I-Corps: Translation potential of harsh environment sensing by guiding light within crystalline sapphire fibers

I-Corps：通过在晶体蓝宝石光纤内引导光来实现恶劣环境传感的转换潜力

• 批准号: 2414069
• 负责人: MengBing Huang
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2414069&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Translation; potential; harsh; environment

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of a critical technology to enable optical sensing in harsh environments in a variety of industrial applications. The technology can provide aerospace, nuclear, and electric power industries with advanced sensing capabilities for early warning of potential failures, better control of fuel/energy efficiency, reduction of carbon and toxic emissions, and design and testing of new-generation combustion engines/power plants and nuclear reactors. These areas represent environments where harsh conditions of extremely high temperature, chemical corrosion, and radiation do not permit the use of existing sensing technologies. In addition, this solution can be useful for high-power laser delivery needed in other applications like laser-based additive manufacturing and medical surgery.This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on the development of a method to create embedded cladding structures for light propagation within sapphire fibers, a platform of high chemical and thermal stability for optics sensing in extreme conditions. The implementation of sapphire fibers in harsh-condition sensing has long been hampered by substantial optical losses due to the lack of sapphire fiber claddings capable of light guiding. This sapphire fiber technology makes use of ion implantation for formation of nanoscale voids that effectively reduce the refractive index of the sapphire crystals, allowing for light signal guiding at a high efficiency in the fiber core below the ion implanted region. Such cladding structures are thermally stable and immune to ambient conditions, thus promising exceptional performance in guiding and transmitting optical signals for real-time remote sensing in harsh environments.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.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响是开发一种关键技术，以在各种工业应用的恶劣环境中实现光学传感。该技术可以为航空航天、核能和电力行业提供先进的传感能力，用于潜在故障的早期预警、更好地控制燃料/能源效率、减少碳和有毒排放，以及设计和测试新一代内燃机/发电厂和核反应堆。这些区域代表了极端高温、化学腐蚀和辐射的恶劣条件不允许使用现有传感技术的环境。此外，该解决方案还可用于激光增材制造和医疗手术等其他应用所需的高功率激光传输。I-Corps项目利用体验式学习以及对行业生态系统的第一手调查，评估该技术的转化潜力。该解决方案基于开发一种方法来创建用于蓝宝石光纤内光传播的嵌入式包层结构，这是极端条件下光学传感的高化学和热稳定性平台。由于缺乏能够导光的蓝宝石光纤包层，蓝宝石光纤在恶劣条件传感中的实施长期以来一直受到大量光学损耗的阻碍。这种蓝宝石光纤技术利用离子注入来形成纳米级空隙，其有效地降低蓝宝石晶体的折射率，从而允许在离子注入区域下方的纤芯中以高效率引导光信号。此类包层结构具有热稳定性，且不受环境条件的影响，因此在恶劣环境中引导和传输实时遥感光学信号方面具有出色的性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估，被认为值得支持优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。