Award Data

Topological data analysis is a new mathematical method used to study these massive data sets that arise in a variety of situations including military operations and national security. The use of passive infrared sensors for a wide area detection system involving chemical and biological contaminants produces massive amounts of hyperspectral image data. Recent research in this area include fast al ...

A fully functional widely tunable wavelength converter prototype operating from -40C to 100C at 2.5-10 Gbps, in a 5mm tall package, will be developed.

We apply the theory of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) to the design of guidance algorithms for controlling the motion of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with on-board sensors for tracking multiple ground targets. While POMDPs are intractable to optimize exactly, principled approximation methods can be devised based on Bellman’s principle. We introduce a new approximation ...

We propose to develop ultradense plasmonic integrated devices and circuits for optical interconnect compatible with the electronic circuitry. In our proposal, we will employ engineered metallic nanostructures that combine energy concentration by plasmonic lenses and retardation-based plasmonic resonances to even further boost the efficiency of materials exhibiting optical nonlinearity. These plas ...

This STTR program proposes to exploit the tremendous benefits that could be offered by the development of ultra fine grain steel alloys for application to the production of high performance components for military rotorcraft applications. A severe plastic deformation technology based on isothermal forging technologies will be explored here. The goal is to demonstrate a practical, production leve ...

Higher efficiency solar cells are needed to reduce solar array mass, volume, and cost for Air Force space missions. Intermediate-band quantum-dot (QD) solar cells can yield dramatically higher efficiencies than current multi-junction (MJ) technologies. However, several issues must be addressed to demonstrate manufacturable, high efficiency devices. CFDRC aims to develop: 1) High-efficiency, ligh ...

The development of compact, ultra-low drive voltage optical phase modulators is a critical key component for passive antenna remoting applications, a strategic area, part of a number of current and upcoming DARPA initiatives. With the development of sufficiently low V-pi modulators, passive front-ends can be constructed with a low figure even for a moderate optical pumping power. The combination o ...

Freedom Photonics is proposing to develop a novel modulator concept. The overall objective of this program is to develop a novel compound-semiconductor electro-optic modulator that simultaneously exhibits 100-GHz operation, optical/microwave velocity matching, Zo of 50 ohms, low optical (

The design of future hypersonic vehicles requires detailed understanding of flow regimes ranging from rarefied to continuum. Hypervelocity flows are characterized by high temperatures, real gas effects, nonequilibrium chemistry, and ionization. The goal of this project is to develop unified kinetic/continuum solution methods with automatic domain decomposition for a wide range of Air Force applic ...

The Toyon-MST team proposes to perform research and development of a system which fuses multi-spectral EO and 3D data collected with a low-cost LIDAR to enable improved perception for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). The scope of the proposed work includes development of algorithms and software, and development, implementation, integration, testing, and delivery of a prototype, to perform EO-LIDAR ...