NSF TTP-P: Ultralightweight Freeform Mirrors Using Ultrafast Laser Stress Figuring

Award ID: 2553205

This project is funded through the NSF Translation to Practice (TTP) program, which supports efforts to translate research discoveries into practical tools that benefit communities, industry, and society. For the TTP program, teams advance research results toward real-world deployment and adoption. Lightweight, high-quality mirrors are essential for many technologies that benefit society, from cameras on airplanes and satellites to defense systems and scientific instruments. However, creating advanced mirrors with the complex shapes that are needed for highest performance is extremely difficult and expensive. This research team develops an innovative new manufacturing process called ultrafast laser stress figuring (ULSF) that makes these advanced mirrors much lighter, cheaper, and easier to produce. This technology bolsters the optics industry. Beyond economic benefits, the research team trains the next generation of engineers and innovators and demonstrates how scientific discoveries become real-world products. The core innovation is a mirror figuring technique, ULSF, that uses ultrafast lasers to create precise stress patterns inside glass mirrors, deterministically shaping the mirror to nanometer accuracy. The research team develops an open-source software tool to help optical engineers design systems using ULSF mirrors and demonstrates unmounted freeform ULSF mirrors that meet diffraction-limited optical accuracy. They also create mounted ULSF mirrors that maintain optical performance under operational loads and build a complete benchtop optical system with mounted ULSF mirrors demonstrating high-quality imaging performance. In partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, the result of this project is mountable, cost-effective ultralightweight mirrors that optical engineers can readily integrate into their designs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Amy Criss