UV/Ozone Removal Of Contaminants In Spacecraft Environments

The UV/Ozone cleaning process has been studied as both a method for preventing contamin-ant films from forming on optical surfaces of a space sensor during storage, and for removing them from these surfaces after formation. Using mercury resonance lines at 253.7 and 184.9 nm and 02 pressures in the range of 8 x 10-5 to 4 x 10-4 torr, removal efficiencies from 1.8 x 10-26 to 4.4 x 10-26 cm3/photon were measured. The UV/Ozone process has been shown to be an effective method for preventing contaminant buildup during the storage of a sensor. If the removal efficiencies can be improved, as expected, by using higher energy photons, the UV/Ozone process should also prove to be a viable method for cleaning contaminant films from optical surfaces in space.