Mesomorphic ceramics are inorganic solids with anisotropic superstructures that are derived from lyotropic suspensions. Here we report on the synthesis of amorphous silica nanotubes and their subsequent processing into mesomorphic ceramic thin films. Nanotube synthesis involves the formation of nickel hydrazine complexes within inverse micelles followed silica coating and etching of the core. A lyotropic suspension of silica nanotubes is formed and subsequent blade-coating results in birefringent thin films. Sintering of particle assemblies may result in waveplates with high laser damage resistance.
Cholesteric glassy liquid crystal films (Ch-GLCs) are solid-state materials with unique optical properties derived from embedded supramolecular structure. Owing to their ability to be processed into thin films combined with their remarkable durability, Ch-GLCs are increasingly attractive for variety of optical operations including single element circular polarization, notch filtering, and polarized luminescence. Ch-GLCs are most frequently processed into monodomain thin films to exhibit a helical stack of in-plane chiral mesogens with orientation that varies periodically through the thickness of the film. Two distinct optical phenomena emerge from this kinetically frozen supramolecular order: (i) selective reflection and transmission of right and left handed circular polarized light owing to the periodic structure defined by the optical pitch-length and (ii) circular dichroism arising from light-absorbing chiral constituents. In our current experiments, we are modulating the spectral range of the stopband through thin film processing, and we are doping GLC films with absorbing dyes to achieve circular dichroism over different spectral ranges. Our objective is to understand the overlap between stop-band behavior and circular dichoism to enable polarization into the SWIR range as well as optical isolation of incident light. The effort is part of a new center, Advanced Materials for Powerful Lasers (AMPL), based at the University of Rochester.
The capsule targets for ignition experiments at the National Ignition Facility must meet very exacting requirements. Primary among them is an extremely high degree of symmetry at all length scales for the 2-mm-diameter 150-μm-walled capsule. At LLNL work is in progress to produce both polyimide and sputtered beryllium targets that meet these specifications. Both of these targets require a thin-walled spherical-shell plastic mandrel upon which the beryllium or polyimide ablator is deposited. In this paper we report on recent progress in developing NIF capsules that meet the demanding design requirements.
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