In directed-energy weapons (DEW) news, Shasta Crystals (San Francisco, CA) announced that it has received a U.S. Army Department of Defense (DOD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award entitled: "True Double-Clad Fully Crystalline Fibers for DEW Applications." This Phase I grant awards Shasta Crystals $150,000 to perform research into the feasibility of growing and cladding doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) optical fibers of sufficient quality to improve the performance of high-power fiber lasers.
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Shasta's CEO Gisele Maxwell says, "We greatly appreciate the support of the United States Army and the Department of Defense in this area of materials science. Single crystal fibers can act as an intermediate between laser crystals and doped glass fibers, to guide laser light with the efficiencies found in bulk crystals. Our goal is to make a cladded flexible fiber with a core of dopant that will exhibit superior wave-guiding properties."
Shasta Crystals is a crystal growth company making advanced materials that are critical components in laser systems for a variety of markets including industrial, medical, scientific, military, and consumer electronics. Shasta specializes in the use of the Laser Heated Pedestal Growth (LHPG) technology that allows rapid growth of crystal fibers with a variety of dopants.
SOURCE: Shasta Crystals; http://shastacrystals.com/PR_10_26_15