MOEC wins Air Force grant for optical polymers

MOEC wins Air Force grant for optical polymers

The US Air Force Materials Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB (Dayton, OH) has awarded Molecular OptoElectronics Corp. (MOEC, Watervliet, NY) a Phase II SBIR $740,000 grant for optical polymers. The two-year contract calls for MOEC to incorporate specialty monomers in polymers to develo¥thermally and structurally robust optical materials. In solution, certain monomers with purely left- handed or right-handed chirality can rotate the polarization of incident light. When polymerized and used to produce bulk optical materials such as engineering thermoplastic, the monomers should perform similarly, paving the way for polarizing optical fiber, lenses, diffractive optics, waveguides, and nonlinear optical components.