Photonics chip laser metrology system

This new laser work will focus on development of Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) which includes all the essential laser metrology functions necessary for active alignment of multi-segmented telescopes represented by LUVOIR (Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor). The ultimate goal is to produce a PIC metrology system with micrometer-level absolute accuracy and nanometer- to picometer-level relative length variation measurement accuracy, using a 1.5-µm laser sources. Previous metrology laser sources were based on bulk and fiber optics, and thus have large SWaP (size, weight, and power). By integrating all necessary functions to perform wavelength-scanning heterodyne interferometry into a mm-scale photonic chip, SWaP is expected to be drastically improved by a factor 10 ~ 1000. This effort can establish and accelerate a more mature concept and approach for the laser metrology system that will be part of the LUVOIR mission. This metrology PIC can also be applied to gravity mapping of planetary bodies, precision formation flying, and satellite docking. PIC is an emerging branch of photonics, and it is currently used for telecommunication and sensing applications. This concept is believed to be the first PIC targeting a precision laser metrology. In addition to the improved SWaP, system performance is expected to be improved through a much smaller device footprint and by the reduced thermally-induced noise within the system. During this program, the metrology PIC will be fabricated in an MPW (multi project wafer) run, using the PIC die design completed in FY19 GSFC IRAD program. The fabricated PIC die will be subsequently tested at the foundry (VLC Photonics) and at GSFC. The size of the die is 4mm x 6mm, and it includes all fundamental functions to perform precision metrology. Fundamental functions of each component will be evaluated during this year. After this year’s work, further miniaturization will be exploited by designing a new PIC that has EIC (electronic integrated circuit) on the same die, and by integrating chip-scale wavelength references developed by NIST.

Integrate the plasmonic filters with focal plane detectors to replace voluminous dispersive optical components such as gratings and prisms, and interference filters.; Create plasmonic filters with unprecedented spatial localization of the spectral bandpass (~mm resolution) to outperform state of art interference filters (mm resolution).

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