Award Data

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will develop the world's first quantitative, low cost, reproducible, and rapid means to characterize single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) for the parameters critical to the nanotechnology community. Only a few metrology techniques on the market today offer the ability to measure the main carbon nanotube properties i.e., species, impur ...

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project will develop metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth technology for the in-situ Er incorporation into III-nitride epilayers and device structures grown on Si substrates. Through optical characterization of Er3+ emissions, optimal growth conditions for obtaining device structures with enhanced emission at the des ...

The Army has identified solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power systems as a potential solution to a variety of power needs ranging from roughly 0.1 - 100 kW. Reformed JP-8, the Army logistics fuel, can be used as the feed, but the fuel sulfur content must first be reduced to 10 ppm. We plan to test a novel ultrasonic slurry reactor as part of a compact desulfurization process for treatment of sulfur ...

National security interests related to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction require the remote detection of trace gases associated with the nuclear fuel cycle. Newly developed, mid-infrared, quantum cascade lasers have the potential to contribute to this application. These small solid state lasers produce relatively high power in the infrared band of light where many gases can be ...

This project will demonstrate a breakthrough detector for the readout of scintillators used for gamma ray detection in Nuclear Physics experiments. The new detector: (1) will overcome the quantum efficiency and high voltage limits of current photomultipliers (PMTs) and Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs); (2) will offer the possibility of improving scintillator detector resolution at least by a factor ...

It is well established that in order to produce large-format LWIR HgCdTe FPAs for third-generation IR systems, Si substrates must be used. In the DoD Militarily Critical Technologies List (December 2005), HgCdTe/Si is listed as a critical material and achieving an etch pit density (EPD) < 1x106 cm-2 is identified as a critical technology parameter. Thus it is imperative that a manufacturable techn ...

Agiltron is developing a new family of polymer-ceramic nanoparticle composite dielectric materials for high power capacitors such as required in directed energy pulsed systems. In Phase I we showed that embedding large dielectric constant fillers into nanodielctrics results in a composite with greatly improved breakdown strength and reduced dielectric loss compared to conventional materials. Our ...

We propose a novel poly-phase sampling scheme for an optoelectronic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) module which entails parallel sampling of different phases of an input RF signal to realize a 12-bit 10.24GSPS RF signal AD conversion. A unique feature of this approach is that electrical-in to electrical-out signal transfer is maintained for the optoelectronic sampling and demultiplexing circuit ...

Agiltron proposes to develop an infrared fiber having inherently attractive features of high wavelength conversion efficiency, wide wavelength-conversion bandwidth, and agile wavelength routing all in IR regions (2 ¡V 12 ƒYm). The design is closely coupled with our unique expertise in low loss IR chalcogenide fiber fabrication and IR photonics. The approach overcomes the difficulties associated ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project will develop an innovative method that enables reliable feedback for plant irrigation control by direct detection of impending water deficit stress (WDS) in plants. This technology indicates water deficit stress of living plants by measuring the thickness of leaves, which decreases dramatically at the onset of leaf dehydratio ...