Very-High Efficiency, High Power Laser Diodes, Phase I

AdTech Photonics, in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR) at UMBC, is pleased to submit this proposal entitled ?Very-High Efficiency, High Power Laser Diodes? in response to NASA?s needs in the such areas as diode pumped solid state lasers and Lidar Remote Sensing. Our goal is to develop ultra-high efficiency diode laser bars that can achieve greater than 80% external quantum efficiency, even when operated at very high power, in order to enable various NASA applications. To demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing the laser diodes, we propose important milestones that include: a. innovative laser structures to incorporate well-designed band alignment to reduce over-flow leakage current. b. Designing, fabricating, packaging, and testing of thin film double-side heat removal designs that reduce the laser operating temperature and heating induced losses. c. Developing mass production on-wafer processing and packaging techniques that allow thin film lasers to be processed and separated into discrete laser bars. AdTech Photonics has many years of production experience in the high power laser area covering both military and commercial market needs since 1995. We will work out all tasks and provide NASA with small quantity fabricated samples for space qualification, and other NASA applications.

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.