Materials challenges for the starshot lightsail

The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative established in 2016 sets an audacious goal of sending a spacecraft beyond our Solar System to a neighbouring star within the next half-century. Its

vision for an ultralight spacecraft that can be accelerated by laser radiation pressure from an Earth-based source to ~20% of the speed of light demands the use of materials with extreme

properties. Here we examine stringent criteria for the lightsail design and discuss fundamental materials challenges. We predict that major research advances in photonic design and materials

science will enable us to define the pathways needed to realize laser-driven lightsails. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access

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institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support CHANGE HISTORY * _ 12 OCTOBER 2018 In the version of this Perspective originally published, Fig. 1 was missing the

following credit line from the caption: ‘Background image from ESA/Hubble (A. Fujii).’ This has now been corrected in the online versions of the Perspective. _ * _ 16 AUGUST 2018 In the

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AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA Harry A. Atwater, Artur R. Davoyan, Ognjen Ilic,

 Deep Jariwala, Michelle C. Sherrott & Joeson Wong * Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA Cora M. Went & William S. Whitney Authors *

Harry A. Atwater View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Artur R. Davoyan View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed

 Google Scholar * Ognjen Ilic View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Deep Jariwala View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Michelle C. Sherrott View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Cora M. Went View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * William S. Whitney View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Joeson Wong View author

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Atwater, H.A., Davoyan, A.R., Ilic, O. _et al._ Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail. _Nature Mater_ 17, 861–867 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0075-8 Download

citation * Received: 14 August 2017 * Accepted: 29 March 2018 * Published: 07 May 2018 * Issue Date: October 2018 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0075-8 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone

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