Acquisition of a Crystal Post-growth Annealing System for Infrared Applications
Abstract
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and the Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Act for 2014 allocated $10.7M to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) and to enhance their research and education capabilities in scientific areas relevant to the defense mission. The FY 2014 program supports the acquisition of research equipment and instrumentation to augment existing capabilities and to develop new capabilities that will facilitate greater participation in DoD research programs and encourage more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The objective is to procure a post-growth annealing system for advanced infrared materials. This proposal from Principal Investigator, Dr. Arnold Burger, requests support for the acquisition of a crystal post-growth annealing system to enhance and expand the research infrastructure at Fisk University in the scientific area of advanced infrared materials. The proposed instrumentation will extend Fisk UniversityÕs capabilities and will enable state-of-the-art research in the area of nonlinear optical crystals. These classes of infrared materials have high second and third order optical nonlinearities which are essential for second harmonic generation, optical parametric oscillation, optical switching, Raman amplification, and wavelength conversion. In spite of being known and studied for a long period of time, the knowledge of the properties, figures-of merit and ultimately their incorporation in useful devices has been hampered by compositional variations due to a combination of stoichiometry and extrinsic impurities. It is therefore imperative that any science-centered effort aimed at understanding the growth of high perfection crystals that a technology-centered effort combining purification, synthesis, crystal growth and to which this proposal will add the capability of incorporating the crystal post-growth annealing system. The infrared materials selected for this project are related to the family of materials LiGaSe2 and LiGaTe2 crystals. The PIÕs research will focus on advancing the state-of-the-art for known materials in which there are specific barriers prohibiting their development. Specifically, the he and his colleagues will focus on improving the optical losses in these materials and the reproducibility in preparing samples that can be studied using an array of methods, thus improving the basic understanding of the physics of this class of materials. These characterization techniques are infrared absorption and Raman microscopy, emission spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis, measurements of thermal diffusivity, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analysis, atomic force microscopy and electrical charge carrier transport studies. Interactions with industrial collaborators and DoD and other government facilities and academia are planned. Graduate and undergraduate student training is considered an integral part of this investigation. The support of this proposal will establish a unique academic program not just in US but world-wide. The available equipment will be used in research by both undergraduate and graduate students and will increase the involvement of science students, in particular minority and underrepresented groups, and motivate them to pursue careers in this important area of physics, and materials science in particular. Therefore, the combination of the crystal growth expertise at Fisk, the annealing system and the X-ray diffraction apparatus will develop a strength that is unique in academia in the United States and will facilitate future research opportunities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1510046
Entities
People
- A. Bürger
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Fisk University
- Office of the Secretary of Defense