LASER PROTECTION THROUGH ORGANIC NONLINEAR OPTICAL LIQUIDS

THE PROTECTION OF OPTICAL/IR SENSORS OF HUMAN EYES AGAINST LASER THREATS IS AN IMPORTANT UNSOLVED DEFENSE PROBLEM. THE MOST CHALLENGING NEED IS FOR AN OPTICAL LIMITER WITH PICOSECOND RESPONSE IN A FINITE WAVELENGTH BAND AGAINST SHORT PULSE, FREQUENCY-AGILE LASERS. OUR RESEARCH IS DIRECTED TOWARDS DEVICE APPLICATIONS OF NOVEL NONLINEAR OPTICAL LIQUIDS WITH PRECISE INDEX MATCHING PROPERTIES AND LARGE INTENSITY DEPENDENT REFRACTIVE INDEX EFFECTS. PHASE I RESEARCH WILL PREPARE ORGANIC LIQUIDS BASED ON HIGH SOLUBILITY, HIGH-BETA ORGANIC MOLECULES AND MEASURE THE PRECISION OF THEIR LINEAR INDEX MATCHING RANGE TO GLASS SUBSTRATES AND WAVEGUIDES. BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THESE EXPERIMENTS, THE FEASIBILITY OF A VARIETY OF POSSIBLE FIBER OPTIC FACEPLATE DESIGNS WILL BE EVALUATED BY THEORETICAL MODELING CALCULATIONS. PHASE II STUDIES WILL PROCEED TO CONSTRUCT AND DEMONSTRATE WORKING PROTOTYPES OF IMAGE-PLANE OPTICAL LIMITERS WITH PICOSECOND RESPONSE.