Award Data

This proposed project is concerned with the design, fabrication, and demonstration of a new class of plasmonic nanostructures for single molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for biological and chemical sensing applications. A complete design of the plasmonic nanostructures with large local field enhancements (E/E0>100) will be formulated, and the fabrication procedures will be developed fo ...

Propagation Research Associates, Inc., (PRA) and Duke University propose to extend the recent developments of matched filtered chaos into a low-cost high range-resolution chaotic waveform radar. In the Phase I effort, PRA and Duke will design the radar system and build a prototype waveform generator that will exploit three essential properties of chaotic waveforms that can be applied to enhance r ...

Detecting light at the single photon level is a fundamental measurement function that is useful in a wide variety of applications, including such diverse fields as biological spectroscopy, laser ranging, and quantum communications. Avalanche photodiode (APD) based single photon detectors (SPDs) are very convenient in that they are small solid state devices that don"t require cryogenic cooling. Si- ...

In the past few years, there have been promising demonstrations of new approaches to short-gate (i.e., sub-nanosecond) operation of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) with gating frequencies as high as 2 GHz. However, these demonstrations have had limitations, including operation at just a single fixed frequency, fairly high residual afterpulsing levels, and the lack of industrialization req ...

In this STTR program, Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) and partners will develop high efficiency, switchable RF filters. The technical approach is based on thin films of paraelectric BaxSr1-xTiO3 and SrTiO3, which can show piezoelectric behavior under an applied DC bias. When integrated into resonator structures, these materials can act as both an RF filter and an RF switch. Combinin ...

Global Technology Connection, Inc., in collaboration with academic partners, Georgia Tech"s Center for Innovative Battery and Fuel Cell Technologies, Penn State University, and industrial partner Eagle Picher propose to create a physics-based modeling for predicting the life performance of Low and Middle Earth Orbit (LEO/MEO) Lithium-ion cells. The relationships between solid-electrolyte interpha ...

Current state-of-the-art infrared focal plane arrays are based on HgCdTe grown on bulk CdZnTe substrates. The use of Si-based substrates would eliminate a number of drawbacks related to the HgCdTe/CdZnTe system and permit larger formats. We have developed growth protocols that produce material with good crystal quality for such a highly mismatched heteroepitaxial system. Double crystal rocking c ...

Hydrogen isotopes have been shown to reduce the electrical effects of various semiconductor defects. Specifically, monoatomic hydrogen and deuterium passivate the electrical activity of defects such as dislocations in long-wavelength HgCdTe grown on Si. We propose a novel method of controlling the intake of hydrogen in HgCdTe IRFPAs by using the H2/He plasma afterglow formed by flowing plasma-gene ...

Current state-of-the-art infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs) are based on HgCdTe material epitaxially grown on bulk CdZnTe substrates. The size of the IRFPAs is limited by the size of the available CdZnTe substrates and the thermal mismatch between CdZnTe and the Si readout circuit, which misaligns the photodiode array with respect to the circuit during heating and cooling cycles. Having HgCdTe ...

ABSTRACT: MicroLink proposes a device that combines ultra-thin, high-efficiency, GaAs-based multijunction solar cells, made using our proprietary epitaxial lift-off (ELO) process, with a novel packaging approach that will result in high-efficiency, flexible photovoltaic blankets. MicroLink has developed a process that produces ultra-thin, flexible solar cells. In this project, these flexible so ...