重新解决挑战。 该项目旨在为处理步骤制定处方，以制造可以转移到公司实体的弧线的需要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估评估来支持的。