SBIR Phase I: Beyond thin-film optics: Resonant grating-based optical component technology

SBIR 第一阶段：超越薄膜光学：基于谐振光栅的光学元件技术

• 批准号: 2304394
• 负责人: Kyu Lee
• 金额: $ 27.49万
• 依托单位: TIWAZ TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2304394&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Beyond; thin; film

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to simplify and significantly reduce the cost of optical component fabrication. Optical components, with well-known examples being mirrors, polarizers, and lenses, are essential building blocks in a host of civilian and military systems including imaging, telecommunications, and laser systems. Current optical component technology is a multi-billion-dollar industry and is based on multiple layers of films deposited in vacuum chambers. The proposed innovation realizes a new optical component class with the functionality of multi-film assemblies generated in a single layer with attendant savings in time and cost. The project focuses on the long-wave infrared spectral domain where traditional thin-film technology is impractical due to the extreme film thicknesses needed. The long-wave domain covers a region of atmospheric transparency essential for terrestrial imaging, medical and industrial laser technologies, and night-vision systems. This innovation focuses on optical component fabrication that is based on gratings that are index-matched to a sublayer thereby avoiding localized, particle-type resonances. This attribute imbues the components with tolerance to parametric deviations essential for practical manufacturing. The new physics is based on lateral leaky Bloch modes and attendant lattice resonance. It is different from the interference-based physics of classic thin-film optics. Therefore, a new dimension in functionality with high levels of spectral diversity and control is brought into the optical component arena supporting many societally valuable applications. In Phase I, relevant fabrication processes will be developed to show the potential for scale-up to mass production. The effort delivers three main high performance component types (reflectors, filters, and polarizers) that meet stringent specifications in terms of efficiency and bandwidth.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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响是简化并大大降低光学组件制造的成本。具有众所周知的示例的光学组件是镜子，偏光剂和镜头，是许多平民和军事系统中的重要组成部分，包括成像，电信和激光系统。当前的光学组件技术是一个数十亿美元的行业，它基于沉积在真空室中的多层膜。提出的创新实现了一个新的光学组件类，其功能是单层生成的多膜组件的功能，并随着时间和成本节省。该项目着重于长波红外光谱域，由于所需的极端膜厚度，传统的薄膜技术是不切实际的。长波结构域涵盖了陆地成像，医疗和工业激光技术以及夜间视觉系统必不可少的大气透明度区域。这项创新的重点是基于与子层匹配的光栅的光学组件制造，从而避免了局部的粒子型共振。该属性使组件对实用制造必不可少的参数偏差宽容。新物理学基于横向泄漏的BLOCH模式和随之而来的晶格共振。它与经典薄膜光学器件的基于干扰的物理学不同。因此，具有高水平多样性和控制的功能方面的新维度被带入了支持许多社会有价值应用的光学组件领域。在第一阶段，将开发相关的制造过程，以显示大规模生产规模的潜力。这项工作提供了三种主要的高性能组件类型（反射镜，过滤器和极化器），这些类型符合效率和带宽方面的严格规格。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优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来评估的支持。