Phase-change Reconfigurable Optical WavEfront Synthesis System (PROWESS)

We propose PROWESS to address the issues of atmospheric distortion and bulky adaptive optics and steering systems in LIDAR and other imaging systems by developing an actively tunable metasurface for wavefront correction and beam steering in real time. The advantage over state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems is the drastic reduction in SWaP achieved by moving from bulk optics and mechanical components to a planar metasurface. After completing this project, air-/space-borne LIDAR and imaging systems will have significantly less SWaP taken up by adaptive optics, effectively freeing up on-board space and power resources for other instruments or computing capabilities, etc. We anticipate that fabrication of the transparent electrodes might delay our project and have closely coordinated with our foundry partners at MIT Lincoln Labs to ensure that IRAD program timelines can be met to deliver the final pixelated metalens.

By the end of the FY22 IRAD period of performance, we intend to have fully characterized a passive metalens to derive performance benchmarks for the actively tunable PROWESS optic. In FY22, we have completed a design of the heater electrode layout for the PROWESS optic that will expedite the foundry-based fabrication process proposed for FY23. Following transition out of the IRAD phase, PROWESS will target an Advanced Component Technologies Program (ACT) / ESTO proposal focused on an integrated metasurface-based adaptive optics in a LIDAR or imaging system, with specific performance metrics dictated by the intended mission alignment. Not selecting the proposed project would lead to a divestment in metasurface optics – a key technology area for reducing SWaP and increasing performance of space-based assets – and a dissolution of a fruitful partnership between NASA LaRC, MIT, University of Cambridge (Space Act Agreement), and Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), which has led to several scientific publications with >100 total citations in joint-authored papers. As an additional benefit, this project has been leveraged to fund a NASA Postdoc Program (NPP) position via NASA HQ for the duration of the PROWESS IRAD (FY23 and FY24).

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