Thermal Shock Resistant Hypersonic Sapphire Composite Infra

Foster-Miller will demonstrate a truly innovative previously unexplored route to fabricate high temperature 3 to 5 micron infrared (IR) optical composite materials for IR window and dome applications. Our approach will provide an IR sapphire composite material that will have thermal shock; transmission, absorption and emission, strength, and durability characteristic that will be enhanced over the current IR monolithic sapphire material while decreasing birefringent effects and will enable operation at missile speeds of Mach 7. Additionally, our window fabrication process is very cost-effective, because of a fast fabrication turnaround time, it is not labor intensive and can produce multiple components in one run. Our approach will be an enabling technology for producing 3 to 5m IR transmitting widows at low cost, with high strength and thermal shock resistance, and with high temperature stability required for operation at Mach 7 speeds. The process is versatile and has the potential to produce high quality IR windows of different material combinations. The Phase I program will involve the fabrication of high temperature IR optical composite material and characterization including X-ray diffraction, light scattering (birefringence), visible and IR transmittance, tensile strength, thermal conductivity and relative thermal shock testing. The Phase I STTR team includes Rutgers University as a subcontractor who will participate in the fabrication and evaluation of this material. The Phase II program will additionally involve a missile systems contractor.