Award Data

The objective of this project is to develop a multi-purpose combination type optical fiber sensor that enables simultaneous sensing of microstructural evolutions in the sensor materials and the environmental conditions such as pressure and temperature. It is very well known that materials subjected to fatigue and high temperature will go through microstructural changes such as plastic deformation, ...

The proposed effort develops the understanding required to assess the utility of using a MEMS device to prepare the required optical fields that not only facilitate quantum entanglement, but also maintain a sufficient level of quantum entanglement for propagation through an aberrating medium such as the atmosphere. In addition a conceptual design of an experiment that is appropriate to further th ...

In Phase II of this project we will capitalize on the successful incorporation of carbon nanotubes into carbon fabrics, by optimizing the process and scaling the technique for the manufacture of large 3-D composites that will be of use to the aerospace industry and the Air Force. In Phase I we successfully demonstrated the feasibility of incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into carbon fibers ...

The quench-protection strategy at 77 K identified in the Phase I STTR program involves depositing a thin film of a ceramic insulation having a large thermal conductivity at 77 K. Two ceramics were identified for this strategy, ZnO and Zn2GeO4, and in the Phase II STTR program the deposition properties of these ceramics will be explored (sputtering, ion-beam-assisted sputtering, pulsed laser depos ...

Ammonium perchlorate (AP) is the most commonly used oxidizing ingredient in solid propellant formulations. It carries a sufficient excess of oxygen to allow for the combustion of the required binder and added metal, such as aluminum. One major drawback of AP is its chlorine content which results in the formation of hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a combustion product and can cause environmental probl ...

A highly efficient, very wide bandwidth, diamond studded micro helix TWT for operation at 95 GHz will be designed and fabricated by means of a novel application of solid state micro fabrication technology. Because of the nature of the fabrication process proposed here, this device can be built as a single TWT or just as readily as an array of TWTs. By spatially combining the power output of seve ...

The Phase I technical objectives of this program were to use existing lifetime based PSP technology and identify a combination of existing probes and binder that would provide a temperature-insensitive pressure sensitive paint (PSP). This was accomplished using the current lifetime-based systems that employ two-gate detection and by adding a second probe to the standard FIB pressure paint system. ...

During the Phase I effort, we propose to evaluate the feasibility of performing ultrafast-laser-based ballistic imaging for studying liquid hydrocarbon and oxygen injection characteristics for possible application in bi-propellant rocket engines. Ballistic imaging has the potential to circumvent the difficulties associated with propagating light through dense media. Through the combined use of ult ...

Field emission electron emitting arrays hold promise for use in high current density electron beam devices and can replace power consuming thermionic emitters. While single emitters can emit currents up to milliamps, large field emitter arrays are limited in total current due to non-uniformity and resulting instability problems. Solutions to these problems have been attempted using current limitin ...

Oxygen and/or air plasmas are widely used in different processes such as etching, purifying, ashing, surface cleaning, ozone generation and for electrical oxygen/iodine laser discharges. The oxygen plasma is an important example of electronegative plasmas and has been widely studied and modeled, including non-local effects due to discharge boundaries, low pressure or unsteady-state or afterglow op ...