GOALI: Design of chalcogenide glass fiber devices for mid-IR applications

许多具有威胁性的气溶胶粒子在中红外区域具有独特的光谱指纹。利用这一显著特性的中红外传感器能够识别、分类和定位各种威胁、危险和致命颗粒，但产生和传输中红外光的方法既昂贵又低效。硫族玻璃纤维装置的新兴技术有望改变中红外传感器技术，这可能会给数百万美国人带来好处，他们的生命正受到工作场所有害气溶胶颗粒或恐怖分子可能发动的化学袭击的威胁。在产生和传输中红外光方面的进步为廉价和高效的中红外光传感器提供了可能，这些传感器可以持续监测具有威胁性的气溶胶颗粒，并在即将发生的紧急情况下向风险管理人员和国土安全人员发送警报。该学术联络与工业资助机会（GOALI）项目旨在设计硫系光纤器件，使传感器技术在生物传感、环境监测、国土安全和医疗诊断等各种重要应用中得以实际实现。该项目将扩大学术研究人员与光子学行业之间的合作。它将扩大首席研究员对代表性不足的学生的指导。它还将帮助首席研究员将研究整合到大学课程中，并改善对当地K-12学校学生的推广工作，以激发对激光/光子学和STEM领域的兴趣。该项目将有助于培养贝勒研究与创新合作（BRIC）的研究环境，该合作旨在促进大学教师、行业合作伙伴和地区组织之间的跨学科研究。该项目的成果将通过出版物传播。与工业伙伴合作进行的拟议研究将导致重要的中红外领域传感元件的进一步商业发展。技术描述：我们的目标是与工业合作伙伴一起集成建模和原型设计，以确定指导和支持可靠、经济高效和节能的中红外光谱开发的关键因素。主要的挑战是在效率、成本、功耗、带宽、抗弯曲性、重量和便携性方面找到最佳的光纤技术来产生和传输中红外光源。为了解决这一挑战，最近的研究已经确定需要增加对使用硫系玻璃纤维产生中红外激光源的理解，以及使用硫系负曲率光纤传输高功率中红外激光源。该研究团队在光学和光子学、光子晶体光纤、硫族玻璃纤维和计算机建模方面的独特专业知识将使研究人员能够为各种应用设计高效的中红外硫族玻璃纤维设备。该项目将创造依赖中红外区域高功率激光器的新应用。具有宽传输窗口的新型负曲率光纤也将改变空心芯光纤，用于具有各种潜在应用的设备中。理论模型和实验数据之间的比较将确定器件中的限制因素，并有助于进一步改进实验性能。所提出的项目的预期智力意义将是将理论转化为中红外应用设备的实践，包括中红外光源的产生和传输。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many threatening aerosol particles have unique spectral fingerprints in the mid-infrared (IR) region. Mid-IR sensors using this remarkable property are capable of identification, classification, and localization of a wide class of threatening, hazardous, and lethal particles, but methods for generating and transmitting mid-IR light are expensive and inefficient. The emerging technology of chalcogenide glass fiber devices promises to transform mid-IR sensor technologies, with potential benefit for millions of Americans whose lives are threatened by hazardous aerosol particles in their workplaces or from possible chemical attacks by terrorists. Advances in generating and transmitting mid-IR light have opened the possibility for inexpensive and efficient mid-IR sensors that continuously monitor threatening aerosol particles and transmit alerts to risk management and homeland security personnel in case of impending emergencies. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project is to design chalcogenide fiber devices that will enable practical realization of sensor technologies with a variety of important applications such as biosensing, environmental monitoring, homeland security, and medical diagnostics. This project will broaden collaborations between academic researchers and the photonics industry. It will expand mentorship of underrepresented students by the principal investigator. It will also help the principal investigator to integrate research into university coursework and improve outreach efforts to local K-12 school students to spark interest in lasers/photonics and STEM fields. This project will help cultivate the research environment at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), which is designed to foster interdisciplinary research between university faculty, industry partners, and area organizations. The outcome of this project will be disseminated through publications. The proposed research, undertaken in collaboration with industry partners, will lead to further commercial development of sensing components in the important mid-IR field.Technical description: Our goal is to integrate modeling and prototyping in collaboration with industrial partners to determine the key factors that guide and support the development of reliable, cost-effective, and energy-efficient mid-IR spectroscopy. The primary challenge is to find the best fiber technology to generate and transmit mid-IR light sources in terms of efficiency, cost, power consumption, bandwidth, bend resistance, weight, and portability. To address this challenge, recent studies have identified the need for increased understanding of generation of mid-IR laser sources using chalcogenide glass fiber and delivery of high power mid-IR laser sources using chalcogenide negative curvature fibers. The research team's unique combination of expertise in optics and photonics, photonic crystal fibers, chalcogenide glass fibers, and computer modeling will permit the researchers to design efficient mid-IR chalcogenide glass fiber devices for a variety of applications. This program will lead to the creation of new applications that rely on high power lasers in the mid-IR region. The new negative curvature fibers with a broad transmission window will also transform the hollow core fibers to be used in devices with various potential applications. The comparison between theoretical models and experimental data will identify limiting factors in the devices and facilitate further improvements in experimental performance. The expected intellectual significance of the proposed project will be to turn the theory to practice for the devices in mid-IR applications including both generation and delivery of mid-IR light sources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.