Volume 11, Number 3 • Fall 2003 • Small Business/SBIR

Seeing into the Future?

Crystals developed for NASA Langley Research Center.

AeIt may sound strange, but a small company that develops experimental crystals appears to have its own crystal ball. Scientific Materials Corporation (SMC) in Bozeman, MT has been in the business of growing crystals since the 1980s. Since crystal development actually leads the device development by roughly seven years, the company has to see the destinations for their crystals far in advance. SMC’s crystals are used in numerous areas of research and development to create new high-performance solid-state devices in the field of opto-electronics.

Why locate a crystal-growing company in Montana? The climate happens to be ideal. Crystal growth is the art of stability. According to Ralph Hutcheson, who founded the company, “what you’re trying to create is an atmosphere around your
pot that is extremely stable, that has no outside
interference, and you just let the thing essentially cook. You want Mother Nature to work with you, not against you.” During the growing process, it is much easier to work with cold temperatures than hot temperatures.

Early in the company’s history, Hutcheson attended a presentation where he heard a NASA expert talk about the need for lasers in space. As he sat in the audience, he thought, “I can do that.” And he did. With funding from NASA Langley Research Center through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, the firm developed crystal samples used as opto-electronic components in space-based lasers.

In 1990, a resurgence in the field of solid-state laser technology occurred, as people realized that lasers could be solutions for many approaching technology needs. “In the last 10 years, solid-state lasers have been moving from infancy to adolescence, as far as their applications are concerned. Not at adulthood yet, but slowly getting there,” says Hutcheson.

Langley Research Center was part of that resurgence, particularly in the area of remote-sensing applications for the space-based lasers, such as ozone and water vapor measurements. Because Scientific Materials had been looking ahead, they were ready. There was also a renewed focus on high-energy programs, growth in military applications such as target identification and target illumination, and an explosion in the use of medical lasers for surgery and treatment. All of these have pushed the technology development to new and higher levels.

Using that “crystal ball” to see the future needs for their crystals, SMC knew that two things had to happen: their quality had to be improved, and the prices had to become lower. The company has done both.

Artist Rendering of ICESat. Langley Research Center.

The net result is what Hutcheson calls the “Experimental Crystals Supermarket” at Scientific Materials. For any study requiring a crystal sample, there are numerous concentration variations of the required samples for the experiments—as many as 20–40 samples at far lower costs than 10 years ago. This has had tremendous benefits for the research community.

Keith E. Murray, a researcher in the Laser and Electro-Optics Branch at Langley, wanted to develop a two-wavelength laser system for dental and medical applications. However, he had a very limited budget and needed to have the best candidate materials for true proof of principle demonstrations. Scientific Materials took an interest in Murray’s project and provided his required crystals at a fraction of what they might have otherwise cost.

SMC works closely with Montana State University, also located in Bozeman. The firm is able to tap into the university intellectual community as they develop new products, and, at the same time, provide the professors and students with quality crystals for university research. Hutcheson considers the relationship to be a win-win situation. “The university found in the process of doing this, it actually broadened their education capabilities, and they brought a whole new level of activities to the students.”

Today, the company is recognized worldwide for its fine, high-quality crystal samples. Their largest commercial product is the result of their research efforts under the SBIR program with Langley—the crystal named Nd:YAG. Because of the intense beam it helps to produce in lasers, Nd:YAG is the workhorse of these crystals and is used for all types of machining processes.

SMC developed laser media and switches that are in the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), the first laser-ranging (lidar) instrument for continuous global observations of Earth. From aboard the Ice Cloud and Elevation Satellite (ICESat) spacecraft, GLAS is making unique atmospheric observations, including measuring ice-sheet topography, cloud and atmospheric properties, and the height and thickness of radiatively important cloud layers needed for accurate short-term climate and weather prediction.

Other SMC crystal samples are being developed for several major projects, including a monoblock laser for US Army range finder applications, a chip for a memory processor that will be capable of reducing huge amounts of data and then collating it very rapidly, and high-energy optics for high-energy lasers.

While these and other projects are in development today, Scientific Materials Corporation continues to peer into that crystal ball to see what will be needed tomorrow. *

sFor more information, contact Robert L. Yang, Manager of the Small Business Partnership Team at NASA Langley Research Center, r.l.yang@larc.nasa.gov. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits