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NASA NTRS2005

High-Efficiency Solar Cells Using Photonic-Bandgap Materials

Solar photovoltaic cells would be designed to exploit photonic-bandgap (PBG) materials to enhance their energy-conversion efficiencies, according to a proposal. Whereas the energy-conversion efficiencies of currently available solar cells are typically less than 30 percent, it has been estimated that the energy-conversion efficiencies of the proposed cells could be about 50 percent or possibly even greater. The primary source of inefficiency of a currently available solar cell is the mismatch between the narrow wavelength band associated with the semiconductor energy gap (the bandgap) and the broad wavelength band of solar radiation. This mismatch results in loss of power from both (1) long-wavelength photons, defined here as photons that do not have enough energy to excite electron-hole pairs across the bandgap, and (2) short-wavelength photons, defined here as photons that excite electron- hole pairs with energies much above the bandgap. It follows that a large increase in efficiency could be obtained if a large portion of the incident solar energy could be funneled into a narrow wavelength band corresponding to the bandgap. In the proposed approach, such funneling would be effected by use of PBG materials as intermediaries between the Sun and photovoltaic cells.

Dowling, Jonathan↗

NASA NTRS2012

Performance Considerations for the SIMPL Single Photon, Polarimetric, Two-Color Laser Altimeter as Applied to Measurements of Forest Canopy Structure and Composition

The Slope Imaging Multi-polarization Photon-counting Lidar (SIMPL) is a multi-beam, micropulse airborne laser altimeter that acquires active and passive polarimetric optical remote sensing measurements at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. SIMPL was developed to demonstrate advanced measurement approaches of potential benefit for improved, more efficient spaceflight laser altimeter missions. SIMPL data have been acquired for wide diversity of forest types in the summers of 2010 and 2011 in order to assess the potential of its novel capabilities for characterization of vegetation structure and composition. On each of its four beams SIMPL provides highly-resolved measurements of forest canopy structure by detecting single-photons with 15 cm ranging precision using a narrow-beam system operating at a laser repetition rate of 11 kHz. Associated with that ranging data SIMPL provides eight amplitude parameters per beam unlike the single amplitude provided by typical laser altimeters. Those eight parameters are received energy that is parallel and perpendicular to that of the plane-polarized transmit pulse at 532 nm (green) and 1064 nm (near IR), for both the active laser backscatter retro-reflectance and the passive solar bi-directional reflectance. This poster presentation will cover the instrument architecture and highlight the performance of the SIMPL instrument with examples taken from measurements for several sites with distinct canopy structures and compositions. Specific performance areas such as probability of detection, after pulsing, and dead time, will be highlighted and addressed, along with examples of their impact on the measurements and how they limit the ability to accurately model and recover the canopy properties. To assess the sensitivity of SIMPL's measurements to canopy properties an instrument model has been implemented in the FLIGHT radiative transfer code, based on Monte Carlo simulation of photon transport. SIMPL data collected in 2010 over the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, MD are currently being modelled and compared to other remote sensing and in situ data sets. Results on the adaptation of FLIGHT to model micropulse, single'photon ranging measurements are presented elsewhere at this conference. NASA's ICESat-2 spaceflight mission, scheduled for launch in 2016, will utilize a multi-beam, micropulse, single-photon ranging measurement approach (although non-polarimetric and only at 532 nm). Insights gained from the analysis and modelling of SIMPL data will help guide preparations for that mission, including development of calibration/validation plans and algorithms for the estimation of forest biophysical parameters.

Dabney, Philip W.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Frequency-Modulated, Continuous-Wave Laser Ranging Using Photon-Counting Detectors

Optical ranging is a problem of estimating the round-trip flight time of a phase- or amplitude-modulated optical beam that reflects off of a target. Frequency- modulated, continuous-wave (FMCW) ranging systems obtain this estimate by performing an interferometric measurement between a local frequency- modulated laser beam and a delayed copy returning from the target. The range estimate is formed by mixing the target-return field with the local reference field on a beamsplitter and detecting the resultant beat modulation. In conventional FMCW ranging, the source modulation is linear in instantaneous frequency, the reference-arm field has many more photons than the target-return field, and the time-of-flight estimate is generated by balanced difference- detection of the beamsplitter output, followed by a frequency-domain peak search. This work focused on determining the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation algorithm when continuous-time photoncounting detectors are used. It is founded on a rigorous statistical characterization of the (random) photoelectron emission times as a function of the incident optical field, including the deleterious effects caused by dark current and dead time. These statistics enable derivation of the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRB) on the accuracy of FMCW ranging, and derivation of the ML estimator, whose performance approaches this bound at high photon flux. The estimation algorithm was developed, and its optimality properties were shown in simulation. Experimental data show that it performs better than the conventional estimation algorithms used. The demonstrated improvement is a factor of 1.414 over frequency-domainbased estimation. If the target interrogating photons and the local reference field photons are costed equally, the optimal allocation of photons between these two arms is to have them equally distributed. This is different than the state of the art, in which the local field is stronger than the target return. The optimal processing of the photocurrent processes at the outputs of the two detectors is to perform log-matched filtering followed by a summation and peak detection. This implies that neither difference detection, nor Fourier-domain peak detection, which are the staples of the state-of-the-art systems, is optimal when a weak local oscillator is employed.

Erkmen, Baris I.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Secured Optical Communications Using Quantum Entangled Two-Photon Transparency Modulation

A system and method is disclosed wherein optical signals are coded in a transmitter by tuning or modulating the interbeam delay time (which modulates the fourth-order coherence) between pairs of entangled photons. The photon pairs are either absorbed or not absorbed (transparent) by an atomic or molecular fluorescer in a receiver, depending on the inter-beam delay that is introduced in the entangled photon pairs. Upon the absorption, corresponding fluorescent optical emissions follow at a certain wavelength, which are then detected by a photon detector. The advantage of the disclosed system is that it eliminates a need of a coincidence counter to realize the entanglement-based secure optical communications because the absorber acts as a coincidence counter for entangled photon pairs.

Kojima, Jun↗

NASA NTRS2019

Macroporous Photonic Crystal Membrane, Methods of Making, and Methods of Use

In accordance with the purpose(s) of the present disclosure, as embodied and broadly described herein, embodiments of the present disclosure, in one aspect, relate to macroporous photonic crystal membranes, structures including macroporous photonic crystal membranes, devices including macroporous photonic crystal membranes, methods of using macroporous photonic crystal membranes, methods of making macroporous photonic crystal membranes, and the like.

Jiang, Peng↗

NASA NTRS2018

Development of Transition Edge Sensor Detectors Optimized for Single-Photon Spectroscopy in the Optical and Near-Infrared

The search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of exoplanets will be a key focus of future space telescopes that operate in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared bands. Detection of biosignatures requires an instrument with moderate spectral resolving power ($R \sim 100$) and a large bandwidth ($\sim 400$ nm -- $\sim 1.8$ $\mu$m). Additionally, biosignature detection is a photon-starved science; instruments designed for these measurements would ideally combine high optical efficiency with quantum-limited photon detectors (i.e., detectors that exhibit zero dark current). In this work, we report on our efforts to develop energy resolving transition edge sensor (TES)-based detectors designed for biosignature detection. TESs operated as microcalorimeters are compelling detectors for this application. Unlike semiconductor detectors, TESs eliminate the need for dispersive optics and are truly single photon detectors -- fundamental TES noise yields uncertainty in the energies of detected photons, not in the number of detected photons. We introduce TESs designed for this application and discuss the path toward realizing a TES-based dispersionless spectrometer optimized for biosignature detection.

Instrumentation and Photography↗

NASA NTRS2018

Development of Transition Edge Sensor Detectors Optimized for Single-Photon Spectroscopy in the Optical and Near-Infrared

The search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of exoplanets will be a key focus of future space telescopes that operate in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared bands. Detection of biosignatures requires an instrument with moderate spectral resolving power (R ~ 100) and a large bandwidth (~ 400 nm – ~ 1.8 µm). Additionally, biosignature detection is a photon-starved science; instruments designed for these measurements would ideally combine high optical efficiency with quantum-limited photon detectors (i.e., detectors that exhibit zero dark current). In this work, we report on our efforts to develop energy resolving transition edge sensor (TES)-based detectors designed for biosignature detection. TESs operated as microcalorimeters are compelling detectors for this application. Unlike semiconductor detectors, TESs eliminate the need for dispersive optics and are truly single photon detectors – fundamental TES noise yields uncertainty in the energies of detected photons, not in the number of detected photons. We introduce TESs designed for this application and discuss the path toward realizing a TES-based dispersionless spectrometer optimized for biosignature detection.

Instrumentation and Photography↗

NASA NTRS2021

Calibration and Testing of Small High-Resolution Transition Edge Sensor Microcalorimeters With Optical Photons

Pulses of narrow line-width optical photons can be used to calibrate and test sub-2 eV full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) energy resolution transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters at low energies (<1 keV),where it is very challenging to obtain X-ray calibration lines comparable to (or narrower than) the detector resolution. This scheme depends on the ability to resolve the number of 3 eV photons in each pulse, which we have recently demonstrated up to photon numbers of about 300. AtLTD-18 we showed preliminary results obtained with this technique on a 0.25 eV baseline resolution TES microcalorimeter designed for the ultra-high-resolution sub-array of the Lynx mission. The line-shape was well described by a simple Gaussian. However, the difficulty of delivering photons to the small 46 μm square absorbers resulted in a large thermal crosstalk signal, whose random nature is expected to rapidly degrade the observed energy resolution towards higher photon numbers/energies. We have since improved the coupling between the optical fiber and the TES absorber and report here our current results.

Felix T Jaeckel↗

DOE OSTI2021

Measurement of the cross section of top quark pairs produced in association with a Photon in Lepton +Jets events at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with full Run II CMS data

The inclusive production cross section of top quark pairs in association with a photon is measured in proton-proton collisions at the LHC with 13 TeV energy using the full RunII data collected by CMS in 2016, 2017, and 2018 with a total corresponding integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. The relative fraction of t$ \bar{t} \gamma$ events normalized to inclusive t$ \bar{t}$ production is measured. The cross section measurement provides important information about the electromagnetic coupling of the standard model top quark and is sensitive to physics beyond the standard model. The analysis is carried out in the in semileptonic decay channel with a well isolated high P$ \_{T}$ lepton (electron and muon), at least four jets out of which at least one must be b-tagged, and an isolated photon. Photons may be emitted from initial state radiation, top quarks, and decay products of top quarks. The fiducial phase space with a photon of transverse momentum $ \ge$ 20 GeV and j\x11$ \eta$ <1.4441 is used. A simultaneous likelihood fit of control regions with the signal region is done to constraint the backgrounds and to extract the t$ \bar{t} \gamma$ cross section. The measurement of the ratio of t$ \bar{t} \gamma$ to t$ \bar{t}$ is $0.02055 \pm 0.00099$ (syst.) $ \pm 0.00099$ (stat.) in $e$ channel , 0.02156 $ \pm$ 0.00068 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0.00068 (stat.) in $ \mu$ channel , and 0.02203 $ \pm$ 0.00064 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0.00064 (stat.) in e + $ \mu$ channel , respectively. The measured inclusive cross section is 3.81 $ \pm$ 0.15 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0.10 (stat.) pb in e channel , 3.87 $ \pm$ 0:11 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0:07 (stat.) pb in $ \mu$ channel , and 3.96 $ \pm$ 0.10 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0.06 (stat.) pb in e + $ \mu$ channel , respectively for full RunII data. The total inclusive cross section with a photon of transverse momentum $ \ge$ 20 GeV is found to be 3.96 $ \pm$ 0.10 (syst.) $ \pm$ 0.06 (stat.) pb with full RunII CMS data. The results are in agreement with the standard model next to leading order prediction.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Neutrino Hunting: Looking through a UV Lens Scintillation Photon Detection in a Large-Volume Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber, Exposed to a Multi-GeV Charged Particle Beam

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be a world-class neutrino observatory and nucleon decay detector designed to answer fundamental questions about elementary particles and their role in the universe. The DUNE experiment will consist of a a Near Detector, located at Fermilab, and a Far Detector, approximately 1.5~km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, located $\sim$1300~km away. The accelerator complex at Fermilab will host an intense beam of neutrinos directed toward the two detectors. My dissertation centers on the implementation of technologies used to detect scintillation photon signals in liquid argon in the context of the DUNE's Far Detector Single-Phase (SP) module design, and features direct contributions to the Photon Detection System (PDS) deployed in the ProtoDUNE-SP Large-Volume Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) prototype. The PDS is needed for non-beam event timing, such as atmospheric neutrinos, proton d ecay, and supernova detection. The PDS provides a prompt signal ($t_{0}$ information) for micro-second event time determination, which improves the TPC's spatial localization along drift direction, enables accurate ionization-signal-attenuation determination, and even provides calorimetry. My dissertation will discuss an overview of the DUNE and ProtoDUNE-SP experiment and how we detect neutrinos in LAr, via charge and scintillation light. It will discuss my core experimental and analysis work, in regards to the Photon Detection System; including my contributions in establishing procedures for the commissioning and integration for the Photon Detector System that will be valuable during the construction, installation, commissioning, and operations of the DUNE Far Detector. In addition, it will comprehensively discuss the capability of three different photon detection technologies, and their characteristics and responses to muon and electron beam particles over a range of beam momenta , from 0.3~GeV/$c$ - 7~GeV/$c$. Further, the overall progress detailed in this thesis will help pave the way toward understanding the physical properties of these detectors, which will contribute to the success of the sensitivity measurements required for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy and $\delta_{CP}$.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2022

Hadron spectroscopy of pseudoscalar and vector meson photoproduction using linearly polarised photons at CLAS

The field of hadron spectroscopy is informed by experiments which study excited states of the nucleon by detecting the decay products following excitation with a hadronic, leptonic or electromagnetic probe. Experiments using a polarised beam of photons provide an important contribution to the world data. This thesis describes the analysis of data from one such experiment, the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory, Virginia, USA. In the experiment, an incident beam of electrons passes through a diamond radiator producing a linearly polarised photon beam of energy from 1.1 to 2.1 GeV on a liquid hydrogen target. The analysis method and results for two reaction channels are presented. In the first analysis, the polarisation observables {?, P, T, Ox, Oz} for the reaction ??? p ? K0 S ?+ are extracted simultaneously using likelihood sampling with Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo. The results are presented as angular distributions (cos ?K0S) for bins in photon energy E? for a total of 21 bins. The values extracted for T , Ox and Oz are a first measurement of these quantities for this reaction and the beam asymmetry (?) measurement supplements the one previous measurement for this quantity and extends the energy range over which it has been extracted. The measurement of the recoil polarisation, P, is consistent with previous measurements. In a second analysis, the spin density matrix elements (SDMEs) for ? p ? p ? are extracted using similar analysis techniques. The results are presented as angular distributions (cos ?? ) for bins in photon energy E? for a total of 24 bins. This work is the first to extract all nine SDMEs for the full angular range of the ? meson production. A comparison is made to the predictions of the Vector Meson Dominance (VMD) model and the results provide evidence for contributing processes other than VMD, particularly at more backward angles of the ? meson production. The data also indicate non-helicity conserving process in both the s-channel and the t-channel. The results from the first analysis have been passed to the Juelich-Bonn theory group and the effect of including the new data within their dynamical coupled channel model is described. Several nucleon resonances are affected and the impact on the pole positions, widths and photon decay amplitudes of the affected resonances is described.

Clark, Louise↗

DOE OSTI2023

Large active-area superconducting microwire detector array with single-photon sensitivity in the near-infrared

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the highest-performing technology for time-resolved single-photon counting from the UV to the near-infrared. The recent discovery of single-photon sensitivity in micrometer-scale superconducting wires is a promising pathway to explore for large active area devices with application to dark matter searches and fundamental physics experiments. We present 8-pixel $1 mm^2$ superconducting microwire single photon detectors (SMSPDs) with $1\,\mathrm{\mu m}$-wide wires fabricated from WSi and MoSi films of various stoichiometries using electron-beam and optical lithography. Devices made from all materials and fabrication techniques show saturated internal detection efficiency at 1064 nm in at least one pixel, and the best performing device made from silicon-rich WSi shows single-photon sensitivity in all 8 pixels and saturated internal detection efficiency in 6/8 pixels. This detector is the largest reported active-area SMSPD or SNSPD with near-IR sensitivity published to date, and the first report of an SMSPD array. By further optimizing the photolithography techniques presented in this work, a viable pathway exists to realize larger devices with $cm^2$-scale active area and beyond.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2024

Systems and methods for resolving a number of incident RF-range photons

A photon-number-resolving detector comprises a detection element, an ohmmeter, and a hardware logic component. The detection element can be formed from a Weyl or Dirac semimetal. Electrons of the detection element are characterized by a surface state that exhibits a Dirac cone and a bulk superconducting state that exhibits a bandgap. When photons having energies less than the bandgap of the bulk superconducting state impinges on the detection element, the photons can be absorbed by electrons of the detection element that are characterized by the surface state. The ohmmeter outputs resistance data indicative of an electrical resistance of the detection element while the photons impinge on the detection element. The hardware logic component can determine, based upon the resistance data, a number of the photons that are absorbed by the surface state electrons of the detection element.

Soh, Daniel Beom Soo↗

DOE OSTI2021

Electrically Pumped Epitaxially Regrown GaSb-Based Type-I Quantum-Well Surface-Emitting Lasers with Buried High-Index-Contrast Photonic Crystal Layer

Epitaxially regrown electrically pumped photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) emitting near 2 and 2.6 μm are designed, fabricated, and characterized. A high-index-contrast photonic crystal layer is incorporated into the GaSb-based laser heterostructure by air-hole-retaining epitaxial regrowth. A square lattice of triangular holes is etched in the top waveguide core layer of the incomplete laser heterostructure. The nanopatterned surface is subsequently cleaned and regrown with AlGaAsSb p-cladding material. Transmission electron microscopy studies demonstrate uniform regrowth over the nanopatterned GaSb surface. The selected regrowth regimes yield a buried 2D array of elongated air-holes. The diode PCSELs based on moderately etched nanopatterns demonstrate band-edge lasing near 2 μm up to room temperatures. The cascade diode PCSELs operate near 2.6 μm with minimum threshold current densities of about 500 A cm -2 achieved at 180 K. The devices generate mW level output in narrow divergence beam emitted from the window in substrate contact. The angle-resolved electroluminescence measurements reveal a four-sub-band band structure with an apparent photonic bandgap corresponding to the buried high-index-contrast square photonic crystal layer. Finally, the PCSELs made of heterostructures supporting two modes in the vertical direction demonstrate two sets of sub-bands showing anti-crossing-like interaction.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

GaSb-based heterostructure with buried vacuum pocket photonic crystal layer

The vacuum pocket retaining molecular beam epitaxial regrowth of the nano-patterned GaSb surface was demonstrated. The high contrast 2D photonic crystal layer was incorporated into the test 2 μm emitting laser heterostructure. The photonic dispersion determined from angle-resolved electroluminescence experiment showed four well-resolved bands corresponding to the model predictions for the square lattice. The single-mode lasing near 2 μm has been observed at the temperature corresponding to the alignment of the photonic crystal band-edge states and the quantum well gain peak. The reference devices without the photonic crystal layer emitted trivial spectra and did not lase at any temperature.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Silicon Photomultiplier Photon Detection Efficiency at Liquid Nitrogen Temperature

The detection of individual photons at cryogenic temperatures is of interest to many experiments searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are often deployed in liquid argon or liquid xenon to detect scintillation light either directly or after it has been wavelength-shifted. Maximizing the photon detection efficiency (PDE) of the SiPMs used in these experiments optimizes the sensitivity to new physics; however, the PDEs of commercial SiPMs, although well known at room temperature, are not well characterized at the cryogenic temperatures at which many experiments operate them. Here we present results from an experimental setup that measures the photon detection efficiencies of silicon photomultipliers at liquid nitrogen temperature, 77 K. Results from a KETEK PM3325-WB-D0 and a Hamamatsu S13360-3050CS silicon photomultiplier — of R&D interest to the LEGEND experiment — exhibit a decrease in photon detection efficiency greater than 20% at liquid nitrogen temperature relative to room temperature for 562 nm light.

Cryogenic detectors↗

DOE OSTI2024

Controlling magnon-photon coupling in a planar geometry

Abstract The tunability of magnons enables their interaction with various other quantum excitations, including photons, paving the route for novel hybrid quantum systems. Here, we study magnon-photon coupling using a high-quality factor split-ring resonator and single-crystal yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere at room temperature. We investigate the dependence of the coupling strength on the size of the sphere and find that the coupling is stronger for spheres with a larger diameter as predicted by theory. Furthermore, we demonstrate strong magnon-photon coupling by varying the position of the YIG sphere within the resonator. Our experimental results reveal the expected correlation between the coupling strength and the rf magnetic field. These findings demonstrate the control of coherent magnon-photon coupling through the theoretically predicted square-root dependence on the spin density in the ferromagnetic medium and the magnetic dipolar interaction in a planar resonator.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2026

Rotating synchrotron radiation: Photon emission from magnetized and rotating quark-gluon plasma

This paper investigates the production of nonprompt photons originating from rotating synchrotron radiation (RoSyRa), specifically the emission of photons by a rigidly rotating quark-gluon plasma in thermal equilibrium, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We compute the nonprompt photon spectrum and its elliptic flow (𝑣 2 ) at midrapidity. In particular, we investigate the finite-volume effects. We find that at low transverse momentum, the magnetic field induces a significant 𝑣 2 , while the plasma rotation boosts the synchrotron radiation of negatively charged quarks. These findings make RoSyRa a viable candidate mechanism to resolve the “direct photon puzzle.”

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗