Award Data

Researchers are currently hindered when observing dynamic gas-solid interactions in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). Yet solid-state materials and gases interact in many important ways. The most critical technological application for these observations is catalysis, where one would like to directly observe on the atomic scale how catalysts respond to the environment while they are activ ...

Ocean wave energy has the potential to support 8% of domestic and global electricity demand. Despite considerable investment over the past decade, however, wave energy is unlikely to make a material contribution to domestic or global energy supplies unless new technologies with significantly lower capital costs and higher reliability than todays leading technologies can be developed and commercial ...

Understanding global warming requires continuous field measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations. High-precision measurements of a part-in-3000, or better, are required. However, these high-performance instruments must meet stringent cost objectives. A simple, rugged, infrared spectrometer can provide the required measurement precision at the solicited volume price point. Vista Photonics pr ...

Multiphase bubbly mixture flows are of importance in turbomachinery, pipelines, cooling systems, reaction towers, as well as in various applications in petroleum, chemical, geothermal, and nuclear industries. The presence of the gaseous component has a strong influence on performance and efficiency. The ability to predict the flow behavior accurately is essential in designing energy efficient two- ...

This proposal addresses the problem of long term mapping and monitoring of subsurface geochemical and microbial activity associated with the transport and remediation of subsurface contaminants, including radionuclides and metals. The ability to map and monitor bioremediation processes in the near subsurface, in a cost effective way, is essential to the remediation and long-term stewardship of DOE ...

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a widely used experimental technique for studying the composition and chemistry of materials and is one of the driving forces behind the explosive growth of synchrotron light sources and their increase in brightness by many orders of magnitude. However, advances in detector technology have not kept pace with advances in synchrotron brightness, leading to limitation ...

In modern fusion concepts, inductive pickup loops continue to be one of the primary magnetic diagnostics. To convert the direct voltage measurements from the inductive pickup loop to a measurement of magnetic field, the loop voltage must be integrated. In practice several factors make the integration difficult, especially for long-pulse applications when there are many ...

To realize laser-driven inertial fusion energy with economically viable efficiency and repetition rates, pumping the laser system with semiconductor diode lasers instead of the flashlamp will be essential. Diode laser prices are currently much too high for practical implementation of fusion energy. Novel technologies need to be pursued to scale up diode laser power while simultaneously reducing th ...

Mesa Photonics plans development of a remote sensor to be used to detect clandestine nuclear material processing. We have identified a volatile chemical that is indicative of key steps in uranium isotope enrichment, and can be detected readily at low concentrations using optical methods. Small plumes that are about 1 m across and containing as little as 20 parts per million (ppm), or less, of th ...

We are improving critical technologies needed for the development of laser-driven, table-top ultrafast x-ray sources suitable for ultrafast characterization of transient structures of energized molecules undergoing dissociation, isomerization, or intramolecular energy redistribution. In this SBIR project, Mesa Photonics will develop an X-ray ultrafast laser pulse measurement instrument for complet ...