Hydrogel-AuNP Composites for Self-Healing Optical Elements

U.S. Army sensor systems, such as Lockheed Martin’s Gyrocam 15TS, currently present mounting material costs and risks to personnel wellbeing due to the need to replace optical elements that are damaged by harsh operating environments and intense incoming lasers. The Army is currently seeking a high-quality optical material that will extend the time between replacements to more than 5 years or 10,000 damage repairs. Mainstream will demonstrate a scalable, high performance protective coating formulation and method that can produce a mechanically robust, autonomously self-healing, and broadband reflective polymer coating on optical sensor substrates. With the successful completion of Phase I, we will demonstrate control over mechanical properties by varying the polymer composition, as well as control over broadband reflectivity by varying nanoparticle surface chemistry. We will demonstrate these coatings’ mechanical (fracture toughness and flexural strength) and optical (transmittance and reflectivity) properties and compare to current systems.