SBIR Phase I: A novel AR on LBO

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is as diverse as the laser technology itself. Lasers have become the true facilitator of the data-based society. It is tool of choice for future smart factories and on-demand manufacturing. It serves as the fundamental building block of optical sensing systems used to collect large volumes of critical data to be used for decision making in every facet of society. The myriad of new applications for laser systems echoes the same demand ? higher power. The bottleneck in the power generation is often the capability of optical components of the laser to withstand the power without degradation. So the greater potential of lasers can be unleashed if there would be a way to break through the power handling capability of laser components starting with the nonlinear optical crystals indispensable in creating these powerful energy sources. This research project is precisely designed to address this need and the successful completion of this project would enable the next generation of miniaturized electronic devices, expand our horizon of biological imagery and precision surgery, and explore our universe with instruments that are currently confined to our laboratories. The proposed project targets the most common material used to generate high power visible and UV light ? Lithium Triborate (LBO) crystal. Able to handle power density up to 45GW/cm2, LBO is currently the material of choice for high energy industrial lasers. However, optical surfaces where the light enter and exit LBO often get damaged well before the actual bulk material. Traditional dielectric anti-reflective (AR) coatings on these surfaces are typically made using a limited selection of materials of lower damage threshold in a process highly susceptible to contamination, resulting in significantly lower damage threshold than the bulk LBO crystal. In this proposal, state-of-the-art surface-texturing processes on LBO will be developed to eliminate the use of these dielectric films while still providing the necessary AR functionality. A variety of processes and materials on LBO surfaces will be attempted and studied with resulting surfaces tested for absorption and damage threshold. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.