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

研究人员将提高望远镜的性能，研究早期宇宙的大尺度特性。为了获得最佳性能，这种望远镜使用由氧化铝，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器件的表面，以增加可以利用的光量。 开发的技术还将允许光学器件在更大的温度范围内工作。这些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测结果。.成功的开发将导致一项技术，然后可以大规模工业化。这项工作将涉及研究生的努力。此外，还计划扩大一项每年覆盖数万名学龄儿童和家庭的外展计划。利用宇宙微波背景（CMB）仪器寻找暴胀的特征，限制中微子质量的总和，并追踪宇宙结构的形成，需要使用更大的光学系统。作为回应，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件以获得更高的吞吐量。本项目旨在利用激光烧蚀亚波长结构（SWS），为氧化铝、蓝宝石和硅制成的光学元件开发宽带、低温稳定的抗反射涂层（ARC）。 该技术的成熟将解决CMB仪器在毫米和亚毫米天体物理学中的技术瓶颈。这种可扩展和可重复的ARC制造方法将被转移到工业合作伙伴。这将使研究人员能够为他们的ARC需求提供可购买的交钥匙解决方案，而不是在每个项目中都重新解决挑战。 该项目旨在为制造可转移到公司实体的ARC所需的处理步骤制定处方。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.