Wide Band Large Aperture Beam Director Head Window

The Navy requires an innovative material solution for new large aperture, wide spectral band head window for High Energy Lasers (HEL).  The head window must be larger than 12 inch in diameter, provide high transmission across a wide spectral band (visible to MWIR), compatible with anti-reflection coatings (ARC) and possess water shedding or hydrophobicity properties. At present, there are no commercially available materials capable of meeting the high strength and extreme low loss required for the head window. TIPD, LLC proposes to develop a new, environment-friendly, wide spectral band, high optical transmission, and high strength hydrophobic submarine beam director head window material based on novel germanate glasses with nanostructured random antireflection coating (RAR) coating providing hydrophobic and non-fouling properties that will meet all Navy’s requirements. The Phase I program will demonstrate the feasibility of developing the novel material by producing and testing optical and mechanical properties of the developed samples.