Award Data

The mission of this proposed research is to develop ultracapacitors (also known as electrochemical or supercapacitors) to address an array of military applications. These applications include pulsed power for directed-energy and kinetic-energy weapons, sensors, and power supplies and control systems for aircraft and spacecraft. The proposed innovation employs carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coated with p ...

Electronically dimmable materials with sufficiently strong visible transmission shift, color neutrality, durability and switching speeds have eluded development since the search began nearly half a century ago. We demonstrate the potential for dynamic optical dimming using plasmonic nanostructures with electrodynamic simulations of promising plasmonic metamaterial architectures. In order to achiev ...

Through the proposed Phase I Air Force STTR program, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will demonstrate metal organic framework materials and electrospray fabrication methods for the manufacture of eye protection devices that are capable of controlling the amount of light transmitted through the device. The objective of this program is to 1) increase the dynamic range and speed of electronically switche ...

The team of AlphaMicron Inc. and Kent State University proposes a novel LC technology, the dynamic polarizer, as a light control system for Battlefield Airmen and Pilots. The dynamic polarizer technology shares the performance capabilities of AlphaMicron’s e-Tint LC light control technology: instantaneously fails-to-clear, millisecond switching times, and customizable tint and color. Howeve ...

Faraday and Utah State University propose to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing electrophoretic deposition to develop graphene features with controlled functional properties in order to address the DoD need for a spacecraft charging mitigation. Implementation of such materials in DoD mission areas is anticipated to lower costs, improve sustainability, and increase readiness. The proposed Pha ...

Accurate and timely surveillance of objects in the near-Earth space environment is becoming increasingly critical to US national security. One of the main difficulties in this domain is efficiently and accurately modeling trajectories of the vast number of objects in orbit around the Earth. The orbital trajectory of a single object is typically modeled as a second-order system of equations which ...

We will develop hybrid wave propagation approach that implements FFT and EMA (Efficient Matrix Algorithms) propagators in a fashion that is transparent to the user but insures the highest efficiency and accuracy for a given propagation problem. We will develop rules to decide which propagation approach is ideal for a given situation. The propagation algorithms will be coded in Vulkan/CUDA and C++ ...

Target tracking and aimpoint maintenance are critical functions within a laser directed energy system. Traditionally, the optical sensor is a conventional camera viewing an actively illuminated target. In the absence of turbulence, it is still difficult to point the laser weapon to a specific hit spot when there are no features in the required direction. Further, atmospheric turbulence scintillate ...

We propose a three-dimensional imaging approach based on digital holography. Our approach is based on frequency diversity using a single chirped pulse instead of a train of pulses with different frequencies. Our approach promises to mitigate most of the issues limiting the performance of current methods and offer additional enabling capabilities that will improve target identification and tracking ...

In Phase I, ISSI will design and demonstrate a laser absorption-based sensor for time-resolved measurements of combustion fuel/product concentrations (H2O, CO, CO2 and fuel) and gas temperature within the detonation channels and nozzle exit-plane of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). The goal of this STTR is to develop a single sided sensor that plugs into the outer wall of the RDRE simil ...