Stray-light and diffraction suppression is critical to NASA instrumentation because it improves signal to noise and observational efficiency in high contrast regions present in Earth, solar and coronagraphic applications. The PI and Lambda Consulting have delivered a large variety of instrument components including, baffles, stops, tubes and beam dumps. Development of a process compatible with reflective coatings and high quality optics for this SBIR, will enable an entirely new class of components and instrumentation for scientific observations. NASA requires calibrators for all manner of instruments to allow scientific data to be of the highest accuracy. On-mirror diffraction suppression is enabling for e-LISA as the telescope is used in duplex and requires extreme suppression of the the high power transmitted beam. This is also a challenge in Laser Communications and of great interest to NASA that will be addressed by this SBIR. Carbon nanotubes have the highest emissivity ever measured and are nearly ideal in this respect. We expect that further enhancement of the robustness of carbon nanotube coatings demonstrated in this SBIR will result in the use of this technology on more NASA instruments. The PI has built and tested carbon nanotube absorber thermal detectors with superconducting transition edge detectors; a modified CVD process will make the use of carbon nanotube absorbers compatible with more detector technologies.
Optimization of the optical stack outlined in this SBIR proposal addresses a host of challenges that have created a barrier to the use of carbon nanotubes in commercial stray light control applications. Phase I of this SBIR will confront many of these challenges and a successful Phase II will constitute closure of many of the issues that have been problematic to commercialization. Laser communications and autonomous vehicle control can benefit from stray light control for optical systems used in duplex; this is a direct application of this technology. Beyond the need for on-board calibration systems, laboratories across the world would benefit from a near zero reflectance calibration standard for spectrophotometers and other scientific and military equipment. Lamba Consulting is actively investigating the use of alternate adhesion materials to make nanotube formulations more robust for these applications. The use of gold black on thermopile detectors for scientific and military instruments has been problematic due to the fragility of the coating and difficulty of patterning. We are actively seeking industry partners to develop thermopile arrays. The PI has been working with well-known artists Frederik de Wilde and Diemut Stebe to create black art using carbon nanotubes. Representatives of Louis Vuitton, Tesla and Swatch have been in communication and await further adhesion optimization to utilize carbon nanotubes in a variety of design and fashion applications