SBIR Phase I: Tailored Thermal Expansion Alloys

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发新的合金，其热膨胀性能可以为关键应用量身定制。例如，定制的热膨胀合金将通过防止激光中发生的自然温度引起的热膨胀和收缩来防止激光输出频率（即激光颜色）的变化。这种温度稳定性对于作为电信行业支柱的光纤系统是极其重要的。根据Strategies Unlimited的数据，2014年电信激光市场规模为35.15亿美元，预计随着移动设备数量的增加和对高速互联网需求的增长，该市场还将继续增长。在这个项目中开发的合金也有可能在许多其他工业和电子应用中增加价值。这个项目的智力价值在于一种对各种金属合金的热膨胀性能进行前所未有的控制的新方法。机械变形可以调整或“编程”大块金属的热膨胀，使其与其他常见材料（聚合物、陶瓷）的热膨胀相匹配，这一发现将改变科学家和工程师设计热补偿的方式。这些合金也可以定制为不随温度变化而膨胀或收缩。这种广泛的定制合金响应是在没有化学变化或竞争技术所依赖的复合制造方法的情况下实现的。该第一阶段项目将通过开发可扩展的加工方案，在经济实惠的大块合金系统中实现循环稳定性能，从而降低这种定制热膨胀合金技术新应用面临的风险。将购买合金，机械调整到特定的热膨胀值，并测试循环稳定性。这项工作的预期结果是实现可轻松集成到激光器中的定制热膨胀合金。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop new alloys whose thermal expansion properties can be tailored for critical applications. For example, tailored thermal expansion alloys will prevent shifts in laser output frequencies, i.e. laser color, by preventing the natural temperature-induced thermal expansion and contraction that occurs in lasers. This temperature stability is extremely important for fiber-optic systems that are the backbone of the telecommunications industry. According to Strategies Unlimited, the telecommunications laser market was $3.515 billion in 2014, and it is expected to increase with the increasing number of mobile devices and growing demand for high-speed internet. The alloys to be developed in this project also have potential to add value in a number of other industrial and electronics applications.The intellectual merit of this project lies in a new method to exhibit unprecedented control over thermal expansion properties in a variety of metal alloys. The discovery that mechanical deformation tailors or "programs" the thermal expansion of a bulk metal to match that of other common materials (polymers, ceramics) will change the way scientists and engineers design for thermal compensation. These alloys can also be tailored not to expand or contract with temperature changes. This wide range of tailored alloy responses is achieved without chemical changes or composite fabrication methods upon which competing technologies rely. This Phase I project will reduce the risks facing new applications of this tailored thermal expansion alloy technology by developing scalable processing schemes for cyclically-stable properties in affordable bulk alloy systems. Alloys will be purchased, mechanically tuned to a specific thermal expansion value and tested for cyclic stability. The expected outcome of this work is the realization of tailored thermal expansion alloys that can be easily integrated into lasers.