The approach is to use appropriately doped semi-insulating gallium nitride to provide a high damage tolerant photoconductor with high responsivity to various pump wavelength light.  Mn, C, or Fe are used as dopants to provide a source of electrons or holes that can be excited.  This is combined with the use of dichroic antireflection coating at the GaN/polyimide/liquid crystal…

This LLNL invention allows for the fabrication of complex waveplate features and topologies from fused silica, a highly desirable and durable waveplate material.  It also is a unique technique for density multiplication and high-fidelity bidirectional deposition, which can create optical components that are generally for entirely new classes of optical materials.

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This LLNL invention concerns a method for patterning the index of refraction by fabricating a spatially invariant metasurface, and then apply spatially varied mechanical loading to compress the metasurface features vertically and spread them radially. In doing so, the index of refraction can be re-written on the metasurface, thus enabling index patterning. This process allows rapid 'rewriting…

This novel invention specifically enables the fabrication of arbitrarily tailored birefringence characteristics in nano-structured meta-surfaces on non-birefringent substrates (e.g. fused silica). The birefringent nano-structured meta-surface is produced by angled directional reactive ion beam etching through a nano-particle mask. This method enables the simultaneous tailoring of refractive…

This invention (US Patent No. 11,294,103) is an extension of another LLNL invention, US Patent No. 10,612,145, which utilizes a thin sacrificial metal mask layer deposited on a dielectric substrate (e.g. fused silica) and subsequently nanostructured through a laser generated selective thermal de-wetting process.

LLNL’s researchers use physical vapor deposition (sputter deposition or electron beam deposition) to coat an inert gasket material (i.e. PTFE) with a conductive metal (i.e. copper). The gas diffusion electrode overlaps onto the copper coated gasket to allow for electrical conductivity between the catalyst surface and the flow field/current collector of a CO2 electrolyzer. The coated gasket…

Using their computational design optimization, LLNL researchers have developed copper-based dilute alloy catalysts (contains <10 at.% of the minority metal alloy component) and demonstrated these novel catalysts have improved energy efficiency and selectivity of the methane conversion reaction.  By alloying copper with a small amount of the electropositive minority metal element, the…

LLNL researchers has developed designs to augment WBG/UWBG-based OALVs to improve their power handling capability under CW operational environments.  These designs include:

This invention consists of a method of forming nanoscale metal lines to produce a grating-like mask with wide area coverage over the surface of a durable optical material such as fused silica. Subsequent etching processes transfer the metal mask to the underlying substrate forming a birefringent metasurface. This method enables the production of ultrathin waveplates for high power laser…

Heat sensitive materials such as piezoelectric and MEMS devices and assemblies, magnetic sensors, nonlinear optical crystals, laser glass or solid-state laser materials, etc. cannot be exposed to excess temperatures which in the context of this invention, means materials that cannot be exposed to temperatures greater than 50°C (122°F). LLNL’s invention describes a low-temperature method of…

LLNL’s innovation offers an alternate synthetic route to graphite at lower cost using a molten salt mixture of CaCl2-CaCO3-CaO.  The synthetic production of graphite and other high-value carbon materials is accomplished in molten salt media via electrochemical reduction and transformation of the carbon from the carbonate ion. The broad electrochemical window of molten salts enables the…

This novel method of producing waveplates from isotropic optical materials (e.g. fused silica) consists of forming a void-dash metasurface using the following process steps:

Design and construction of a photoconductive switch requires a diamond photoconductor illuminated by light of a certain excitation wavelength.  The diamond material is specifically doped with substitutional nitrogen, which act as a source of electrons.  The device architecture allows maximum light entering the aperture.  The top and bottom electrodes are made of ultra wide band…

The approach is to use a custom-designed frustrum and attach it to the optical fiber that connects to the PCSS.  Light from the fiber enters the frustrum, spreads out, and enters the PCSS.  Any unabsorbed light re-enters the frustrum and, because of its geometry, reflects back into the PCSS itself with only a negligible fraction escaping from the fiber.  The shape of the novel…

The novel LLNL approach is to use projection microstereolithography (LAPµSL), starting with a photocurable methacrylate resin formulation consisting of a combination of a photoinitiator, photoabsorber, inhibitor, solvents, and other additives.  Prior to use, the resin is pretreated to control viscosity for easier handling.  The resin is fed to a LAPµSL printer which employs a near UV…

The inventors have developed a 3% Yttria partially-stabilized Zirconia (3YZ) ceramic ink that produces parts with both nano and microporosity and is compatible with two AM techniques: DIW and projection microstereolithography (PμSL). The 3YZ nano-porous ceramic printed parts had engineered macro cavities measuring several millimeters in length, wall thicknesses ranging from 200 to 540 μm, and…

This invention describes a multiple nozzle microfluidic unit that allows simultaneous generation streams of multiple layered coaxial liquid jets. Liquids are pumped into the device at a combined flow rate from 100 mL/hr to 10 L/hr. Droplets are created with diameters in the range of 1 µm to 5 mm and can be created with 1-2 shell layers encapsulating fluid. Droplets created from the system can…

The Optical Transconductance Varistor (OTV, formerly Opticondistor) overcomes depletion region voltage limitations by optically exciting wide bandgap materials in a compact package. A 100μm thick crystal could have the capability approaching 40kV and would replace numerous equivalent junction devices. Thus, unlike present junction transistors or diodes, this wide bandgap device can be stacked…