THIS SBIR PHASE I EFFORT PROPOSES TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A UV PLANAR LIGHTWAVE CIRCUIT…

Public award description

THIS SBIR PHASE I EFFORT PROPOSES TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A UV PLANAR LIGHTWAVE CIRCUIT (PLC); A COMPACT, HIGHLY EFFICIENT, WAVEGUIDE-BASED FREQUENCY CONVERSION MODULE FOR THE GENERATION OF PHASE MODULATED UV RADIATION FOR USE IN MULTI-WAVELENGTH LIDAR APPLICATIONS SUCH AS NASA LARC'S HSRL PROGRAM. THE PROPOSED MODULE WILL PROVIDE PHASE MODULATED 355 NM RADIATION FOR CALIBRATION AND STABILIZATION OF HSRL'S UV INTERFEROMETRIC FILTER, A COMPONENT REQUIRED FOR THE ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF CRITICAL AEROSOL MICROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES. THE GOAL OF THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL BE THE OPTIMIZATION AND INTEGRATION OF A COMPACT, MONOLITHIC, FIBER COUPLED UV PLC INTO THE NEXT GENERATION HSLR SEED LASER SYSTEM. THE PLC CONCEPT ADVANCES NASA'S STATE-OF-THE-ART LIDAR SYSTEMS DUE TO ITS COMPACT, EFFICIENT, AND RELIABLE DESIGN, THUS ENABLING USE ON SMALL AIRCRAFT AND SPACE BASED PLATFORMS.