SBIR Phase I: A novel AR on LBO

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力与激光技术本身一样多种多样。激光已经成为以数据为基础的社会的真正推动者。它是未来智能工厂和按需制造的首选工具。它是光学传感系统的基本组成部分，用于收集大量关键数据，用于社会各方面的决策。激光系统的无数新应用与同样的需求相呼应？更强大的力量。发电的瓶颈往往是激光器的光学组件承受功率而不会降级的能力。因此，如果有办法突破激光部件的功率处理能力，就可以释放出更大的激光潜力，首先要从创造这些强大能源所必需的非线性光学晶体开始。这一研究项目正是为满足这一需求而设计的，该项目的成功完成将使下一代微型化电子设备成为可能，扩大我们的生物成像和精密外科的视野，并用目前仅限于我们实验室的仪器探索我们的宇宙。三硼酸锂(LBO)晶体。能够处理高达45GW/cm2的功率密度，LBO目前是高能工业激光器的首选材料。然而，光进入和离开LBO的光学表面通常在实际的块状材料之前就损坏了。这些表面上的传统介质减反射(AR)涂层通常使用有限的较低损伤阈值的材料，在极易受到污染的工艺中，导致明显低于块状LBO晶体的损伤阈值。在这项提议中，将在LBO上开发最先进的表面纹理处理工艺，以消除对这些介电薄膜的使用，同时仍提供必要的AR功能。将尝试和研究LBO表面的各种工艺和材料，并对所得表面进行吸收和损害阈值测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is as diverse as the laser technology itself. Lasers have become the true facilitator of the data-based society. It is tool of choice for future smart factories and on-demand manufacturing. It serves as the fundamental building block of optical sensing systems used to collect large volumes of critical data to be used for decision making in every facet of society. The myriad of new applications for laser systems echoes the same demand ? higher power. The bottleneck in the power generation is often the capability of optical components of the laser to withstand the power without degradation. So the greater potential of lasers can be unleashed if there would be a way to break through the power handling capability of laser components starting with the nonlinear optical crystals indispensable in creating these powerful energy sources. This research project is precisely designed to address this need and the successful completion of this project would enable the next generation of miniaturized electronic devices, expand our horizon of biological imagery and precision surgery, and explore our universe with instruments that are currently confined to our laboratories.The proposed project targets the most common material used to generate high power visible and UV light ? Lithium Triborate (LBO) crystal. Able to handle power density up to 45GW/cm2, LBO is currently the material of choice for high energy industrial lasers. However, optical surfaces where the light enter and exit LBO often get damaged well before the actual bulk material. Traditional dielectric anti-reflective (AR) coatings on these surfaces are typically made using a limited selection of materials of lower damage threshold in a process highly susceptible to contamination, resulting in significantly lower damage threshold than the bulk LBO crystal. In this proposal, state-of-the-art surface-texturing processes on LBO will be developed to eliminate the use of these dielectric films while still providing the necessary AR functionality. A variety of processes and materials on LBO surfaces will be attempted and studied with resulting surfaces tested for absorption and damage threshold.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.