APPLIED OPTIMIZATION, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF181-064

APPLIED OPTIMIZATION, INC. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.

Amount
$150,000
Agency
Department of Defense · Air Force
Program / Phase
SBIR · Phase I
Topic
AF181-064
Solicitation
2018.1
NAICS
Place of performance
OH
Period
2018-06-07 → 2019-06-07

Description

The research objective of this proposal is to design a photonic integrated circuit that performs as a transceiver for free space optical communication utilizing distinct and variable orbital angular momentum (OAM) states to provide twenty accessible channels for increased bandwidth. We propose a novel approach to achieve dynamic reconfigurability using phase change materials to provide 1 ns encoding and decoding of the OAM state. The silicon based device is low in cost and robust in fabrication, making it quite suitable for integration with other elements to form the desired system. Simulation will be performed by numerical modeling to verify the design and evaluate its performance and efficiency as the number of accessible states is varied.