by in highlights - university of central florida
TRANSCRIPT
CREOL '2 Newsletter Published By UCFS Center for Research in
Electro-Optics and Lasers"
HIGHLIGHTS
-Page 3-
- Page 3 -
Technology Transfer Succeeds Via FHTIC Grants
Six CREOL research groups have utilized ants received from the Florida High-Technology and Industry Council (FHTI t= ) toeffect technology transfer to industry in Florida and throughout the United States.
As featured in the Winter, 1990, issue of Highlights, Dr.Bruce Chai's crystal growth laboratory has designed a method to produce neodymiumdoped yttrium lithium fluoride and has shared this technique with Lightning Optical Corporation of Tarpon Springs, Florida. This crystal is an important gain medium for both flashlamp and diode-pumped solid-state lasers.
Members of the nonlinear optics (NLO) group (Eric Van Stryland, David Hagan, and M.J. Soileau) have been examining NLO materials for their poten- tial as optical limiters, devices designed to protect sensors and detectors. The challenge is to create an element that is transparent at low levels of incoming radiation but that becomes opaque at intensities above which the detector would be damaged. The material must also be able to withstand high bright- ness without being damaged itself, and it must have the capability of becoming active very quickly, in picoseconds or less.
Various types of materials have been tested, including semiconductors, dielectrics, and organic liquids. While several of these have shown promise for meeting some of the criteria, none has yet succeeded entirely. Therefore, another concept is to employ a tandem device with two elements in series that together would provide the necessary filtering over a broad range of frequen- cies.
Both industrial and government laboratories have expressed interest in collaborating on various aspects of these studies, with funding having come from DARPA, the Army Research Office, and NSF, as well as the FHTIC. An SBIRcontract has already been awarded toschwartz Electro-Opticsof Orlando, with the NLO group being a subcontractor. Joint work is also planned with Martin Marietta, JPL, and the Army on the implementation of device design. A patent has been awarded for an optical power limiter, and three PhD degrees have been granted for aspects of this work.
The thin film laboratory at CREOL, under the direction of Dr. Karl Guenther, has developed a new process for depositing very dense, glasslike films that are extremely smooth. This method, reactive low-voltage ion plating, employs plasma-assisted evaporation, utilizing the most advanced high-vac- uum equipment on the market. Coatings made with traditional deposition techniques have inherent drawbacks in their optical, mechanical, and chemical properties, whereas the new method produces films that are impermeable to water vapor and other solvents because they do not possess the voidscaused by the columnar microstructure of conventional films.
Two high-technology companies have been the primary beneficiaries of this technique: Martin Marietta duplicated Dr. Guenther's system and thus was able to proceed to prototype development immediately rather than spending time perfecting the setup. Pilkington Visioncare has funded a project on broadband antireflection coatings suitable for deposition on ophthalmic plastic lenses. This work is close to completion, with additional funding granted.
See Tech Transfer, P~qgc 4
Director's Corner January 1991 marked the end into our permanent home - the
of my fourth year at UCFand the newCREOLBuildingoncampus. inauguration of a new governor The contract has been let for the for Florida. CREOL participated design of the facility, and we are in the "Celebrate Florida" event hoping for construction money associated with the inaumration from the 1991 State Ledslative of Governor Lawton Chiles Many thanks to Martin Stalder and Devinder "Div" Saini for helping Mike Bass and me transport, set up, and conduct "show and tell" at the State Capitol. Many "mov- ers and shakers" of the state got a chance to see a piece of CREOL fullv owrational in the State Capitol: We even did a some- what legit experiment: a life test of the Cr:LiSAF laser -- we ran the laser for approximately 16 hours at 5 Hz for over one quarter of a million shots in the Capitol ro- tunda! A special thanks to Schwartz Electro-Optics, Light- ningOptica1,and Quantum Tech- nology for helping make the ex- hibit possible.
The new year started with a m e into '%REOL U," a new 14,W sq. ft. facility in the Central Flor- ida Research Park. This expan- sion comes almost exactly 3 years after our initial move into the Research Pavilion. Our target is to make one more move in about 3 years, when we hope to move
" Session.
January 1991 alsomarkedmy return to the classroom, with the teaching of a senior optical engi- neering course. It's good to get chalk dust on my fingers again! Thishasalsogivenmeachanceto experience the "Florida effect" for mvself- the~roblernof thestate's gkwth outr;nning its infrastruc- ture. The class has 65 students and isofferedinwhatisineffecta double-wide mobile home! My daughter Aimee (who is a 7th grader at Glenridge Middle School) tellsme I shouldn't complain ... all ofheracademicclassesareinsuch facilities.
We are all optimistic that Governor Chiles will provide the leadership needed to reverse last year's cuts, and this year's antici- pated cutsin thestate'seducation budget.lt will certainly take his and ourbesteffortstoget through the current recession and get on with building the state's educa- tion infrastructure.
We were pleased to have
another busy semester of visitors at CREOL. Many old friends, colleagues, and government offi- cials visited during the Orlando SPIE meeting in April. Among the VIPs were Dr. Robert M. White, Under Secretary for Technology of the U.S. Department of Com- merce, Dr. Matt White of the Of- fice of Naval Research, Dr. Ed Sharp and Mr. Gary Wood of the Army W E O , Mr. L.R. McMas- ter of NASA, Mr. John Ariale of Congressman McCollum's staff, and Congressman Jim Bacchus. Many thanks to all who took time to visit us and to the CREOL fac- ulty, staff and students who took the time to make our many visi- tors feel welcome. -M.J.
K u d o s . . . K u d o s . . . Kudos . . . K u d o s . . . Kudos DR. GLENN BOREMAN, Using a CCD Camera" and was Optical Interference Coatings, to
CREOL faculty member and As- coauthored by Dr. Marc Himel be held in June, 1992, in Tucson, sociate Professor of Electrical En- and Professor Guenther. Arizona. gineering, was named Outstand- MR. WILLIAM LAWLER, ing Engineering Educator by the Litton Fellow and CREOL Re- Orlando section of the IEEE. search Assistant with Professor
DR. MANSOUR SHEIK- M.C. Moharam, waschosen Out- BAHAE,CREOLSeniorResearch standing Electrical Engineering Scientist, was selected Outstand- Student of the Yearby the Orlando ingEngineer in the LEOSChapter section of the IEEE. of theOrlandosectionof theIEEE. MR. MYOUNGSIK CHA, a
MR. THOMAS KIMBLE, a CREOL Research Assistant with CREOL Research Assistant with Professor George Stegeman, was Professor Karl Guenther, was selected for a Division of Spon- awarded a third prize in the Stu- sored Research enhancement dent PosterPaperpresentationat award for the 1991-92 academic the 20th Annual Meeting of the year. Florida Chapter of the American DR. KARL GUENTHER has Vacuum Society. The paper ad- been named to serve on the pro- dressed "Measuring the Attenu- gram and organizing committee ation of Thin Film Waveguides of the Fifth Topical Meeting in
~ C R E O L
HIGHLIGHTS CREOL Highlights is published by the Center for Research in Electro-Optics and Lasers, University of Central Florida.
M.J. Soilenu Director Jacki Hart! Editor Jackie Gibson Graphic Design
CREOL 12424 Research Parkway
Under Secretary Visits CREOL
Dr. Robert M. White, Under Six CREOL scientists were recently invited to participate in an secretary of~omerce for~ech-
international exchange workshop held jointly with and hosted by the nology was thehonored guest ata Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). The r,ption and dinner presented concept of a collaboration arose because the research areas of the two by cREoL, President steven groups, including nonlinear optics, materials, devices, and laser devel- Altman of UCF, the Central Flor- opment, coincided very closely. It was thought that a workshop was an ida Research Park, and the EC(F ideal format in which to initiate detailed discussions of each group's nomic Development research and explore the possibility of future joint projects. of Mid-Florida. It was held in the
The meeting, which was funded by the National Science Foundation united ~ ~ c h ~ ~ l ~ g ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~~~~d for the six US participants and by the Department of Industry, Technol- R,, located in the ~i~~~~ seas ogy and Commerce for the 19 Australian participants, took place in Pavilion at Walt Disney World Adelaide. CREOL presentations included: EPCOT Center. Overview of CREOL Research M.J. Soileau Measurement and Understanding of Optical
Nonlinearities E.W. Van Stryland Semiconductor Nonlinearities for Limiting M.J. Soileau Thick-sample &Scan and Limiting M. Sheik-Bahae Z-Scan, including TwoColor Scan M. Sheik-Bahae Optical Nonlinearities and Switching in
MultipleQuantum-Well Materials A. Miller Flux Growth of LiB,O, (LBO) for Nonlinear
Optical Applicahons B. Chai Nonlinear Kramers-Kronig and All-Optical
Switching D. Hagan
The workshop concluded with presentations and discussions on aspects of cooperative research from US and Australian perspectives. On the final day the participants toured the DSTO laboratories in Salisbury.
Three Students Receive MS Three CREOL graduate stu- tory, working with Dr. Marc
dents received Master's degrees Hirnel, Steven Sawda earned an at the end of the Fall term. In MSEE with a thesis entitled, Professor Karl Guenther'slabora- "Computational and Engineering
Aspects of in Ellipsometrv."
UCF Hosts Fla. Chapter of OSA
On Saturday, 2 February 1991, the Florida Chapter of theoptical Society of America held its an- nual meeting on theUCFcampus.
New officers were elected for 1991: President - Robert Chang, Physics Dept., University of South Florida; Vice President - Martin Stickley, Assistant Director, CREOL, and Electrical Engineer- ing Dept., UCF; Secretary/Treas- urer -Martin Richardson, CREOL, and Depts. of Physics and Electri- cal Engineering, UCF.
A~&J underfrofessor'~uenthkr, and supervised by Dr. K. Bala- subramanian, Tam van Thanh Le presented a thesis for his MSEE entitled, "Broadband Antireflec- tion Coatings for Infrared Win- dows." These students are cur- rently seeking employment in an optics-related area.
James Montgomery, studying with Professor J.T. Lin, achieved the MS in Physics with a thesis entitled, "Optical Parametric Oscillator using KTF' and LBO Nonlinear Crystals for the Gen- eration of Continuously Tunable Cohcrcnt Mid-Infrared Radiation." Mr. Montgomery will remain in the Orlando area in a position with Schwartz Electro-Optics.
The event was occasioned by Dr. White's speech at a special seminar at the Orlando SPIE meeting. He spoke on the Com- merce Department's role in han- sitioning government funded R&D into the private sector.
Following the seminar, Dr. White toured the Martin Marietta LANTIRN production line and CREOL's lam and optics research facilities,and met withcongress- man Jim Bacchus. Guests for the dinner were President Altman; Mayor Bill Frederick of Orlando; John Ariale, le~islative assistant to Congress& Bill McCollum; Dr. James Pearson, President of United Technologies Optical Sys- tems; Dr. Seymour Zeiberg, Vice President, Martin Marietta; Dr. Robert Montgomay, Harris Corp.; Mr. William Schwartz, President Schwartz E1ectroQptics;and Mr. Richard Tesch. President. Eco- ~ -~~ , - - ~ -~ ~, - -
nomic Development Commission of Mid-Florida, Inc.
Harvey Invited To Astrotech 21
Dr. James Harvey was among a select groupof nationally recog- nized experts to be invited to participate in the Ashotech 21 Optics Technology Workshop, a program designed to develop the technology base necessary for astrophysics missions in the first decade of the twenty-first cen- tury. Themeeting was heldat the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, 6-8 March.
Tech Transfer, from Page Dr. Guenther's p u p has been
particularly active in the further- anceof CREOL'sIndustrial Affili- ates program and in collaborat- ing under contracts granted by many high-technology concerns. Among theseareOptoMechanik, Melbourne, Florida; Evaporated Coatings, Willow Grove, Penn- sylvania; Coherent Optical Com- ponent Group, Auburn, Califor- nia; Optical Coating laboratory, Santa Rosa, California; Specha Physics, Mountain View, Califor- nia; Transworld Optics, Haup pauge, New York; and Newport Corp., Fountain Valley, Califor- nia. An ongoing project to de- velop highquality laser coatings is sponsored by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, with in-kind participation by the Navport Corp.
The infrared system labora- tory, headed by Dr. Glenn Bore- man, has also been highly suc- cessful in its technology-transfer interactions. Five projects have been operating under FHTIC funding, teaming with Florida high-technology organizations that contribute matching funds and/ or donations of equipment.
In collaboration with McDon- nell Douglas Missile Systems Company in Titusville, Dr. Bore- man's group has successfully
characterized the resolution of a special infrared detector used in the Dragon missile tracker. Not only has the work been able to determine the extent to which an image can be "seen," but optimi- zation of the amplifier design has also improved the quality of the signal from the detector.
One of the two projects with Martin Marietta Electronics and Missile System involved the use of retjdes, which am spinning discs that modify an input signal to provide additional information on a missile target. The tracker util- izing these devices follows an object by infrared sensing of a thermal signature, such as engine exhaust. Dr. Boreman has dem- onstrated the possibility of apply- ing a low-mst infrared imager that incorporates this technology.
The other system being de- veloped in collaboration with Martin Marietta involves the measurement of the resolution of an infrared scene projector. IR projectors are used to character- ize the performance of thermal imaging systems In a similar fash- ion to a TV raster scan, a long- wavelength IR laser beam is scanned to produce realistic test patterns. This type of system makes the testing of IR systems much more cost-efficient, obviat-
ing the need for expensive and time-consuming field tests.
The property of laser speckle, which can be used to generate a random-noise-like test image, is being used to characterize detec- tor arrays for the Air Force Arma- ment Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base. Dr. Boreman's group has demonstrated new methods to generate calibrated speckle pat- terns with high spatial frequency content. These speckle pattern are then employed in a statistical test for the resolution of the de- tector arrays.
Dr. Boreman'snewest project involves United Technologies Optical Systems in West Palm Beach and concerns the develop ment of a laboratory test bed for adaptive optics. UTOS produces a device called a "deformable mirror," which consists of elec- tronically controllable actuators that can change the mirror sur- face. The purpose of such a de- vice is to correct in real time for perturbations in an amvine: siz- nal caused by ahnospheric e-&. orem man's goup iitially intends to develoo a "turbulence eenera- tor" whi:h would faciligte the performance characterization of adaptive optical systems under realistic conditions, without the need of field trials.
Parkway
I Orlando, FL I
HIGHLIGHTS
-Page 3-
- Page 3 -
Technology Transfer Succeeds Via FHTIC Grants
Six CREOL research groups have utilized ants received from the Florida High-Technology and Industry Council (FHTI t= ) toeffect technology transfer to industry in Florida and throughout the United States.
As featured in the Winter, 1990, issue of Highlights, Dr.Bruce Chai's crystal growth laboratory has designed a method to produce neodymiumdoped yttrium lithium fluoride and has shared this technique with Lightning Optical Corporation of Tarpon Springs, Florida. This crystal is an important gain medium for both flashlamp and diode-pumped solid-state lasers.
Members of the nonlinear optics (NLO) group (Eric Van Stryland, David Hagan, and M.J. Soileau) have been examining NLO materials for their poten- tial as optical limiters, devices designed to protect sensors and detectors. The challenge is to create an element that is transparent at low levels of incoming radiation but that becomes opaque at intensities above which the detector would be damaged. The material must also be able to withstand high bright- ness without being damaged itself, and it must have the capability of becoming active very quickly, in picoseconds or less.
Various types of materials have been tested, including semiconductors, dielectrics, and organic liquids. While several of these have shown promise for meeting some of the criteria, none has yet succeeded entirely. Therefore, another concept is to employ a tandem device with two elements in series that together would provide the necessary filtering over a broad range of frequen- cies.
Both industrial and government laboratories have expressed interest in collaborating on various aspects of these studies, with funding having come from DARPA, the Army Research Office, and NSF, as well as the FHTIC. An SBIRcontract has already been awarded toschwartz Electro-Opticsof Orlando, with the NLO group being a subcontractor. Joint work is also planned with Martin Marietta, JPL, and the Army on the implementation of device design. A patent has been awarded for an optical power limiter, and three PhD degrees have been granted for aspects of this work.
The thin film laboratory at CREOL, under the direction of Dr. Karl Guenther, has developed a new process for depositing very dense, glasslike films that are extremely smooth. This method, reactive low-voltage ion plating, employs plasma-assisted evaporation, utilizing the most advanced high-vac- uum equipment on the market. Coatings made with traditional deposition techniques have inherent drawbacks in their optical, mechanical, and chemical properties, whereas the new method produces films that are impermeable to water vapor and other solvents because they do not possess the voidscaused by the columnar microstructure of conventional films.
Two high-technology companies have been the primary beneficiaries of this technique: Martin Marietta duplicated Dr. Guenther's system and thus was able to proceed to prototype development immediately rather than spending time perfecting the setup. Pilkington Visioncare has funded a project on broadband antireflection coatings suitable for deposition on ophthalmic plastic lenses. This work is close to completion, with additional funding granted.
See Tech Transfer, P~qgc 4
Director's Corner January 1991 marked the end into our permanent home - the
of my fourth year at UCFand the newCREOLBuildingoncampus. inauguration of a new governor The contract has been let for the for Florida. CREOL participated design of the facility, and we are in the "Celebrate Florida" event hoping for construction money associated with the inaumration from the 1991 State Ledslative of Governor Lawton Chiles Many thanks to Martin Stalder and Devinder "Div" Saini for helping Mike Bass and me transport, set up, and conduct "show and tell" at the State Capitol. Many "mov- ers and shakers" of the state got a chance to see a piece of CREOL fullv owrational in the State Capitol: We even did a some- what legit experiment: a life test of the Cr:LiSAF laser -- we ran the laser for approximately 16 hours at 5 Hz for over one quarter of a million shots in the Capitol ro- tunda! A special thanks to Schwartz Electro-Optics, Light- ningOptica1,and Quantum Tech- nology for helping make the ex- hibit possible.
The new year started with a m e into '%REOL U," a new 14,W sq. ft. facility in the Central Flor- ida Research Park. This expan- sion comes almost exactly 3 years after our initial move into the Research Pavilion. Our target is to make one more move in about 3 years, when we hope to move
" Session.
January 1991 alsomarkedmy return to the classroom, with the teaching of a senior optical engi- neering course. It's good to get chalk dust on my fingers again! Thishasalsogivenmeachanceto experience the "Florida effect" for mvself- the~roblernof thestate's gkwth outr;nning its infrastruc- ture. The class has 65 students and isofferedinwhatisineffecta double-wide mobile home! My daughter Aimee (who is a 7th grader at Glenridge Middle School) tellsme I shouldn't complain ... all ofheracademicclassesareinsuch facilities.
We are all optimistic that Governor Chiles will provide the leadership needed to reverse last year's cuts, and this year's antici- pated cutsin thestate'seducation budget.lt will certainly take his and ourbesteffortstoget through the current recession and get on with building the state's educa- tion infrastructure.
We were pleased to have
another busy semester of visitors at CREOL. Many old friends, colleagues, and government offi- cials visited during the Orlando SPIE meeting in April. Among the VIPs were Dr. Robert M. White, Under Secretary for Technology of the U.S. Department of Com- merce, Dr. Matt White of the Of- fice of Naval Research, Dr. Ed Sharp and Mr. Gary Wood of the Army W E O , Mr. L.R. McMas- ter of NASA, Mr. John Ariale of Congressman McCollum's staff, and Congressman Jim Bacchus. Many thanks to all who took time to visit us and to the CREOL fac- ulty, staff and students who took the time to make our many visi- tors feel welcome. -M.J.
K u d o s . . . K u d o s . . . Kudos . . . K u d o s . . . Kudos DR. GLENN BOREMAN, Using a CCD Camera" and was Optical Interference Coatings, to
CREOL faculty member and As- coauthored by Dr. Marc Himel be held in June, 1992, in Tucson, sociate Professor of Electrical En- and Professor Guenther. Arizona. gineering, was named Outstand- MR. WILLIAM LAWLER, ing Engineering Educator by the Litton Fellow and CREOL Re- Orlando section of the IEEE. search Assistant with Professor
DR. MANSOUR SHEIK- M.C. Moharam, waschosen Out- BAHAE,CREOLSeniorResearch standing Electrical Engineering Scientist, was selected Outstand- Student of the Yearby the Orlando ingEngineer in the LEOSChapter section of the IEEE. of theOrlandosectionof theIEEE. MR. MYOUNGSIK CHA, a
MR. THOMAS KIMBLE, a CREOL Research Assistant with CREOL Research Assistant with Professor George Stegeman, was Professor Karl Guenther, was selected for a Division of Spon- awarded a third prize in the Stu- sored Research enhancement dent PosterPaperpresentationat award for the 1991-92 academic the 20th Annual Meeting of the year. Florida Chapter of the American DR. KARL GUENTHER has Vacuum Society. The paper ad- been named to serve on the pro- dressed "Measuring the Attenu- gram and organizing committee ation of Thin Film Waveguides of the Fifth Topical Meeting in
~ C R E O L
HIGHLIGHTS CREOL Highlights is published by the Center for Research in Electro-Optics and Lasers, University of Central Florida.
M.J. Soilenu Director Jacki Hart! Editor Jackie Gibson Graphic Design
CREOL 12424 Research Parkway
Under Secretary Visits CREOL
Dr. Robert M. White, Under Six CREOL scientists were recently invited to participate in an secretary of~omerce for~ech-
international exchange workshop held jointly with and hosted by the nology was thehonored guest ata Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). The r,ption and dinner presented concept of a collaboration arose because the research areas of the two by cREoL, President steven groups, including nonlinear optics, materials, devices, and laser devel- Altman of UCF, the Central Flor- opment, coincided very closely. It was thought that a workshop was an ida Research Park, and the EC(F ideal format in which to initiate detailed discussions of each group's nomic Development research and explore the possibility of future joint projects. of Mid-Florida. It was held in the
The meeting, which was funded by the National Science Foundation united ~ ~ c h ~ ~ l ~ g ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~~~~d for the six US participants and by the Department of Industry, Technol- R,, located in the ~i~~~~ seas ogy and Commerce for the 19 Australian participants, took place in Pavilion at Walt Disney World Adelaide. CREOL presentations included: EPCOT Center. Overview of CREOL Research M.J. Soileau Measurement and Understanding of Optical
Nonlinearities E.W. Van Stryland Semiconductor Nonlinearities for Limiting M.J. Soileau Thick-sample &Scan and Limiting M. Sheik-Bahae Z-Scan, including TwoColor Scan M. Sheik-Bahae Optical Nonlinearities and Switching in
MultipleQuantum-Well Materials A. Miller Flux Growth of LiB,O, (LBO) for Nonlinear
Optical Applicahons B. Chai Nonlinear Kramers-Kronig and All-Optical
Switching D. Hagan
The workshop concluded with presentations and discussions on aspects of cooperative research from US and Australian perspectives. On the final day the participants toured the DSTO laboratories in Salisbury.
Three Students Receive MS Three CREOL graduate stu- tory, working with Dr. Marc
dents received Master's degrees Hirnel, Steven Sawda earned an at the end of the Fall term. In MSEE with a thesis entitled, Professor Karl Guenther'slabora- "Computational and Engineering
Aspects of in Ellipsometrv."
UCF Hosts Fla. Chapter of OSA
On Saturday, 2 February 1991, the Florida Chapter of theoptical Society of America held its an- nual meeting on theUCFcampus.
New officers were elected for 1991: President - Robert Chang, Physics Dept., University of South Florida; Vice President - Martin Stickley, Assistant Director, CREOL, and Electrical Engineer- ing Dept., UCF; Secretary/Treas- urer -Martin Richardson, CREOL, and Depts. of Physics and Electri- cal Engineering, UCF.
A~&J underfrofessor'~uenthkr, and supervised by Dr. K. Bala- subramanian, Tam van Thanh Le presented a thesis for his MSEE entitled, "Broadband Antireflec- tion Coatings for Infrared Win- dows." These students are cur- rently seeking employment in an optics-related area.
James Montgomery, studying with Professor J.T. Lin, achieved the MS in Physics with a thesis entitled, "Optical Parametric Oscillator using KTF' and LBO Nonlinear Crystals for the Gen- eration of Continuously Tunable Cohcrcnt Mid-Infrared Radiation." Mr. Montgomery will remain in the Orlando area in a position with Schwartz Electro-Optics.
The event was occasioned by Dr. White's speech at a special seminar at the Orlando SPIE meeting. He spoke on the Com- merce Department's role in han- sitioning government funded R&D into the private sector.
Following the seminar, Dr. White toured the Martin Marietta LANTIRN production line and CREOL's lam and optics research facilities,and met withcongress- man Jim Bacchus. Guests for the dinner were President Altman; Mayor Bill Frederick of Orlando; John Ariale, le~islative assistant to Congress& Bill McCollum; Dr. James Pearson, President of United Technologies Optical Sys- tems; Dr. Seymour Zeiberg, Vice President, Martin Marietta; Dr. Robert Montgomay, Harris Corp.; Mr. William Schwartz, President Schwartz E1ectroQptics;and Mr. Richard Tesch. President. Eco- ~ -~~ , - - ~ -~ ~, - -
nomic Development Commission of Mid-Florida, Inc.
Harvey Invited To Astrotech 21
Dr. James Harvey was among a select groupof nationally recog- nized experts to be invited to participate in the Ashotech 21 Optics Technology Workshop, a program designed to develop the technology base necessary for astrophysics missions in the first decade of the twenty-first cen- tury. Themeeting was heldat the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, 6-8 March.
Tech Transfer, from Page Dr. Guenther's p u p has been
particularly active in the further- anceof CREOL'sIndustrial Affili- ates program and in collaborat- ing under contracts granted by many high-technology concerns. Among theseareOptoMechanik, Melbourne, Florida; Evaporated Coatings, Willow Grove, Penn- sylvania; Coherent Optical Com- ponent Group, Auburn, Califor- nia; Optical Coating laboratory, Santa Rosa, California; Specha Physics, Mountain View, Califor- nia; Transworld Optics, Haup pauge, New York; and Newport Corp., Fountain Valley, Califor- nia. An ongoing project to de- velop highquality laser coatings is sponsored by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, with in-kind participation by the Navport Corp.
The infrared system labora- tory, headed by Dr. Glenn Bore- man, has also been highly suc- cessful in its technology-transfer interactions. Five projects have been operating under FHTIC funding, teaming with Florida high-technology organizations that contribute matching funds and/ or donations of equipment.
In collaboration with McDon- nell Douglas Missile Systems Company in Titusville, Dr. Bore- man's group has successfully
characterized the resolution of a special infrared detector used in the Dragon missile tracker. Not only has the work been able to determine the extent to which an image can be "seen," but optimi- zation of the amplifier design has also improved the quality of the signal from the detector.
One of the two projects with Martin Marietta Electronics and Missile System involved the use of retjdes, which am spinning discs that modify an input signal to provide additional information on a missile target. The tracker util- izing these devices follows an object by infrared sensing of a thermal signature, such as engine exhaust. Dr. Boreman has dem- onstrated the possibility of apply- ing a low-mst infrared imager that incorporates this technology.
The other system being de- veloped in collaboration with Martin Marietta involves the measurement of the resolution of an infrared scene projector. IR projectors are used to character- ize the performance of thermal imaging systems In a similar fash- ion to a TV raster scan, a long- wavelength IR laser beam is scanned to produce realistic test patterns. This type of system makes the testing of IR systems much more cost-efficient, obviat-
ing the need for expensive and time-consuming field tests.
The property of laser speckle, which can be used to generate a random-noise-like test image, is being used to characterize detec- tor arrays for the Air Force Arma- ment Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base. Dr. Boreman's group has demonstrated new methods to generate calibrated speckle pat- terns with high spatial frequency content. These speckle pattern are then employed in a statistical test for the resolution of the de- tector arrays.
Dr. Boreman'snewest project involves United Technologies Optical Systems in West Palm Beach and concerns the develop ment of a laboratory test bed for adaptive optics. UTOS produces a device called a "deformable mirror," which consists of elec- tronically controllable actuators that can change the mirror sur- face. The purpose of such a de- vice is to correct in real time for perturbations in an amvine: siz- nal caused by ahnospheric e-&. orem man's goup iitially intends to develoo a "turbulence eenera- tor" whi:h would faciligte the performance characterization of adaptive optical systems under realistic conditions, without the need of field trials.
Parkway
I Orlando, FL I