Award Data

Navy has identified refractory high entropy alloy (RHEA) and metal additive manufacturing as two potential areas of interest. This includes designing new RHEA and optimizing metal additive manufacturing with specific material property requirements. Developing materials and processes via applying traditional experimentation and process optimization techniques is painfully slow due to the large numb ...

In this program, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will team with Professor Ali Adibi’s group at the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) spectrometer that can simultaneously achieve high-resolution over wide-bandwidths using a scalable and foundry-ready approach. While a PIC-based spectrometer is a key component for on-chip Raman, fluorescence, and absorptio ...

Quantum cascade laser optical output power is limited by laser facet catastrophic optical damage (COD). In edge-emitting semiconductor lasers COD is a thermal runaway process wherein the front facet of the laser heats under high power operation. This facet heating reduces the semiconductor bandgap which increases the optical absorption and also increases the electrical injection current in the fac ...

In this program, we will develop solutions to optimize QCL fabrication processes, such as facet passivation and high thermal conductivity coatings, that will mitigate the reliability issues for high power QCL applications. In phase I, we will first evaluate all concepts and efforts that have been largely investigated for GaAs based high power diode lasers and transfer the knowledge to InP based QC ...

The development of a catastrophic optical damage model for quantum cascade lasers describing instantaneous laser damage at high optical power levels is proposed. The model will be validated by comparison to experimental data. Based on obtained results, changes to laser design and laser fabrication resulting in an increased damage threshold will be implemented. The work will ultimately result into ...

Manufacturing of structural composites traditionally employs autoclaves to achieve high quality parts, including high fiber-volume-fractions and low porosity. A laminate comprised of stacked prepreg plies are cured under a vacuum in addition to ~7 bar of pressure to prevent formation of voids, particulalry in interlaminar (inter-sheet/ply) regions. However, manufacturing composites within an autoc ...

Pendar Technologies proposes to develop the next generation of compact, high power quantum cascade laser (QCL) sources with output power exceeding 10 Watts at a wavelength of 4.6 microns. The proposed subsystem will include a DFB QCL array integrated monolithically with power amplifiers, low-loss passive waveguides resulting from ion implantation and optical elements aimed at realizing on-chip wav ...

The Navy seeks technology that is oriented toward a deeper experimental and theoretical understanding of marine turbulence and laser light propagation in the marine boundary. Current measurement techniques, such as Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) technique, are limited to resolutions of 0.5 meters or greater and fall short of the required millimeter level resolution. A new type of spectral imaging modal ...

The Navy has been developing superconducting systems, based on high-temperature superconductors (HTS), for future use on Navy ships. One of the challenges associated with superconducting magnets is the possibility of a quench, which is an event where a local hot spot develops within the superconductor that quickly spreads throughout the device, driving it into its normal and dissipative state. Sen ...

Energy to Power Solutions (e2P) has teamed with quench detection (QD) expert Dr. Yuri Lvovsky (retired GE), Dr. Sastry Pamidi of the Center for Advanced Power Systems (FSU-CAPS), and American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) to design, fabricate, and test a robust, reliable, and low cost QD system. e2P’s proposed system is a vastly different quench avoidance system that will provide multiple le ...