Future space missions require more efficient coatings with high stability over time. The Far-UV (FUV) (100-200 nm) and Extreme-UV (EUV) (10-100 nm) spectral ranges are of great interest to various scientific communities dedicated to the exploration and understanding of the universe. GOLD laboratory is a scientific research group that investigates on the development of coatings tuned in the FUV and EUV spectral ranges. In this proceeding, we present coatings that address different targets: 1) broadband mirrors based on Al/MgF2 and Al/AlF3, 2) narrowband mirrors peaked at wavelengths longer than ~120 nm based on (MgF2/LaF3)n multilayers, and 3) mirrors with high reflectance at Lyman β (102.6 nm) spectral line with strong rejection at the ubiquitous and intense H Lyman α(121.6 nm).
Mirrors based on Al protected with a MgF2 film provide high reflectance over a broad spectral range down to the wavelength of 120 nm in the Far UV (FUV). After more than 50 years since the development of this technology, a significant FUV reflectance enhancement has been obtained in the last years. Such enhancement originates mostly in the higher transparency of the MgF2 protective layer deposited on a hot Al-coated substrate. Research has been conducted at GOLD to measure the dependence of the FUV reflectance enhancement with MgF2 deposition temperature. A reflectance enhancement was found for freshly-prepared samples; moreover, the reflectance degradation over time of Al films protected with hot-deposited MgF2 was also smaller than for the coatings deposited at room temperature. A reflectance as high as 90% was measured at 121.6 nm (hydrogen Lyman α line) for aged samples. A FUV reflectance enhancement was also obtained on samples fully deposited at room temperature and later annealed in vacuum. The reflectance of Al mirrors as a function of MgF2 deposition temperature, as well as of post-deposition annealed mirrors, and their stability over time is presented. Structural data on film roughness, density, and main crystal orientations for mirrors with a MgF2 film deposited both at room temperature and at 250°C are also presented.
Polarimetry is a valuable technique to help us understand the role played by the magnetic field of the coronal plasma in the energy transfer processes from the inner parts of the Sun to the outer space. Polarimetry in the far ultraviolet (FUV: 100-200 nm), which must be performed from space due to absorption in terrestrial atmosphere, supplies fundamental data of processes that are governed by the Doppler and Hanle effects on resonantly scattered line-emission. To observe these processes there are various key spectral lines in the FUV, from which H I Lyman α (121.6 nm) is the strongest one. Hence some solar physics missions that have been proposed or are under development plan to perform polarimetry at 121.6 nm, like the suborbital missions CLASP I (2015) and CLASP II (2018), and the proposed solar missions SolmeX and COMPASS and stellar mission Arago. Therefore, the development of efficient FUV linear polarizers may benefit these and other possible future missions. C IV (155 nm) and Mg II (280 nm) are other spectral lines relevant for studies of solar and stellar magnetized atmospheres.
High performance polarizers can be obtained with optimized coatings. Interference coatings can tune polarizers at the spectral line(s) of interest for solar and stellar physics. Polarizing beamsplitters consist in polarizers that separate one polarization component by reflection and the other by transmission, which enables observing the two polarization components simultaneously with a single polarizer. They involve the benefit of a higher efficiency in collection of polarization data due to the use of a single polarizer for the two polarization components and they may also facilitate a simplified design for a space polarimeter. We present results on polarizing beamsplitters tuned either at 121.6 nm or at the pair of 155 and 280 nm spectral lines.
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