Anomalous Reflection Under Ambient Sunlight: Accessing In-Plane Radiation Pressure for Solar Sailing

TL;DR

This paper introduces ultra-wideband, polarization-insensitive metasurfaces that can control in-plane radiation pressure from ambient sunlight, enabling advanced solar sailing and other solar energy applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel metasurface design that efficiently redirects sunlight to generate in-plane radiation pressure, expanding possibilities for solar propulsion and energy applications.

Findings

Achieves >60% reflection into one diffraction order over 400 nm band

Converts incident radiation into in-plane pressure with nearly 30% efficiency

Potential applications include solar sailing, spectrum splitting, and solar fuels

Abstract

Harnessing solar radiation pressure is key to transforming space exploration with multiple low cost sunlight propelled spacecraft to outer reaches of space. By controlling the direction of sunlight momentum transfer new missions and better maneuvering in space can be accessed. Here, we discuss design principles for taming in-plane radiation pressure under ambient sunlight. We propose and study theoretically ultra-wideband polarization insensitive metasurfaces for anomalous light reflection. Our design based on segmented tapered patch nanoantenna arrays allows reflection of >60% into one diffraction orders over a 400 nm band across larger part of the solar spectrum. Owing to a wideband nature and polarization insensitivity, our structures convert incident radiation into in-plane radiation pressure force with almost 30% efficiency. We discuss applications of our design to controlling solar sail spin. Beyond solar sailing, we envision that such anomalous metasurfaces for ambient sunlight will find use in solar concentration, spectrum splitting, and solar fuels.