ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Chirped mirror

A chirped mirror is a special type of mirror that is really good at reflecting light. But it's not just any light - it's light that is made up of lots of different colors. This type of light is called "broadband" light.

Now, the cool thing about a chirped mirror is that it can reflect different colors of light at different angles. It's a bit like having a ramp with different slopes for different colors - some colors will bounce off the mirror at a steeper angle, while others will bounce off at a flatter angle.

This might not sound very useful, but it's actually really important for scientists who want to study light in really fine detail. You see, when you shine broadband light on a sample (like a molecule or a crystal), it will scatter in different ways depending on the color of the light. So if you want to really understand how the sample is behaving, you need to be able to separate the different colors of light and study them separately.

This is where the chirped mirror comes in - by reflecting the different colors of broadband light at different angles, it effectively separates the light into its individual colors. This makes it much easier for scientists to study each color separately and understand how the sample is behaving.

So to sum up, a chirped mirror is a special type of mirror that can separate broadband light into its individual colors, making it easier for scientists to study samples in fine detail.