Advances in Anisotropic Materials for Optical Switching

Abstract : There is continued interest within the Department of Defense to develop new photonic materials to address a wide range of Warfighter needs such as target designation, Soldier identification, communication, visual displays, active and passive optical filtering, and chemical and biological sensing. Optical switching is an area of particular interest. In general, new optical materials are required that can switch their transmission state on and off quickly, that have high optical quality, that can operate over a broad and controllable range of wavelengths, and that are inexpensive and highly manufacturable. As a result of recent progress by researchers at NSRDEC, BEAM Engineering for Advanced Measurements Co. (BEAM). and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL), materials now exist that bring us closer to realizing these goals.