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Photonics/Optics

Laser-Based System Could Expand Space-to-Ground Communication

A new research project announced recently as a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and satellite communications provider Xenesis could help open the bottleneck...

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Application Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Optical Seeker for Munitions Systems

BAE SystemsNashua, NH603-885-4321www.baesystems.com The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, has awarded BAE Systems a $13.1 million...

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Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

Co-Prime Frequency and Aperture Design for HF Surveillance, Wideband Radar Imaging, and Nonstationary Array Processing

A co-prime array uses two uniform linear subarrays to construct an effective difference coarray with certain desirable...

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Articles
Materials

Taming the Thermal Behavior of Solid-State Military Lasers

Laser diodes and laser diode arrays (LDAs) are widely used throughout military systems, for sighting and range finding, but also at high power levels as offensive and defensive weapons....

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Application Briefs
Data Acquisition

Autonomous Helicopters

Northrop Grumman CorporationFalls Church, VA+1 703-280-2900www.northropgrumman.com/firescout Fire Scout is a combat proven, autonomous helicopter system that provides real-time Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance,...

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Briefs
Transportation

GPS Enabled Semi-Autonomous Robot

The primary objective of this research is to integrate GPS and local sensory data to allow a robot to operate semi-autonomously outside of a laboratory environment. The Pioneer 3-AT, a robust platform capable...

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Application Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Robotic Paint Removal System

Air Force Research LaboratoryWright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH+1 937-255-0017www.wpafb.af.mil AFRL Materials Integrity engineers recently played a key role in enabling the safer and more efficient removal of paint...

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Articles
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Laser Detecting Systems

Whether engaged in an asymmetric fight with an insurgent or a conventional battle with a “near-peer” adversary, today's battlefield presents combatants with significant challenges. Rapidly advancing technology and...

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Application Briefs
Propulsion

Customizable Rocket Launchers

Arnold DefenseArnold, MO(636) 296-5417www.arnolddefense.com Arnold Defense, an international manufacturer and supplier of 2.75-inch rocket launchers, has been generating considerable interest in its new,...

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Articles
Communications

Communications in Space: A Deep Subject

Transmitting and receiving radio signals between spacecraft in deep space is a snap compared with getting those signals back to Earth, especially when the spacecraft is 120 billion miles away.

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Briefs
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Phonon Confinement Effect in TiO₂ Nanoparticles as Thermosensor Materials

TiO2 or ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have a very strong finite-size dependency in their Raman spectra or photoluminescence (PL) spectra due to the phonon confinement effect...

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INSIDER
Photonics/Optics

Army Aviators Test Next Generation Air-to-Ground Missile

Aviation testers have been busy testing the latest Army aviation missile, known as the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM). The complex JAGM test was a collaborative team effort...

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INSIDER
Defense

Air Force Research Lab and Industry Advance Multi-Junction Solar Cells

Experts at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) continue to expand the scope of their technological expertise, rising above the Earth’s surface to meet the power...

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Briefs
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Using Ground Sensors to Defend Aircraft Against Laser Strikes

A growing safety concern for pilots and aircraft passengers is laser strikes, or the aiming of high-power laser pointers at aircraft. To address the present lack of effective laser...

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INSIDER
Defense

Army Developing Lasers That Pierce Fog, Dust to Destroy Targets

A lot of people think that high-energy lasers, or HELs, can't penetrate fog, rain and dust, said Thomas Webber, director of the Directed Energy Division's Technical Center,...

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Identifying and Isolating Signals Using Radio Frequency Photonics

A single antenna can be used for both transmission and reception. To accomplish this, the transmission must be isolated from the reception. In Figure 1, a radio frequency...

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Application Briefs
Defense

Joint Effects Targeting System

U.S. Army Operational Test CommandFort Hood, TX254-287-9993www.otc.army.mil Forward observers, experts in directing artillery and mortar fire onto enemy targets, have been testing a new piece of targeting...

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INSIDER
Defense

Researchers Show How Fear Memories Can Be Erased

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have devised a method to selectively erase particular fear memories by weakening the connections between the nerve cells (neurons)...

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Scaling LiDAR Optical Payloads from Drones to Miniature UAVs

The recent surge in demand for adaptive cruise control (ACC) and commercial autonomous vehicles has drawn a lot of attention to these innovative applications. Based on pulsed laser...

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Application Briefs
Defense

Missile Test System

Marvin Test SolutionsIrvine, CA949-263-2222www.MarvinTest.com The Indonesian Air Force recently selected Marvin Test Solutions’ MTS-206A Maverick Field Test Set and MTS-916-3 Modular Target Simulator to support testing of...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

High-Power Broadband Multispectral Source on a Hybrid Silicon Chip

For applications in manufacturing, remote sensing, medicine, military, and fundamental science, an ideal laser would have high output power and a diffraction-limited beam. The...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) Suppression and Long Delivery Fibers at the Multikilowatt Level with Chirped Seed Lasers

One obstacle in the scaling of high-power fiber lasers arises because of nonlinear effects (e.g., stimulated...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Erbium Doped GaN Lasers by Optical Pumping

The main objective of this research was to construct an optical pump system that would allow the study of Er:GaN materials under 980 nm resonant excitation to be carried out. The results obtained from...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

New Class of Excimer-Pumped Atomic Lasers (XPALS)

The focus of this research program was the investigation of XPAL properties, and new pumping schemes, as well as modeling, and measuring critical photoionization and excited state-excited state...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Laser Integration on Silicon Photonic Circuits Through Transfer Printing

The purpose of this project was to develop a transfer printing process for the massively parallel integration of III-V lasers on silicon photonic integrated circuits....

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

High Energy Computed Tomographic Inspection of Munitions

An advance computed tomography (CT) system was recently built for the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, for the inspection of...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Development of Photoacoustic Sensing Platforms

In recent years, photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) has emerged as an attractive and powerful technique well suited for sensing applications. The development of high-power radiation sources and more...

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INSIDER
Defense

Mobile High-Energy Laser Shoots Down Drones

A Stryker combat vehicle equipped with a 5kW laser and an array of sensors spent several minutes scanning the horizon for a wayward "enemy" drone. On a television screen in a nearby tent off...

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Briefs
Defense

Luminescence Materials as Nanoparticle Thermal Sensors

The purpose of this research program was to create and study novel luminescence particles (phosphors} capable of sensing and retaining the time-temperature information to which they were...

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