Durable, high performance AR microstructures will replace thin-film AR coatings used in applications ranging from automotive, computer, and portable device displays, to window glass, eyeglasses, sunglasses, camera lenses, optical telecommunication fibers, laser systems, and astronomical instruments. An important near term commercial application involves the integration of AR microstructures directly into the surfaces of imaging sensors that detect light over a wide color spectrum ranging from the ultraviolet through the far infrared. AR microstructures are beginning to have a great impact on reducing energy consumption for new solid-state lighting products based on light emitting diode technology, and on energy efficiency where the wide bandwidths and acceptance angles of AR microstructures allow collection and conversion of more photons by conventional solar panels.
The primary near-term NASA missions that can benefit from the new microstructure AR and depolarizer treatments are the hyperspectral imaging instruments of ORCA and CLARREO. Other NASA missions in operation or being developed include ACCLAIM, a sub-orbital platform employing a hyperspectral imager for cloud and atmospheric aerosol monitoring, GLORY, a total solar irradiance measurement system, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a dedicated global atmospheric CO2 measurement system, and AQUARIUS, a global sea surface salinity measurement system. Several mid-term NASA missions that may also experience a direct or indirect benefit from the new microstructure technology include HyspIRI, a hyperspectral instrument for agricultural land surface health monitoring, GEO-CAPE, an atmospheric air quality and ocean health monitoring spectrometer, ASCENDS, a multi-frequency laser system for day and night monitoring of CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and ACE, a backscatter lidar and polarimeter system for aerosol and cloud profiling and open ocean monitoring.
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