Energy Web Employing Planar Optics

It is proposed to employ diffractive waveplate optical elements in an energy web architecture in the atmosphere or in space. Such optical elements may also be referred to as geometric phase optical elements or Pancharatnam-Berry Phase optical elements. Such diffractive elements have the potential to be orders of magnitude lighter than comparable refractive or reflective conventional optical elements, and are therefore worth considering for applications in which weight is a major factor. Calculations show that the total active birefringent material weight for a 3.5 meter diameter beam deflector/recollimator fabricated with such diffractive waveplate technology would weight only about 67 grams, i.e. the weight of the active birefringent material would be negligibly small. The Phase I program would address some of the major barriers to such employment of diffractive waveplate technology, including the maintenance of diffraction-limited performance for the large apertures needed for long-range transmission between relay elements of the energy web.