Award Data

Integrated photonics offer the promise of combining many optical devices on a substrate, leading to miniaturization and increased functionality on a chip. Isolators are critical elements for optical systems, since backscattered light creates noise and laser source instability, particularly in integrated platforms where the potential for backscattering increases with device density. Despite the nee ...

Physical Sciences Inc. proposes to design, develop, and demonstrate, a novel high-energy rocket engine stage for applications in global reach boost glide aircraft, spacecraft, and upper stage vehicle. In phase I, the proposed investigation will focus upon characterizing critical technology at the component level to ensure realistic system level design. The emphasis will be to evaluate vehicle perf ...

The proposed Small Business Innovative Research Phase I program will develop a compact, efficient, narrowband optical filter for use in undersea laser communications. The active Mg atomic resonance filter will employ pump lasers in combination with a communications laser beam at 518 nm to drive Mg atoms in a vapor cell to an excited state, and monitor fluorescence from the excited state to deliver ...

The proposed Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project will combine ultra-sensitive absorption spectroscopy detection techniques and alkali atom optical gas pumping to produce an innovative magnetic sensor for small Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs). The sensor will utilize multiple fiber-coupled self-oscillating magnetometers to produce an intrinsic gradiometer with high measurement sens ...

Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with ATK Energetic Systems, proposes to prepare a new class of stabilizers to improve the response of double base propellants to long term storage and cook-off conditions. These stabilizer molecules allow the incorporation of functionality of greater reactivity than current art solutions by eliminating compatibility issues. It is anticipated that, u ...

The detectability of laser eye damage near threshold depends sensitively on ocular pigment distribution within layers of the retina at the targeted site and their wavelength-dependent absorption, the scattering characteristics of the affected region, and the biological response of injured structures. Other retinal pathologies also change the appearance of the retina in characteristic spatial patte ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a composite spray-in-place thermal barrier coating system for military aircraft aluminum and plexiglass structural surfaces. This aerogel-polyurea based composite coating system will possess a thermal conductivity of less than 25 mW/m-K at 205oC, have a density of less than 200 kg/m3, and will be capable of protecting the surface from heating by mod ...

In this Phase I SBIR proposal Physical Sciences Inc (PSI) outlines the development a solid-state emitter package to replace the propellant based candle of the M278 Infrared flare. Propellant combustion in the current candle technology is unsteady, resulting in variations in the illumination intensity and also produces a visible signature that limits it usefulness in covert activities. The proposed ...

Measurement of the ratio of the concentrations of the stable isotopologues of CO2 in the atmosphere can provide new understanding of the dynamics of CO2 exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. On the local scale, such measurements enable the study of the net ecosystem exchange of CO2. On larger, continental-to-global scales, isotopically resolved concentration measurements of ...

Precise measurements of CO2 are important to carbon cycle studies and global warming research, especially with respect to the characterization of sources and sinks. New, miniaturized and low cost instrumentation is required to make measurements of the vertical concentration profiles of CO2 from balloons and small unmanned aircraft. This project will design and develop a new sensor for high preci ...