Award Data

73137-Future active imaging systems for national security applications (for remote reconnaissance, monitoring and characterization of hard targets, and compact surveillance devices) require compact, rugged, and efficient short-pulse laser sources that can operate over a wide-repetition-rate range. To deploy these devices on ground, air, and space platforms, the new laser sources are required to i ...

72904-Aerosol particles have important impacts on visibility, acid deposition, climate, and human health, although large uncertainties remain on their quantification. A significant part of the anthropogenic aerosol is generated from energy-related activities, and organic compounds are known to account for a large part of ambient aerosol mass in many locations. However, the measurement of the com ...

72080-Nitrogen dioxide emissions are regulated by a national ambient air quality standard under the 1970 Clean Air Act. The prevalent means of detection, a chemiluminescence-based monitor (the so-called NOx box), often provides inaccurate readings for nitrogen dioxide in the presence of other nitrogen-containing trace atmospheric species. This project will build an uncomplicated, inexpensive, an ...

72743-In the past, power converter/inverter designs (such as those used in electric or hybrid electric vehicles) tended to be application-specific engineering projects, which limited their utility because the low-volume production of specialized power conversion equipment significantly increased design risk and development cost. On the other hand, todays power electronics technologies lend themse ...

72199-Proton Emission Tomography (PET) is a powerful imaging tool that can provide diagnosis for symptoms of diseases such as Alzheimer¿s, cancer, head trauma, and stroke. The performance of current clinical PET systems is limited by available detector technology. An urgent need exists to improve the PET instrumentation in order to exploit the full potential of this promising technique. This p ...

72619-Gamma ray spectrometers are an important element of nuclear and elementary particle physics experiments. However, the performance of the detection systems used in these experiments is often limited by the properties of presently available detectors. This project will investigate a new design for cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors that promises to provide high energy resolution and high ...

72085-Proton Emission Technology (PET) is a powerful imaging tool that can provide diagnosis for symptoms of diseases such as Alzheimer¿s, cancer, head trauma, and stroke. However, the performance of current clinical PET systems is limited by available detector technology, and improved PET instrumentation will be needed to exploit the full potential of this promising technique. This project wil ...

72157-Germanium strip detectors are very promising for X-ray and g-ray imaging with high resolution. However, existing n+ lithium electrodes prevent the full potential of high purity germanium (HPGe) strip detectors from being exploited in nuclear physics experiments as well as in many other applications. This project will investigate a new approach, using new semiconductor processing techniques ...

72486-With the ever increasing number of smaller animals, such as mice and rats, being used as human disease models, the demand for small animal imaging also has increased. In particular, the pharmaceutical industry requires the in vivo quantification of biological processes, to measure the mechanism of action of a pharmacological agent and its concentration at the site of action. High-resolutio ...

73066-For several decades, photo-multiplier tubes (PMT) have been the key technology for sensing light in most high energy physics research operations. Although extraordinarily successful, PMT technology has a number of limitations: large PMTs cannot be mass produced, they cannot operate under pressures exceeding a few atmospheres, their sensitivity is limited over a small wavelength band, their ...