Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: To address the Navy need for a high-pulse-energy amplifier at eye-safe wavelengths, Physic
Physical Optics Corporation — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.
- Amount
- $79,993
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Navy
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- 2012.1
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- CA
- Period
- 2012-06-12
Description
To address the Navy need for a high-pulse-energy amplifier at eye-safe wavelengths, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop an Eye-Safe Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplifier (ES-OPCPA). It is based on an Er-doped fiber oscillator used as a seed, periodically poled crystal, in the first stages, and a two-beam pump in the final stage. The innovation in combining several amplifying media and the optimal design of the amplifiers will enable ES-OPCPA to reach an amplifier output of>500 mJ, ~100 fs. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the amplifier reaching that output by designing and building an ES-OPCPA prototype scaled down in repetition rate, and will prepare a Phase II development plan including performance goals and key technical milestones. In Phase II, POC plans to build and demonstrate a unit reaching 0.5 J pulse energy level at a higher repetition rate of 1 kHz.