Broadband Antireflection Coatings for Integrated Optics Waveguides

29 April 2008

The Infrared Multilayer Laboratory has recently started work on the first study phase contract for the design, development and manufacture of broadband antireflection coatings for integrated optics waveguides on the ESA Darwin flotilla mission.

The first phase contract received from Thales Alenia Space France will be looking into developing durable broadband antireflection coatings on purified Tellurium-Germanium-Gallium (TGG) optical substrates for nulling interferometry in the thermal infrared.

The Darwin mission will be a flotilla of four or five free-flying spacecraft that will search for Earth-like planets around other stars and analyse their atmospheres for the chemical signature of life. In addition the flotilla will be able to carry out high-resolution imaging using aperture synthesis, to provide pictures of celestial objects with unprecedented detail.