SBIR Phase I: A Novel Method to Manufacture Ultra-Precise Diffraction Gratings for X-Ray Analysis and Imaging

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在彻底改变超高精度X射线衍射光栅的制造。机械规则的X射线光栅主要用于同步辐射设施，在那里它们定义了用于化学分析和成像研究的X射线波长，广泛的学科包括光化学，电子材料，催化，结构生物学和环境科学。 这些设施服务于各种行业和学科。 虽然制造这种光栅的技术是在美国发明的，几十年前，商业制造业转移到了日本和欧洲。 以前的可行性研究表明，一种潜在的革命性的新技术用于制造X射线光栅：使用基于压电运动平台的扫描探针平台，已经证明了在100微米的长度尺度上统治高质量光栅线的能力。 该项目的目标是建立一个制造平台，将这种方法扩大到75平方厘米的面积，这对于商业光栅来说是足够的。最终目标是向合作机构交付一个全尺寸原型，该机构将对最终结构进行测试。 该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，在过去三年中，X射线光栅市场发生了危机。 全球仅有的两家机械光栅供应商停止接受订单，要么是因为他们的技术过时，要么是因为严重的基础设施问题。 当对X射线光栅的需求达到历史最高水平并不断增长时，世界容量的消失就发生了。 与几个同步加速器设施的管理层进行了广泛的沟通，确定了平均设施目前有六个光栅的订单积压。 世界上有70个这样的设施，这意味着近期收入潜力约为2 100万美元。 该项目的目标是占领整个市场，并将这一制造领域带回美国。除此之外，该项目有可能实现基于实现定制光波阵面能力的新技术，因为所提出的方法允许光栅线弯曲成弧形或椭圆形，提供横向聚焦，或写入拓扑缺陷，从而产生具有高角动量的电磁涡流。 这些未开发的能力可以在惯性约束聚变，x射线望远镜或更广泛的光栅市场中找到用途。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to revolutionize the manufacture of ultra-high precision, x-ray diffraction gratings. Mechanically ruled, x-ray gratings are used mainly at synchrotron radiation facilities, where they define the wavelength of x-rays used for chemical analysis and imaging studies in a wide range of disciplines including photovoltaics, electronic materials, catalysis, structural biology, and environmental science. These facilities serve a wide variety of industries and academic disciplines. While the technology to make such gratings, based on an instrument called a "ruling engine", was invented in the U.S., commercial manufacturing moved abroad decades ago to Japan and Europe. Previous feasibility studies suggest a potentially revolutionary new technology for manufacturing x-ray gratings: using a scanning probe platform based on piezoelectric motion stages, the ability to rule high-quality grating lines over length scales of 100 microns has been demonstrated. The objective of this project is to build a manufacturing platform to scale up this approach to areas of 75 square centimeters, which is sufficient for commercial gratings. The final objective is to deliver a full-sized prototype to a partner facility which will perform testing on the resulting structure. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that, in the past three years, a crisis has occurred in the x-ray grating market. The only two global suppliers of mechanically-ruled gratings ceased to take orders, either because their technology was obsolete or because of severe infrastructure problems. This vanishing of world capacity has taken place when demand for x-ray gratings is at an all-time high and growing. Extensive communication with management at several synchrotron facilities has established that the average facility currently has an order backlog of six gratings. There are seventy such facilities in the world, which implies a near-term revenue potential of approximately $21 million. The goal is to capture the entire market and bring this area of manufacturing back to the U.S. This market aside, this project has the potential to enable new technologies based on the ability to realize customized optical wave fronts, as the proposed approach allows grating lines to be curved into arcs or ellipses, providing lateral focusing, or written with topological defects that create electromagnetic vortices with high angular momentum. These unexplored capabilities could find use in inertial confinement fusion, x-ray telescopes, or the wider market of optical gratings.