Presentation description

We aim to increase the light collection from a Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC) by adding optical components in front of the diamond. A DAC is a powerful tool for studying material properties at high pressure and increasing the amount of light we can receive allows us to take better measurements and achieve more accurate insights on how materials change and behave at extreme conditions. The optical components will further collimate the light exiting the diamond effectively increasing our numerical aperture. This increase makes it much easier to collect the light rays that escape the diamond. Furthermore, diamond partially reflects about 16% of the light traveling through its interface with air. We hope to deal with partial reflection by designing a moth eye inspired subwavelength nanocone structure that turns the interface between diamond and air into an optical gradient medium. This offers ultrabroadband antireflection and substantially decreases the amount of light that gets reflected. We took steps to design the optimal optical system theoretically, model it computationally, and prove our models experimentally. Experimentally, we made use of a laser light source and beam expander to measure the change in the size of the light cone exiting our diamond when compared to light exiting a pinhole. Afterwards, we used a Raman spectroscopy set up to measure the strength of a Raman signal coming through the diamond and compare it to the strength of the signal traveling through the diamond and optical system. All of this is for the purpose of better studying materials under pressure by allowing us to make better measurements of material properties using various optical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy. There are also applications in studying cells using flash pressurizing techniques to "start and stop" life.