Development of Optical Host Materials with High Laser Damage Thresholds

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a high-damage-threshold host material for high-power or high-fluence optical applications. The goal is to produce a material which has a damage threshold at least an order of magnitude higher than that forpolymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and which will permit incorporation of a wide variety of organic dyes up to at least the millimolar concentration level. This effort will be a collaboration between PSI and the world-renowned Polymer Synthesis Laboratoriesat UMass Amherst, who will be a subcontractor for this work. In Phase I, we will synthesize a number of acrylic-based materials covering a range of chemical structures and material properties. These candidates will be subjected to optical damage testingin order to demonstrate laser-hardened formulations, and to understand the relationship between polymer structure and laser damage threshold. The Phase II work will utilize the candidates identified in Phase I to produce a host material which is optimizedfor both damage resistance and dye compatibility. Detailed structure-property relationships will be established. Successful progress of the program will be validated in each phase through the testing of selected samples at AFRL/MLPJ using their in-housecapabilities.An optical host material with both high damage resistance and excellent dye compatibility will represent a major breakthrough for advanced sensor protection and solid-state dye lasers. In the area of sensor protection, for example, safetyeyewear can be developed which is compact, robust, and effective against agile laser sources. In the area of solid-state dye lasers, compact, wavelength-agile devices can be produced for a variety of military and medical applications.