AFOSR

AOARD MATERIALS SCIENCES

18 March 2011

KUMAR V. JATA, PhD

Program Manager
AFOSR/AOARD
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Distribution A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 88ABW-2011-0798
 2011 AFOSR SPRING REVIEW
AOARD MATERIALS SCIENCES
NAME: Kumar V. Jata

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PORTFOLIO:

Support basic materials science research for long term Air Force needs

Identify and work with strong fundamental materials science research groups in
Asia and Australia with research interests in line with the AFOSR general BAA and
fund projects when possible.

SUB-AREAS IN PORTFOLIO:
Novel and innovative materials characterization
Laser materials
NDE and prognosis
Smart materials/ multifunctional lightweight materials
Modeling and simulation
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 Scientific Challenges for the
Portfolio
• Materials characterization
– 3-D mapping at the atomic level; cluster and precipitation
evolution, short-range order
– Algorithm development to analyze data
• Laser materials
– Thermal control and scale-up, output efficiency, materials and
laser architectures for wave length tunability and beam quality
• NDE and prognosis
– Developing damage-estimation procedures for prognosis
• Physical mechanisms underpinning multifunctionality
• Multiscale modeling 3
 Transformational Opportunities

• Lightweight structures operable over wide range of temperatures, speed,

altitude, maneuver, and endurance
• Replace chemical lasers with solid-state and fiber lasers, leading to airborne
directed energy systems, and tactical strike/defense
– Other : Communications, satellite tracking, infrared countermeasures
• Embedded diagnostic and prognostic systems
• Reconfigurable flight control systems, muscle-like linear actuators
• First-principles-based discovery of new materials

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 Other Organizations That Fund
Related Work
Other funding organizations
Materials characterization
• NSF, ONR, DOE, Army
High-energy laser materials
• Largest investment:
Joint Technology Office-ABQ
NDE and prognosis
• NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Lightweight multi-functional materials
• Many organizations
Modeling and simulation
• Many agencies
AOARD Program Focus
• Atom probe tomography - Clusters in
platinum- based superalloys
• Diamond as Raman laser media
• Germanate fiber lasers
• Broadband ceramic laser gain media
(JTO co-funding with AOARD)
•Non-Gaussian data, uncertainty
•Nonlinear ultrasonics
•Magnetic polymer materials
•Shape memory polymers
•Ab initio for transport properties and energy
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 Atom Probe Tomography
Simon Ringer group – Univ. of Sydney

• Understanding precipitation processes in advanced

superalloys:
– Do (atom-vacancy) clusters form? Size, number
and stability
– Or is it dislocation-solute atom binding? APT set up

Field desorption image

• To answer the above questions:

– Lattice reconstruction studies have been
conducted, i.e., reconstructing the position
of atoms in the lattice planes

• Measurements errors are encountered due

to:
– Evaporation rates of atoms (difficult to
control multi-hit events)
– Time of flight spectroscopy
(mass/charge ratio) Calibration: APT Reconstruction; Spatial distribution map-SDM
– Position-sensitive detection of aluminum 6
 Atom Probe Tomography

Rectification data,: Ni-Al-Cr—combines chemical

and crystallographic information

Reconstruction of diamond cubic lattice data - Si

Opens the door to complicated crystal structures

• Work is being conducted in Pt-based superalloys and results are being analyzed using:
• Nearest neighbor analyses
• Cluster Identification algorithms
• Short-range order parameters
• Correlative evaporation analyses 7
 Overview of AOARD Laser Program

Ceramics for high-power lasers

(Final report submitted Feb 2011, PI: Ikesue)

Average power and brightness scaling of diamond Raman

lasers (Macquarie University, PI: Mildren)
Silica and germanate glass high-power fiber laser sources
(University of Adelaide, PI: Monro)

Exploration of advanced ceramic gain media with

broadband: sesquioxides and garnates
(Osaka Institute of Technology, PI: Kamimura & World Lab Inc, PI: Ikesue)
Mode locking of lasers using atomic layer graphene as
absorber material (Nanyang Technology University, PI: Tang)

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 Transition
Solid-State Ceramic Laser Research
Processing science is actively transitioning to RX and Navy

Low res 2010 Breakthrough!

Waveguide fabrication
270 watt @1064 nm

300
Slope efficiency:46.1%

Output Power(W)
200

High res
100

0
0 200 400 600 800
Absorbed Power(W)

Clean boundaries is a challenge

Nd3+:0.6 at% (with 400 μm core)

Pushing the limit to >500W in FY 11 9

 Diamond Raman Lasers
Power and Brightness Scaling
PI: Richard Mildren, Macquarie University

Raman scattering generate Stokes waves that have:

Stoke waves: w -n=w0-n wp.
Anti-stokes waves w -n=w0+ n wp.
wp. is the Raman vibration frequency
Inversion Raman
medium crystal

Pump Raman crystal

Laser

•Mildren first to demonstrate CW Raman

Why Diamond ? operation in solid state system in 2008
– High Raman gain, outstanding thermal •Current limitations 5 W
properties and damage threshold, and good
•DSTO is engaged
transmission range

Explore power scaling rules and limitations through experiment and theory 10
Output performance for 1064-nm pumped external cavity laser (1st & 2nd Stokes (1240nm and 1480 nm)
 High-Power Fiber Laser
Silica and Germanate Glasses
PI: Tanya Monro, University of Adelaide

How do you overcome the challenges of the design and thermal limitations
of silica- and germanate-based glasses
Can you design for high-power and high-beam-quality laser output in the
2–2.1 mm wavelength range?
.
World-class processing facility has been established at the University of Adelaide
for fiber lasers; DSTO is engaged

60 GeO2 – 30 PbO – 5 La2O3 – 5 Na2O

Thulium based fiber preform

First demonstration of a microstructural germanate fiber drawn from an extruded preform

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JTO Interest and co-funding

 Detecting Early Damage in Fatigue
PI: Krishnan Balasubramaniam, IIT-M

Dislocation density increases with fatigue cycling

0% Fatigue 43%Fatigue life 100%Fatigue life

A2/A21, ratio of second harmonic amplitude and square of fundamental

amplitude was taken as a measure of nonlinearity parameter
In case of piezoelectric transducer, as receiver, A2/A21 found to increase as
the number of fatigue cycle increases up to 47% of fatigue life, and it
remains constant until 70% of fatigue life; after that, it decreases until 93%
of fatigue life
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 Smart /Multifunctional Materials
PI: Ramanujan, Nanyang Technological University
Elastomers with magnetic particles (MAGPOL):
 Couple modulus and magnetic properties
 Magpol can be modeled and designed using either geometric or materials parameters

Coiling of MAGPOL initiated by local buckling in high magnetic field intensity region.

Versatile soft transducer with several actuation modes Energetics similar to 1st order
phase transformation 13
Snyder, Nguyen, Ramanujan, Acta Mater. 2010, 58, 5620
 Graphene-like Structures
(BN)xC1-2x: Case of B2N2C4
PI: Waghmare, JNCSAR

Objective: Develop graphene-like materials with tunable/desired transport properties

X=0.5
X=0.25
Line of interest

N
C
Graphene B2N2C4
Electronic bands and DOS of most stable structure

• Band gap can be tuned with chemical ordering of B, C, and N: bandgap of B2N2C4 changes
from 0 eV to 2.36 eV
• Energetic suggests possible domains of BN in graphene; interfaces important to transport
properties
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• Phonon dispersion expected to have similar tunability, particularly the optical modes
 Program Trends

• Novel and innovative materials characterization

• Laser materials
– Diamond Raman laser research fully funded for two years
– Fiber lasers co-funding with JTO to continue
– Broadband ceramic laser development to continue with JTO
• NDE and prognosis
– Co-funded with Les Lee and David Stargel
• Lightweight materials with multifunctionality
– Several joint projects with Charles Lee, Joycelyn Harrison and RX
• Modeling and simulation
– AOARD and RX co-funded
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 Summary
• Atom probe tomography to focus on solute distribution, clusters and
precipitates in Pt-based superalloys
• Diamond Raman lasers continue to research on intracavity and
external cavity with large specimen size: experiments and numerical
modeling for scale up and brightness
• Fiber lasers continue to focus on germanate glasses: experiments
and numerical modeling for power and brightness
• Broadband ceramics will continue to be explore sesquioxides and
advanced garnates
• Modeling and simulation studies to be continued for understanding
of tuning of transport properties
• Several projects in NDE and smart/functional materials will continue
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