NASA SBIR 2015 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Physical Optics Corporation
1845 West 205th Street
Torrance, CA 90501 - 1510
(310) 320-3088

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jae Choi
PSProposals@poc.com
1845 West 205th Street
Torrance, CA 90501 - 1510
(310) 320-3088 Extension :466

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gordon Drew
gedrew@poc.com
1845 West 205th Street
Torrance, CA 90501 - 1510
(310) 320-3088

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 7

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Atomic Interferometry is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
To address NASA's need for compact optical isolators, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to continue the development of a new Miniature Optical Isolator (MOI). The novel optical isolator design is based on enhanced magneto-optical (MO) effects in magnetic photonic crystals. The innovation in the technology is its capacity to engineer MO effects not only by choosing the right material but also by adjusting the lattice parameters of 1 dimensional photonic crystals. While occupying a very small volume (~0.1 cm^3), a MOI device will achieve high optical transmission (2 dB or less forward loss) and excellent optical isolation (40 dB) at target wavelengths at a low cost. Therefore, the MOI technology directly addresses NASA's requirements for a compact, robust optical isolator for applications in cold atom systems. In Phase I, POC demonstrated the feasibility of the MOI technology through modeling and analysis, as well as fabrication of a proof-of-concept prototype with basic performance parameters characterized. In Phase II, POC will further optimize the device and fabricate prototypes for validation of key performance metrics, as well as evaluate life cycle and environmental performance.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The primary NASA applications of the proposed MOI system are in metrology, magnetometry, and inertial navigation. NASA applications inherently require miniaturization of all system components. Frequency stabilized lasers are currently used in atomic clocks. Next-generation magnetometers and inertial navigation sensors also need optical isolation of the laser sources. In any NASA application that requires frequency stabilized lasers, MOI devices can replace bulky optical isolators to reduce the volume by a factor of >100.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Metrology and inertial navigation are important in various military and civilian applications. Laboratory demonstrations already have shown that cold-atom systems are superior to any other technologies for navigation and timing applications. However, the biggest hurdle in transitioning this technology into field-deployable units is quite often the sheer volume and weight of the system. To take full advantage of the extraordinary performance of cold atom systems, miniaturization of individual components is necessary. Other than metrology and navigation, optical isolators also have significant commercial applications in diverse fields, such as optical telecommunication, magneto-optic imaging, and gas sensing.