Self-stabilizing curved metasurfaces as a sail for light-propelled spacecrafts

Laser-driven spacecrafts are promising candidates for explorations to outer space. These spacecrafts should accelerate to a fraction of the speed of light upon illumination with earth-based laser systems. There are several challenges for such an ambitious mission that needs to be addressed yet. A matter of utmost importance is the stability of the spacecraft during the acceleration. Furthermore, the spacecraft sails should effectively reflect the light without absorptive-overheating. To address these requirements, we propose the design of a lightweight, low-absorbing, high-reflective, and self-stabilizing curved metasurface made from c-Si nanoparticles. A method to determine the stability is presented and, based on the multipole expansion method, the rotational stability of the curved metasurfaces is examined and the optimal operating regime is identified. The curvature is shown to be beneficial for the overall stability of the metasurface. The validity of the method is verified through numerical simulations of the time evolution of the trajectory of an identified metasurface. The results show that curved metasurfaces are a promising candidate for laser-driven spacecrafts. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

Laser-driven spacecrafts show promise for outer space exploration, but challenges regarding spacecraft stability and reflection need to be addressed. Researchers propose a design for lightweight, low-absorbing, high-reflective, and self-stabilizing curved metasurfaces.