Research Bio
My dissertation work investigated the degradation of Extreme Ultraviolet bandpass thin aluminum foil filters in outer space environment. These filters are commonly used on satellite EUV instruments, and their degradation is the major cause of loss in overall sensitivity of such scientific instruments. Our improved understanding about degradation, further led me to develop a carbon based mono-layer protective coating that shields aluminum filters from combined contamination effects of a satellite's attitude thruster plumes (MMH-NTO) and solar radiation (UV and below) beyond geosynchronous orbits. In future, these coatings are expected to significantly improve an aluminum filter's EUV transmission over a mission lifetime, thereby increasing the overall instrument sensitivity by up to a factor of two to three (from existing levels).
I also interned at Space Radiation Laboratory at Caltech where I was involved with fabrication/testing of multiple instrument sub-systems, especially detector electronics(ALTIUM) / flight software(FORTH) and power modules of their engineering model of Epi-Hi Cosmic particle (on Solar Probe Plus) instrument. I have extensive hands-on experience in testing/operations of instrument Electronics, Metrology (Solidworks), Data acquisition techniques (LABVIEW/MATLAB-Python), Data Analysis and Vacuum systems.
My education and previous training includes a B Tech. (Electronics & Comm. engineering 05’), followed by 3.5 years full time working as an IT Systems Engineer (Pl/SQL/XML Oracle DB).
Publications
Vaibhav Gupta, Seth Wieman et al. “Investigation of contamination of thin-film aluminum filters by MMH-NTO plumes exposed to UV radiation.” , in Solar Physics and Space Weather Instrumentation IV, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9604, San Diego, CA (2015)
Vaibhav Gupta (2015), Phd dissertation: Investigation of Thin Film Aluminum Filter Contamination by Monomethylhydrazine (MMH)–Nitrogen Tetroxide (NTO) Plumes, University of Southern California, Digital (in print). Can be downloaded from link below.
A PDF version of my CV can be downloaded from the attachment below. References on request.