SBIR Phase I: Tailored Thermal Expansion Alloys

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop new alloys whose thermal expansion properties can be tailored for critical applications. For example, tailored thermal expansion alloys will prevent shifts in laser output frequencies, i.e. laser color, by preventing the natural temperature-induced thermal expansion and contraction that occurs in lasers. This temperature stability is extremely important for fiber-optic systems that are the backbone of the telecommunications industry. According to Strategies Unlimited, the telecommunications laser market was $3.515 billion in 2014, and it is expected to increase with the increasing number of mobile devices and growing demand for high-speed internet. The alloys to be developed in this project also have potential to add value in a number of other industrial and electronics applications. The intellectual merit of this project lies in a new method to exhibit unprecedented control over thermal expansion properties in a variety of metal alloys. The discovery that mechanical deformation tailors or "programs" the thermal expansion of a bulk metal to match that of other common materials (polymers, ceramics) will change the way scientists and engineers design for thermal compensation. These alloys can also be tailored not to expand or contract with temperature changes. This wide range of tailored alloy responses is achieved without chemical changes or composite fabrication methods upon which competing technologies rely. This Phase I project will reduce the risks facing new applications of this tailored thermal expansion alloy technology by developing scalable processing schemes for cyclically-stable properties in affordable bulk alloy systems. Alloys will be purchased, mechanically tuned to a specific thermal expansion value and tested for cyclic stability. The expected outcome of this work is the realization of tailored thermal expansion alloys that can be easily integrated into lasers.