2 papers
physics.optics2021
Thermal runaway of silicon-based laser sails
Gregory R. Holdman, Gabriel R. Jaffe, Min Seok Jang +3
Laser sail-based spacecraft -- where a powerful earth-based laser propels a lightweight outer-space vehicle -- have been recently proposed by the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative a…
physics.optics2019
Self-stabilizing laser sails based on optical metasurfaces
Joel Siegel, Anthony Wang, Sergey G. Menabde +3
This article investigates the stability of 'laser sail'-style spacecraft constructed from dielectric metasurfaces with areal densities 1g/m. We show that the microscopic opt…