Next Gen Components for Exoplanet Detection and Characterization Technologies

Discovery of life beyond the Earth will have profound intellectual and spiritual impact on humanity. NASAs Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will make this discovery but only if the technology to overcome the obstacles to making these observations continues to advance. Exoplanets can be 10 billion times dimmer than their star making observations extraordinarily difficult. Researchers around the country have gradually improved coronagraph designs and test beds working towards the goal of achieving 1E-10 contrast. The PI of this proposal has delivered key components to researchers at NASA Ames, NASA GSFC, Space Telescope Science Institute, Caltech and the University of Notre Dame. This includes reflective and transmissive apodizers patterned with carbon nanotubes that scavenge diffracted light from the stars which can swamp the light from the planet. Carbon nanotubes are among the darkest materials ever fabricated and when applied to components enable new observations. The apodizers have excellent wavefront error and throughput and are enabling technology. This SBIR will fund additional improvements in apodizers including better reflective coatings, darker carbon nanotubes, improved patterning and enhanced characterization techniques. Two dozen next generation apodizers will be delivered to collaborators at the institutions listed and at the Unversity of Arizona and University of California in Santa Cruz. Other next generation components include carbon nanotube coated Lyot Stops and Focal Plane masks. Next generation designs and components will drive improvements as our collaborators test coronagraph architectures and refine their models. The variety of designs and improved coronagraph components will reduce risk to the HWO program by allowing a virtuous design, fabricate and test cycle to help determine the most promising path towards direct imaging of Exoplanets and characterization of their atmospheres. NASA’s search for life beyond our Solar System requires advanced components for coronagraphs to allow observations of Exoplanets and their atmospheres. These are the most challenging of observations as the star can be 10 billion times brighter than the planets orbiting them.  The measures required for high contrast imaging must block the direct light from the star as well as scavenge diffracted light from structures in the telescope while preserving the dim light from the plan.  Diffraction control masks otherwise known as apodizers are key components required for high contrast imaging and Exoplanet observations.  The PI of the SBIR firm has taken ultra-dark carbon nanotube coatings from a laboratory curiosity to an enabling technology for stray light control by patterning carbon nanotubes  on high quality mirrors.  This work proposed in this SBIR comprises improvements to Apodizers and other coronagraph components, but more importantly delivers them to eight of the premier Exoplanet researchers to validate and test their designs and decrease risk to the Habitable Worlds Observatory. The objective of this work is to fabricate and characterize Next Generation Apodizers, Lyot Stops and Focal Plane and deliver them to our eight Exoplanet Research Collaborators across the country.  They will calculate new designs for us to fabricate and then evaluate them in their test beds to determine how to best achieve contrast of 1E-10.  This is the challenge facing NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory and only by improving both the components and the designs can this formidable challenge be met.  Our objectives Next Gen apodizers are to improve their surface figure, reflective coating and the accuracy of patterning darker and more robust carbon nanotubes on them.  In addition, we will build a more capable interferometer to measure their surface figure and perform rigorous characterization to aid in modeling their perfomance. Perhaps the key objective is to provide 24 Reflective and Transmissive apodizers and other coronagraph components over the next two years to improve the contrast ratio achieved in their test beds.  Our firm is the only commercial venture fabricating ultra dark patterned apodizers, which are needed by researchers.  Improving both components and designs and validating them by test is critical to reducing risk to the Habitable Worlds Program and NASA's Decadal goals.

High Contrast Imaging - Enabling technology  Habitable Worlds Observatory Search for Life beyond the Earth                                              Extreme stray light control for all NASA instruments. PACE OCI entrance slit was developed for NASA and flight qualified for use.  LISA and Laser Communications for Duplex Telescopes Earth Science instrument stray light control and calibrators - improving observational efficiency, reducing cost, enabling new science   CNT coated Apodizers Lyot Stops, Focal Plane Masks, baffles- extreme stray light control for nearly all optical systems operating in high contrast regimes.  This includes autonomous driving and commercial imaging. Calibrators are used in precision optical instrumentation in chemical , optical and other sensing in commercial and DOD Applications in Art and High Fashion watches

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