Energy News  
Laboratory Builds New Coating Facility

The coatings can produce mirrors that have a better than 99.99 percent reflectivity - especially useful when dealing with very high energies, as the coatings allow the mirror to withstand the heat intensity without degraded imaging performance. The problems encountered with the coating process occur with the larger mirrors.
by Staff Writers
Kirtland AFB NM (SPX) Feb 13, 2006
Construction on a new mirrorcoating facility is nearing completion here at the Air Force Research Laboratory, enabling researchers to produce more durable, efficient mirrors for highenergy lasers. Planned for completion in April, the 3,000squarefoot facility will be able to coat mirrors as large as 2.5 meters (100 inches) wide. The laboratory's current capability is limited to optics 1012 inches in diameter.

"This lab will provide a capability to coat large optics, to meet the demand of the Air Force. By developing inhouse optics, we will have the technology where we need it, and it will potentially be the center for all DOD optical coatings," said program manager Dr. David Reicher, a contractor with the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate.

Called "the modulated DC reactive sputtering process," the technology planned for use in the Airborne Laser (ABL) and future optics was pioneered at the laboratory. The process uses ions excited by a voltage that collide into a target of coating material and knock off molecules, which in turn land on the mirror's surface to form a coating. The result is films that are very pure and very hard.

The coatings produced will be one to 10 microns thick, a micron being a millionth of a meter. For comparison's sake, the thickness of a human hair ranges from 40 to 200 microns thick.

The coatings can produce mirrors that have a better than 99.99 percent reflectivity - especially useful when dealing with very high energies, as the coatings allow the mirror to withstand the heat intensity without degraded imaging performance. "The problems encountered with the coating process occur with the larger mirrors.

Coating uniformity, to a small fraction of a wavelength, is necessary. Several optics for the ABL (mainly the conformal window) are highly curved. It (uniformity) is a real technical problem, but we feel our technology can overcome that," said Reicher. The construction is being financed by the Missile Defense Agency's ABL System Program Office, which employs large optics in its laser system to target and destroy ballistic missiles.

Over the next two years following the completed construction, the chamber will be used to develop the process to coat the optics for the ABL, though Reicher hopes that ABL will not be the only customer. The planned budget for the twoyear ABL effort is $1.29 million.

Other potential customers for the facility include the Relay Mirror Experiment, a directed energy program that takes a beam of energy from a groundairor spacebased source and redirects the energy through a series of mirrors to a target.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Kirtland Air Force Base
The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Alliant Techsystems Demonstrates Advanced GPS Mortar Round
Minneapolis MN (SPX) Feb 13, 2006
In a series of flight tests conducted at the Yuma Proving Grounds, Alliant Techsystems successfully demonstrated the ballistic characteristics of the most advanced mortar round ever developed for the U.S. Army - ATK's precision guided mortar munition (PGMM). A total of 49 rounds were shot over three days from a 120mm mortar, achieving all test objectives.







  • Garbage Truck Industry Ponders Move To LNG
  • Nuclear Fusion On A Tabletop
  • SCHOTT Solar Receiver To Power New Solar Thermal Power Plant
  • China Energy Quest Not A Threat

  • Outside View: The Future's Nuclear
  • Doubts Cast Over Viability Of US Nuclear Energy Plans
  • Russian deputies warn of radioactive contamination at nuclear plant
  • Germany Rethinks Phasing Out Nuclear Power

  • Yale To Study Atmospheric 'Tsunamis'4
  • What Is A Cloud
  • Getting To The TOPP Of Houston's Air Pollution
  • Scientists Seek Sprite Light Source

  • European Union Donates 38M Euros To Africa's Forests
  • Ecologists Mull Future Of Wetlands In Poor Countries
  • Satellites Show Amazon Parks And Indigenous Lands Stop Forest Clearing
  • Deforestation Threatens Brazil's Pantanal Wetland

  • New Research Network Aims to Protect Food Supply
  • Europe Downplays WTO Ruling Genetically Modified Crops
  • France To Adopt European Union Rules On Genetically Modified Grops
  • Outrage Over Indonesian Plans For Palm Oil Plantation In Rainforest

  • Volkswagen And Google Team Up To Explore Future Vehicle Nav Systems
  • NASA Technology Featured In New Anti-Icing Windshield Spray
  • Eclectic Koizumi Tries Electric Sedan
  • GM Hires Russian Nuclear Scientists To Develop New Auto Technology

  • New Technology Enhances Quality And Safety Of Military Aircraft
  • Around The World In 80 Hours
  • Lockheed Martin Highlights 5th Gen Fighters And Next Gen Airlift
  • Air Force Announces Quadrennial Defense Review And Budget Highlights

  • Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear
  • NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter
  • Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission
  • Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement