A new class of garnet-structured crystals offer potential for a new class of high-power, tunable, solid-state laser materials. a report from a soviet group at a recent conference showed a three-fold slope efficiency improvement for the cr(3+)-nd(3+) codoped garnet crystal as compared to the… More

A novel material, bismuth germanate [bi(4)ge(3)o(12), bgo] single crystal is a primary scintillator with a radiation length of 1.12(4)cm. bgo possesses many advantages over previously used scintillation crystal nai(t1), such as, large average atomic number, strong resistance against x-ray, stability… More

Ti:a12o3 and cr:gsgg are new crystals used for solid state lasers. they also offer potential as fluorescent converter materials. to date evaluation of fluorescent converter materials has involved materials which were not well suited for the task. the proposed approach is an effort to systematically… More

Aluminum oxynitride spinel (alon) has been sintered in tarnsparent, polycrystalline form. the polycrystalline form aluminum oxynitride spinel (alon) has been sintered into transparent, polycrystalline form. the polycrystalline form exhibits light scatter at grain boundaries and pores. the present… More

The fast component in baf2 is due to emission at 220 nm wavelength; it was discocered in 1983. even though the slow component has been known for a long time, the fast component was not observed until recently as it is quenched because of self-absorption by impurities. the present proposal is to… More

Cadmium telluride (cdte) crystals are required for a number of applications. one of the main requirements is as modulators of 10.6 um co2 laser radiation, especially in laser radar. a number of crystal growth processes have been used; however, only small crystals with low yields have been grown. it… More

Gass is key strategic material for space electronics. it is costly because of high raw material costs, high crystal growth costs, and low material utilization due to inefficient slicing. the cost can be reduced significantly by increasing the material utilization using a new wire slicing… More

Calcite, a naturally occuring crystalline form of calcium carbonate (caco3), has been used as polarizers. this form has limited the size of the polarizers and the power handling capability. growth of calcium carbonate from the melt requires extremely difficult experimental conditions. fluxed growth… More

Cdznte substrates are required for the production of cdhgte ir detectors. for the second generation systems requested by the army, the cdhgte epitaxial layer needs to be grown on lattice-matched substrates. however, the defect density in the currently available substrates is high, and the existence… More

The discovery of the ti:al(2)o(3) tunable solid-state laser in 1982 has sparked a lot of interest in solid-state laser hosts for titanium. among the various laser hosts, yalo(3) holds the most promise because it is a high crystal field material. ti:yalo(3) crystals have been grown by the czochralski… More

The proposed program is to show feasibility of growing ktiopo(4) crystals from flux using the heat exchanger method (hem[tm]). the non-linear optical coefficients of ktp are comparable to ba(2)nanb(5)o(15) (bsn), an outstanding material for second harmonic generation of 0.53 um radiation from 1.06… More

Large gaas crystals with uniform properties and low defect densities are required for microwave devices fabricated for military systems. the variable quality of the available gaas, wafer-to-wafer, intra wafer, boule-to-boule, and intra boule is unsatisfactory for highyield device processing. while… More

The intent of the present proposal is to demonstrate that high optical quality batio3 single crystals can be secured by adapting the heat exchanger method (hem[tm]) of crystal growth to high temperature solution growth. the phase i crystallizations will be conducted from a barium borate solution… More

On the basis of performance, sapphire is one of the best materials for missile dome applications. however, boule utilization and high fabrication costs make it an expensive choice, and, therefore, no u.s. missile production programs are using sapphire domes. it is desirable to grow near net-shape… More

The first titanium (ti) doped laser, ti:a1203, was dis- covered in 1982 since that time, ti has been of interest as a dopant in various laser hosts for tunable solid-state laser applica- tions. recently a french group discovered a new laser host lanthanum magnesium hexaaluminate (lmao, lamga111019).… More

Beta-barium borate (beta-bab2o4), a non-linear optical material, transforms to the non-optically active centrosymmetric alpha-phase at 925 degrees c, before meltingat 1105 degrees c. the non-reversible nature of this transformation imposes severe restrictions on the growth method and precludes… More

The cesium resonance filter is an important element for the blue-green laser required by the navy for underwater communication. during fabrication of prototypes of this filter it was observed that the sapphire elements produced pulse signals which could not be eliminated. it is now known that… More

It is necessary to evaluate new laser materials with increased wall plug efficiency. currently semiconductor laser arrays hold the potential to be effective optical pumping sources. in order to utilize the semiconductor arrays effectively, it is necessary to have laser materials with longer upper… More

Thin films based on ybu2cu3o7 (ybco) have shown potential for superconducting devices; however, these devices are limited in performance by the availability of suitable substrates. best results have been obtained with perovskite substrates, laalo3 and lagao3; however their phase transitions present… More

Two new tunable laser materials, cr:licaalf6 (cr:licaf) and cr:lisralf6 (cr:lisaf), discovered at lawrence livermore national laboratory have shown intrinsic efficiency comparable to alexandrite; however, their full potential laser performance is limited by the quality of crystals available. the… More

Cr:LiCAF shows potential as an efficient tunable laser with good beam quality at moderate power levels. While efficient laser operation for Cr:LiCAF has been demonstrated in the laboratory, commercialization is impeded because large crystals with low scatter loss are not available. The proposed… More

Spectral hole-burning materials offer an extra degree of freedom to enhance optical memory and processing for computer and processor architecture. The understanding of these materials is limited and they have not been utilized in practical applications. Typical candidate materials are doped crystals… More

Znte is a direct bandgap material with an energy gap of 2.25 ev and melting point of 1298 degrees centigrade. this melt temperature is close to the softening temperature of beta silica ampoules; therefore, attempts have been made to prepare znte from solution. the project is adapting the heat… More

Crystal Systems proposes in Phase I to carry out research which will establish a scientific basis for growth of high quality GaN single crystals. This will form the basis for Phase II research and development leading to the growth of large high quality GaN boules (and possibly A N boules) and 4"… More

Space-based ultraviolet (UV) and Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) systems are required for measurements of ozone and aerosols. Currently, optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and sum frequency mixing (SFM) technologies are used to produce the UV pulses. These systems have low efficiency, are… More

76307-The continued rapid growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry (43.5% growth in 2002) is limited by the availability of low-cost solar-grade (SoG) silicon feedstock in large quantities. It is estimated that current sources of SoG silicon (scraps and surplus capacity from the semiconductor… More

76307S The continued rapid growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry (over 60% growth in 2004) is limited by the availability of low-cost solar-grade (SoG) silicon feedstock in large quantities. The use of scraps and surplus silicon from the semiconductor industry is no longer adequate. While the… More

New, ultrafast, ultra-intense solid state lasers can be efficient sources of accelerated particle beams in applications ranging from high energy physics research to real world medical applications. However, parasitic lasing represents a severe bottleneck to scaling-up this new technology. Removing… More

New, ultra-fast, ultra-intense solid state lasers can be efficient sources of accelerated particle beams in applications ranging from high energy physics research to real world medical applications. Parasitic lasing represents a severe bottleneck to scaling up this new technology. Removing this… More

Material utilization and waste reduction are primary concerns during the manufacture of solar cells and wafers. This project will develop a processing method, Fixed Abrasive Slicing Technology (FAST), in which the silicon lost to the slurry during wafer sawing can be recycled. This loss represents a… More

A major loss of the expensive silicon used in the production of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells occurs at the wafering stage, where as much as 50% of this valuable material ends up as a disposal problem rather than being recycled. The waste results from the use of a loose abrasive used with the… More

The increased use of high resolution Infrared (IR) sensors is leading to growth in demand for large aperture, high optical quality sapphire for a variety of DoD programs. Increasing the size of sapphire windows can improve sensor capabilities while at the same time reduce system cost, increase… More