A Large Diameter Millimeter-Wave Low-Pass Filter Made of Alumina with Laser Ablated Anti-Reflection Coating

TL;DR

This paper reports the development and deployment of a large alumina millimeter-wave low-pass filter with laser-ablated anti-reflection structures, achieving high transmittance and low reflection, integrated into a telescope instrument with improved performance.

Contribution

First demonstration of a large-area alumina filter with laser-ablated SWS ARC integrated into an operational instrument, showing high transmittance and reduced optical load.

Findings

Average transmittance of 98% in 75-105 GHz band

Reflective loss due to ARC is 1%

Reduced optical power load by about 50% on the detector stage

Abstract

We fabricated a 302 mm diameter low-pass filter made of alumina that has an anti-reflection coating (ARC) made with laser-ablated sub-wavelength structures (SWS). The filter has been integrated into and is operating with the MUSTANG2 instrument, which is coupled to the Green Bank Telescope. The average transmittance of the filter in the MUSTANG2 operating band between 75 and 105 GHz is 98%. Reflective loss due to the ARC is 1%. The difference in transmission between the s- and p-polarization states is less than 1%. To within 1% accuracy we observe no variance in these results when transmission is measured in six independent filter spatial locations. The alumina filter replaced a prior MUSTANG2 Teflon filter. Data taken with the filter heat sunk to its nominal 40 K stage show performance consistent with expectations: a reduction of about 50% in filters-induced optical power load on the 300 mK stage, and in in-band optical loading on the detectors. It has taken less than 4 days to laser-ablate the SWS on both sides of the alumina disk. This is the first report of an alumina filter with SWS ARC deployed with an operating instrument, and the first demonstration of a large area fabrication of SWS with laser ablation.