Nuclear Hardening And Survivability Of Acousto-Optics

WITH THE VERY WIDE RANGE OF APPLICATIONS OF ACOUSTO-OPTIC SIGNAL PROCESSING AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION IN NUCLEAR WARFARE ARMS, THE NEED EXISTS TO EVALUATE OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSORS COMPONENTS IN BOTH REAL AND SIMULATED NUCLEAR ENVIRONMENTS. ALSO THE USE OF ACOUSTO-OPTIC DEVICES FOR A COMMERCIAL SPACE APPLICATIONS IS VERY PROMISING DUE TO ITS HIGH SPEED, LOW POWER CONSUMPTION AND LIGHT WEIGHT. IN PHASE I OF THIS PROGRAM BRIMROSE PROPOSES TO EXTENSIVELY EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF ACOUSTO-OPTIC DEVICES PRESENTLY USED IN THE OPTICAL COMPUTERS, EARLY WARNING RADAR SYSTEMS, LASER COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, ETC. BEFORE AND ARER SUBJECTION TO EM RADIATION. PHASE L PROGRAM WILL DEFINE SOME OF THE CRITICAL PARAMETERS OF ACOUSTO-OPTIC MATERIALS WHICH UNDER GO A CHANGE UNDER AN EM RADIATION. KNOWING THOSE PARAMETERS THE A-0 DEVICES MATERIALS CAN BE RADIATION HARDENED BEFORE AN A-0 DEVICE IS FABRICATED. BASED UPON PHASE L RESULTS IN PHASE II OF THIS PROGRAM BRIMROSE WILL DESIGN AND FABRICATE A RADIATION RESISTENT ACOUSTO-OPTIC DEVICE USING RADIATION HARDEN ACOUSTO-OPTIC MATERIALS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO STUDY AND EMPLOY RADIATION HARDENING TECHNIQUES TO STABILIZE AND IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF A-0 DEVICES EXPOSED TO 1500 KRAD OF GAMMA RADIATION.