Cryodeposit Mitigation and Removal Techniques for Radiometric Calibration Chambers

ABSTRACT: Optical Sciences Corporation (OSC) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville"s Center for Applied Optics (UAH/CAO) will demonstrate the feasibility and present a plan for developing optical instrumentation for the monitoring, mitigation, and removal of cryodeposits accumulated on optical and mechanical surfaces in cryogenic-vacuum radiometric calibration chambers. OSC will investigate optically induced desorption of condensed water and other condensed gas constituents from the critical optical and mechanical surfaces. OSC will use short and intense optical radiation as the key to cryodeposit removal through resonant desorption and ablation, with essentially no base substrate residual heating. A strategic partnership with the UAH/CAO will provide extensive experience in optical testing, spectro-polarimetric analysis and testing, and spectral analysis and calibration in cryogenic high vacuum environments. In collaboration with the UAH/CAO, a cryodeposit monitoring system will also be developed and designed in the Phase I. The cryodeposit removal and monitoring systems and proposed technology are designed to meet or exceed the objectives outlined in the STTR AF12-BT10 topic. BENEFIT: There are multiple avenues of commercial potential for a cryodeposit mitigation system apart from space sensor testing applications in cryo-vacuum environments. The obvious system commercial sales are to similar space simulation chambers such as those operated by NASA, Raytheon, Ball Aerospace, Kinetic Kill Vehicle-in-the-Loop Simulator (KHILS), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, MIT Lincoln Labs, Alliant Techsystems, Inc (ATK). These needs could easily be serviced through a successful completion of the Phase II research and hardware demonstrations. OSC has identified two subsystems of the proposed approach that can be spun-off into commercial sales. The resulting laser product could have valuable utility in biological, medical, laboratory science, and military illumination applications; high efficiency water ablation and desorption; supercontinuum generation, optical communications, industrial processing, and ultrashort MWIR phenomena. The resulting spectrometer product could have valuable utility in spectroscopy, gas analysis, chemical detection, lidar, remote sensing, and IR spectral analysis.