Month: March 2020

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with the University of Texas, Austin (UT), has been awarded a research program from the U.S. Army to develop a metasurface-enhanced type-II superlattice (T2SL) imaging detector that achieves significant absorption enhancement for midwave infrared wavelengths (MWIR, 3–5 μm) using an absorbing layer with average thickness that is sub-micron.

MWIR imaging is critical need for unmanned aircrafts and infantry weapons systems, however, the size, weight and power (SWaP) of conventional imaging detectors is prohibitively high, dominated by large dewar-based cooling assemblies needed to reduce dark current to acceptable levels. By enhancing a low-noise T2SL detector with a metasurface, PSI’s imaging detector will have a higher quantum efficiency with a simultaneously-lower dark current than MCT detectors to enable infrared imaging at temperatures accessible to compact thermoelectric coolers.

Removing the need for cyrogenic cooling from infrared imaging systems enables new markets for infrared imagers, particularly SWaP concerns previously served as a barrier to application. In addition to adding new markets, this technology will lead to an improvement in the performance of high-end infrared systems in existing DoD and commercial markets, such as security, chemical detection and agricultural monitoring.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics Enterprise
hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to develop advanced innovative data processing techniques for sensors that monitor the integrity of carbon dioxide sequestration sites and pipelines.

Ensuring environmental safety and public acceptance of geologic carbon sequestration (GCS), a geoengineering means of mitigating carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources, requires cost-effective tools for monitoring, verification, and accounting to detect unintended CO₂migration from storage reservoirs and injector wellbores. Identifying leaks is challenging because they are difficult to distinguish from the varying natural ambient CO₂.

Collaborating with the University of Texas at Austin, PSI is automating long-term data processing to recognize signatures of slow seepage of CO₂and CH₄ from GCS sites. We are applying data-driven advanced machine learning algorithms to process information provided by sensors that continuously monitor the surface and subsurface. Both CO₂and CH₄ may be emitted in leak events, especially when the storage formation has been or is being used for oil production. However, the normal temporal (e.g. diurnal) and spatial variation of CO₂and CH4 concentration present in the natural ambient environment may exceed the magnitude of local concentration increase during a leak event. In previous work, PSI developed reliable, sensitive, cost-effective laser-based gas monitoring sensors that have been installed at both carbon sequestration and natural gas facilities to continuously and autonomously monitor near-surface concentrations of CO₂and CH4. Field data acquired with these sensors reveal that leak plumes create distinct anomalies in the concentration temporal statistics, yielding statistical features that are distinguishable from natural background variations. These tools will enhance safety and public acceptance while verifying that sequestration performs the intended function of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For more Information, contact:

Shin-Juh Chen
Group Leader, Industrial Sensors

schen@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
(978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a quantum memory unit, a critical component in the implementation of a quantum network that will enable fundamentally secure communications and exponential scaling of computer power.

The realization of quantum networks as a “quantum internet” represent a huge leap in technological capability and computing power. Linking computers over conventional “classical” networks enhances computational power by distributing processing tasks by exchanging data bits and then aggregating the results. For a quantum network, quantum bits (or “qubits”) replace classical bits and introduce the potential for perfectly-secure data transfer of information between classical computers and the possibility of exponentially-increased computational power when networking multiple quantum computers.

To enable the transfer of quantum information over an existing telecommunications-fiber network, PSI is implementing a scalable quantum random access memory unit. This memory will controllably transfer quantum information from photons to atoms and back to photons following a scalable architecture with high throughput that is attractive for networking applications.

The quantum memory will enable the first quantum networks to link multiple classical computers over a fundamentally secure communication line. These links will have immediate impacts on national security and financial sectors where communications security is critical. Creating quantum networks will allow the United States to catch up with foreign countries that already have established operational quantum communication systems. A larger benefit to research, business, and society as a whole will be seen when multiple quantum computers are realized and linked using a quantum network. Cooperative communication of quantum computers communicating over the quantum network enables a single, larger computer with more qubits and enables exponential increase in computational power. These computational increases can perform quantum simulations that may speed up drug discovery, improve weather forecasting and climate change predictions, as well as benefit the development of artificial intelligence.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics Enterprise

hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
(978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc (PSI) has been awarded a contract from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agenc (DARPA) to develop an Aberration-correcting Topologically Optimized Metasurface (ATOM) to demonstrate the ability of a 2D surface, of negligible volume and weight, to correct aberrations in optical systems.

Metasurfaces, with their ability to arbitrarily control the amplitude and phase of light across a band of wavelengths, have the potential to disrupt imaging and communication systems which rely on traditional lenses to focus, collimate, and otherwise manipulate optical signals, and are under increasing pressure to operate with reduced size and weight.

PSI’s metasurface will enable a size and weight reduction of imaging systems without performance degradation. Traditional imaging systems utilize a large number of bulk lenses to reduce aberrations and produce high quality images. Rather than replacing conventional lenses with metalenses wholesale, our approach to producing a low size-weight and power (SWaP) optical system will utilize metasurfaces to serve as “glasses” for a single conventional lens, serving the role typically played by multiple bulk optics. Our metasurface will be designed using topological optimization, which generates non-intuitive surface patterns with higher efficiencies than traditional brute force design techniques. We will also utilize nano-imprint lithography to reduce the cost of the metacorrector when produced at large volumes.

Applications for such metasurfaces include imaging systems for air- and space-platforms, riflescopes, and in vivo medical diagnostic equipment. Additionally, the design principles developed in this work will expand upon current techniques, increasing the options available to optical designers.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics

hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

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Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to develop a low-power ultrafast photo-conductive optoelectronic switch.

Terahertz frequency devices have the potential to disrupt wireless communication, medical imaging and security fields if their power budget decreases significantly. PSI is leveraging recent advances in photonic design and materials processing to greatly reduce the power required to operate an ultrafast switch, the backbone of terahertz technologies. The photoconductive optoelectronic switch will leverage advances in materials development, metamaterials, and nanophotonics to reduce the operating power to below 0.1 milliwatts without sacrificing bandwidth or signal to noise ratio in a commercially scalable, cost effective process.

The terahertz frequency range has long held promise as the future home for a wide variety of wireless technologies, chemical sensors and medical diagnostic equipment. Low power optoelectronic switches could enable new bands for ultra-high bandwidth wireless communication, improve surveillance and security at high-importance sites such as airports, improve stand-off detection of chemical compounds for threat identification, enable less-invasive alternatives to x-ray and CT scans in the field of medical imaging, and provide improved quality control methods in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and food processing industries.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics Enterprise

[hensley@psicorp.com](mailto: hensley@psicorp.com)
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003