The Aerospace Corporation

University of California

Bruce H Weiller

Richard Barry Kaner

Shabnam Virji

Randy M Villahermosa

Jiaxing Huang

Jesse D Fowler

Robert Kojima

Jiaxing Miller Research Fellow Huang

Systems and methods for preventing or reducing contamination enhanced laser induced damage (C-LID) to optical components are provided including a housing enclosing an optical component, a container configured to hold a gas phase additive and operatively coupled to the housing; and a delivery system configured to introduce the gas phase additive from the container into the housing and to maintain the gas phase additive at a pre-selected partial pressure within the housing. The gas phase additive may have a greater affinity for the optical component than does a contaminant and may be present in an amount sufficient to inhibit laser induced damage resulting from contact between the contaminant and the optical component. The housing may be configured to maintain a sealed gas environment or vacuum.

Systems and methods for preventing or reducing contamination enhanced laser induced damage (C-LID) to optical components using gas phase additives

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for inhibiting contamination enhanced laser induced damage (CELID) based on fluorinated self-assembled monolayers (F-SAMs) disposed on optics. For example, a coating for inhibiting CELID to an optic disposed in a sealed gas environment or vacuum may include an F-SAM that includes a fluorinated hydrocarbon tail group covalently bound to the optic by a head group. The coating may be formed by heating the optic and a liquid-phase precursor of the F-SAM to generate a gas-phase precursor, and exposing the heated optic to the gas-phase precursor for a period of time sufficient for the gas-phase precursor to coalesce at and covalently bond to the optic and form the F-SAM. The optic may include silica, and the F-SAM may include a siloxane group covalently bound to the silica.

Systems and methods for inhibiting contamination enhanced laser induced damage (CELID) based on fluorinated self-assembled monolayers disposed on optics

A method for sensing hydrogen includes the use of a transduction device with a sensing layer, and means for measuring a mass and/or conductivity change caused by an interaction of a gas with the sensing layer to provide a measure of an amount of hydrogen in the gas. The sensing layer includes polyaniline nanofiber material.

Polyaniline nanofiber hydrogen sensors

A sensor for detecting phosgene includes a pair of electrodes separated by an electrode gap, and a layer of conducting polymer material positioned over and making electrical contact with the pair of electrodes, the layer of conducting polymer material being modified with an amine such that the electrical resistance of the conducting polymer material measured across the electrodes is responsive to changes in an amount of phosgene to which the conducting polymer material is exposed.

Polyaniline nanofiber-amine composite materials for phosgene detection

Polymer nanofibers, such as polyaniline nanofibers, with uniform diameters less than 500 nm can be made in bulk quantities through a facile aqueous and organic interfacial polymerization method at ambient conditions. The nanofibers have lengths varying from 500 nm to 10 &#x3bc;m and form interconnected networks in a thin film. Thin film nanofiber sensors can be made of the polyaniline nanofibers having superior performance in both sensitivity and time response to a variety of gas vapors including, acids, bases, redox active vapors, alcohols and volatile organic chemicals.

Conducting polymer nanofiber sensors

Synthetic method for conducting polymer nanofibers

Chemical vapor deposition of titanium nitride thin films is based upon the gas phase kinetics of the reaction of a metal-amido precursors, e.g. tetrakis dimethylamido titanium (Ti(NMe.sub.2).sub.4), which when reacted with a reagent, for example, NH.sub.3 produces in a transamination reaction, an amine, e.g. HNMe.sub.2, as a direct product, which when added to the reaction in excess, inhibits the reversible transamination reaction so as to slow and control the rate of reaction to produce titanium nitride films having conformal step coverage over sub-micron integrated circuit features.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Monica, CA, United States of America

Bruce H Weiller