Modeling of Composite Solid Propellant Combustion

Undersea, fiber optic, cable systems are currently either battery powered or powered from shore via a conductor that is part of the cable. For the former, large battery packs must be deployed wherever electronics are located along the system. For thelatter, the conductor in the cable dominates system size and controls system cost. An alternative concept is to power the fiber optic cable system by sending laser power from the shore side of the cable that is tapped off at locations where electronicsare located and converted to electrical power for powering the electronics. In Phase I Aculight will extend a breakthrough technology it has developed on DOD funding to demonstrate diffraction limited diode laser bar sources that can be coupledefficiently into single mode fibers at the multi Watt level. In addition, Aculight brings new manufacturing techniques, based on semiconductor fabrication, that will result in robust and long life power sources. This combination will provide an efficientand compact device for supplying optical power into a single mode fiber for optical-to-electrical converters. Our proposed Phase I work will demonstrate the feasibility of achieving the Navy specifications in laboratory experiments. This ambitious planis possible because of closely related research accomplishments.Techniques that deliver optical power into a single mode fiber, or multi-mode fiber, have significant markets in DOD (illuminators, power into fibers, pumps for fiber lasers) and thecommercial sector (telecommunications, marking, materials processing, sources for end pumping solid-state lasers, and medical diagnostics).