Pentagon Doles Out $570,000 in Research Grants to Aculight

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory Armament Directorate has awarded a $400,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract to Aculight Corp. of Bellevue, Wash., to develop a 20-kHz, 1.5- to 2.4-µm eye-safe laser illuminator for scanning laser radar applications. The company received an additional $170,000 in grants from the laboratory and the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, to develop related high-power continuous-wave periodic-poled LiNbO₃ (PPLN) optical parmetric oscillator technology that simultaneously produces output in the 2-, 3- and 4-µm atmospheric transmission bands. When combined with an efficient diode-pumped laser, PPLN can convert the wavelength of high-repetition-rate, low-pulse-energy lasers to provide a wavelength-selectable output in a compact package.