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Completed TRL 6 (started at 3, targeting 6)
The objective is to optimize the design and fabrication of high transmittance ultraviolet (UV) multilayer bandpass coatings for refractive lenses. The recent emergence of cubesat missions has led to the need of small optical payloads with reduced optical path lengths, which will require the use of refractive optics to accomplish this size criteria while achieving imaging performance goals. Refractive optical systems operating in the visible to far-infrared are well understood in industry and a variety of lens and coating materials can be applied to meet spectral efficiency goals. However, the ultraviolet spectral band has a much narrower selection of these materials due to absorption. In this proposal, we will develop multilayer coating designs on UV compatible lens materials to limit surface reflection losses to <1% at all field angles from 0-50 degrees while assessing the internal absorptance and expected environmental losses from the optics.
These UV multilayer coatings will be used primarily for refractive telescopes such as those in Dorado. The developed coatings will also be applied for future refractive UV spectrograph/imaging missions
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