Deep Learning-Based Metasurface Design for Smart Cooling of Spacecraft

Abstract

A reconfigurable metasurface constitutes an important block of future adaptive and smart nanophotonic applications, such as adaptive cooling in spacecraft. In this paper, we introduce a new modeling approach for the fast design of tunable and reconfigurable metasurface structures using a convolutional deep learning network. The metasurface structure is modeled as a multilayer image tensor to model material properties as image maps. We avoid the dimensionality mismatch problem using the operating wavelength as an input to the network. As a case study, we model the response of a reconfigurable absorber that employs the phase transition of vanadium dioxide in the mid-infrared spectrum. The feed-forward model is used as a surrogate model and is subsequently employed within a pattern search optimization process to design a passive adaptive cooling surface leveraging the phase transition of vanadium dioxide. The results indicate that our model delivers an accurate prediction of the metasurface response using a relatively small training dataset. The proposed patterned vanadium dioxide metasurface achieved a 28% saving in coating thickness compared to the literature while maintaining reasonable emissivity contrast at 0.43. Moreover, our design approach was able to overcome the non-uniqueness problem by generating multiple patterns that satisfy the design objectives. The proposed adaptive metasurface can potentially serve as a core block for passive spacecraft cooling applications. We also believe that our design approach can be extended to cover a wider range of applications.

Actively Tunable “Single Peak/Broadband” Absorbent, Highly Sensitive Terahertz Smart Device Based on VO2

“…The Drude model allows characterization of the dielectric parameters of vanadium dioxide in the terahertz band, as shown in Equation (1) [32][33][34]: Here, 𝜀 ∞ is the dielectric parameter at a high frequency, which has a value of 12, and 𝜔 𝑃 is the plasma frequency related to conductivity, as illustrated in Equation (2). The initial value of the plasma frequency is 𝜔 𝑃0 = 1.45 × 10 15 s −1 , 𝜎 0 = 3 × 10 5 Sm −1 , and the collision frequency 𝛾 = 5.75 × 10 13 s −1 .…”