High-Repetition-Rate, Narrow-Linewidth Burst-Mode Optical Parametric Oscillator for High-Speed Flow and Combustion Diagnostics

NASA large ground test facilities, including transonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels, provide critical data and fundamental insight required to understand complex phenomena and support the advancement of computational tools for modeling and simulation. In these facilities, real-time, high-repetition-rate 2D or 3D measurement techniques are needed to track the high-speed turbulence dynamics. Current state-of-the-art measurement capabilities have limited sample rates, which is insufficient to track the dynamic of the turbulent reacting and non-reacting flows. This proposal offers an integrated package of truly cutting-edge, 1 MHz rate burst-mode laser pumped Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) system for multi-species laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection in NASA ground test facilities. The work plan includes adding more amplifiers to generate high-energy laser pulses at 1 MHz rate, integrating laser/OPO/imaging system for 1-MHz operation, and delivering laser, OPO, and the imaging system to NASA Langley.

This effort will provide new 1-MHz rate instrumentation capabilities and methodologies for tracking turbulence evolution that is required as inputs to model and predict complicate turbulence flow behavior in NASA supersonic and hypersonic large-scale wind tunnels. NASA potential users could be from a number of supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels at various NASA research centers including 31” Mach 10 tunnel, National Transonic Wind Tunnel, 0.3m TCT, Unitary Wind Tunnel, HYMETS Arc-jet, and Hypersonic Scramjet, etc.

The system could also be very useful in various large test facilities in many universities, research institutes and aviation companies for accurate flow and combustion measurements. Customers could be from research facilities in DoD, DARPA, DOE, and industrial aeronautical companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE, Pratt-Whitney, Raytheon, and other industrial aerospace interests.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.