DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOPOLYMER BASED TEAR FILM SUPPLEMENT

Not Available In recent years efforts have been concentrated on maximizing the resolution of optical materials for use in high-energy laser systems by minimizing absorption of irradiated power and subsequent deformation caused by heating. With a higher thermal shock resistance than any available optical material, sapphire is the material of choice, but displays significant scattering due to optical anisotropy. Aluminum oxy-nitride and lanthana strengthened yttria based optically transmissive materials are isotropic because of their cubic symmetry and therefore are an ideal replacement for sapphire. In this Phase I effort MMI proposes to synthesize nanocrystalline gamma-AION and consolidate the same to highly dense near net shapes in less than 5 minutes. The consolidated part will further be polished to a roughness of <l nm. A unique plasma pressure consolidation (P2C) process will be evaluated for the fabrication of near net shape lathana strengthened yttria (8-10% lanthana added to yttria) optical components. In Phase II, the process will be optimized and scaled up to produce AION and LSY components of high quality, i.e. these near net shape consolidated parts will possess good optical properties combined with excellent mechanical properties, which is one of the major limitations with current optical window materials for advanced laser systems. BENEFITS: Transparent AION and LSY can be used in domes for high-speed military missile systems, high power laser windows, laser cavity m