AFOSR

ELECTROMAGNETICS
16 March 2011

Dr. Arje Nachman

Program Manager
AFOSR/RSE
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Distribution A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 88ABW-2011-0751
 2011 AFOSR SPRING REVIEW
2301K PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW
NAME: Dr. Arje Nachman

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PORTFOLIO:

Interrogation (Modeling/Simulation) of Linear/Nonlinear Maxwell’s Eqs

LIST SUB-AREAS IN PORTFOLIO:

Theoretical Nonlinear Optics
Wave Propagation Through Complex Media
Fundamentals of Antenna Design/Operation
Fundamentals of Effects of EM Exposure on Circuitry
Inverse Problems
Computational EM

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 Subareas Funding Trends

• Wave Propagation Through Complex* Media

* Dispersive, Conductive, Random1/Turbulent, Man-Made Composites

• Antenna Design/Operation
• Inverse Problems
• Computational EM1
• Effects of EM Exposure on Circuitry
• Nonlinear Optics
(MURI on “Propagation of Ultrashort Laser Pulses through Transparent Media” began 1 Oct 2010)
1A recent NSSEFF Mathematics awardee will be looking at exactly this topic

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 Scientific Challenges
• Wave Propagation Through Complex Media
Details of time-domain dynamics of EM pulses through Dispersive, Conductive, and/or
Random/Turbulent media
Research provides optimism that the class of waveforms termed Precursors have the
potential to upgrade imaging quality.

• Antenna Design/Operation
Suitable PARTNERSHIPS of MATERIALS and GEOMETRY can deliver man-made
composites which exhibit novel EM attributes.
Such METAMATERIALS include: NIMs, PBGs, and “Unidirectional” composites.
Growing reliance on small UAVs drives the need to miniaturize antennas and make them more
responsive.

• Nonlinear Optics
Fundamental modeling/simulation research which addresses concerns with
femtosecond filament arrangements and plasma channel characteristics.

Advances in modeling/simulation of fiber and solid state lasers to guide the

development of compact, high energy systems. 4
 Transformational Opportunities

• LADAR on Cloudy Days: Two-Pronged Approach

Research in Linear EM which predicted the formation and
propagation of PRECURSORS in CLOUDS
Research in Nonlinear EM which predicted the relatively
unabated propagation of LIGHTSTRINGS through CLOUDS

• ANTENNA MINIATURIZATION
Research on “Unidirectional” composites predicted the
design of miniature antennas whose performance was
superior to current designs

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 Recent Transitions

• LM Aero/Ohio State Univ

exploited novel wave slow-down
feature of the degenerate band
edge metamaterials (developed
under an AFOSR MURI at OSU) to
significantly reduce antenna size.
• The designed metamaterial FOPEN
array has 0.23 λ (3”) element
separation and λ/10 (6”) distance to
ground plane--less than half the size
and thickness of typical antennas.
• This work is part of a current
RY Metamaterials contract.

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 ACTIVE INFRARED IMAGING THROUGH CLOUDS
and OTHER (FOG, DUST) SPARSE DISCRETE MEDIA

Drs. Elizabeth and Marek Bleszynski

Monopole, Inc

PROJECT OBJECTIVE
investigate possibility of using wide-band, infrared (IR) pulses
for imaging through media composed of sparsely distributed
discrete particles such as clouds, fog, dust, or smoke
example: a trapezoidally modulated IR pulse
Impinging on a cloud

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pulse parameters: cloud parameters:
- carrier wavelength: λ = 10μm (ν = 30 THz) - average droplet radius: a ~ 5μm
- number of cycles in the pulse: m = 60 - average droplet-droplet distance: R ~ 1 mm 7
- rise/fall time: 0.05 of the carrier period
 PROPAGATION OF A WIDE-BAND IR PULSE
THROUGH SPARSE, DISCRETE MEDIA
- medium as a filter attenuating high frequencies
- evolution of propagating pulse into a Brillouin precursor
pulse spectrum after propagating
z = 100m, 200m, 300m
through the cloud medium
pulse amplitude after propagating
z = 100m, 200m, 300m
through the cloud medium
pulse amplitude

Brillouin precursor-type structures
associated with leading and
trailing edges of transmitted pulse
1 THz ν (GHz)
– transmitted pulse spectrum has significant
amount of low-frequency components
– high-frequency part of the spectrum is
attenuated very strongly as pulse propagates
– low-frequency part of spectrum is
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weakly attenuated
 PROPAGATION OF A “CHIRPED TRAIN OF PULSES”
generate a coherent train of N pulses (with small rise/fall times)
emitted at linearly increasing pulse-pulse intervals

τ1 τ2 τ3
linearly increasing time intervals τp between pulses
chirped train characterized by: effective center frequency and effective bandwidth

after passing through clouds the pulse train becomes a train of precursor-type pulses
associated with leading and trailing edges of the transmitted trapezoidal pulses
and attenuated approximately algebraically (not exponentially)!

τ1 τ2 τ3

this “train of precursors” is an analogue

of the conventional chirped signal 9
 IMAGING WITH A CHIRPED TRAIN OF PULSES
- synthetic-aperture (SA) scenario & summary of imaging
synthetic aperture
aircraft with ~ 10m … 100m
IR transmitter & ● transmitter on the aircraft emits a coherent
millimeter-wave receiver chirped train of wide-band IR pulses with
repetition rate of a few hundred (e.g., 220) GHz
transmitted chirped train
of pulses
● while passing through clouds high frequency
range
~ 10 km
components are strongly absorbed. Each pulse
dominated by its weakly absorbed low
frequency components and acquires the shape
layer of characteristic of a Brillouin precursor
clouds
● the “precursor train” is similar to a chirped
train of precursor-type pulses millimeter-wave signal of center frequency
after passing through clouds equal to the train repetition rate
(e.g., ν = 220 GHz ↔ λ = 1.4 mm)

● hence: imaging methods similar to those

used in millimeter-wave SAR can be applied
footprint size:
~ 100m

ground plane
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 Mathematical Modeling and Experimental Validation
of Ultrafast Nonlinear Light-Matter Coupling Associated
with Filamentation in Transparent Media
MURI PM---Dr Arje Nachman (AFOSR)

J.V. Moloney ACMS/OSC A. Becker C. Durfee

M. Kolesik ACMS/OSC J. Squier
A. Jaron-Becker
P. Polynkin ACMS/OSC
S.W. Koch OSC H. Kapteyn
N. Bloembergen OSC M. Murnane
A.C. Newell ACMS/Math
K. Glasner ACMS/Math
S. Venkataramani ACMS/Math R. Albanese AFRL/RH
M. Brio ACMS/Math W.P. Roach AFRL/RD

D. Christodoulides R. Levis A. Gaeta

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 EXPANDED RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITY IN NLO
• RECENT EXPERIMENTS HAVE REPORTED THAT 2.5 TW, 100 fs LASER PULSES
PROPAGATED COHERENTLY (WITHOUT SPREADING) FOR OVER 10 km.
• Pulses propagating vertically experience altitude-dependent density
• SUCH PULSES COULD BE EXPLOITED BY THE AIR FORCE FOR AN
OBSCURANT-PENETRATING LADAR
• Pulses do propagate “nonlinearly” through clouds and thus provide a different
mechanism for such ladars

Tera Watt Self-channeled

Laser Pulse “Light string” No Beam
Spreading
on transmitted path

Laser
RIA Receiver
One-way equivalent attenuation
Received Pulse Range
Gate

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 NUMERICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF NOISY DATA
Dr Oscar Bruno (Applied Math, Caltech)

What if values of f are given on an arbitrary mesh

and, in addition, they contain errors?
– Differentiationof interpolating polynomials is suboptimal: it reduces
the accuracy order by one (well known fact).
– Alternative (new method): Interpolate onto a Chebyshev grid, and
differentiate the resulting (Low Degree) Chebyshev expansion.
–Dr Bruno’s work has demonstrated, for the first time, derivatives
evaluated with the same order of accuracy as that inherent in the
given function values.

For example: N=30,000 corresponds to Nopt =17 13

 Ultrafast Lasers:
Towards Attosecond Physics
Ultra-short pulses violate center-frequency expansion and therefore
NLS description is inappropriate.
Dr. Kutz (Mathematics, University of Washington)
has derived the Short-Pulse Equation

Kerr Nonlinearity Short-Pulse Equation

SPE spectral gain (material dependent)

cavity loss
Nonlinear gain—>intensity discrimination

saturating gain

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 Robust Mode-Locking in SPE
Stable, self-starting mode-locking – no theoretical breakdown
Spontaneous Emission

First theoretical
characterization
of ultra-short,
mode-locked
pulse formation

3-5 fs
mode-locked
pulse

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Farnum & Kutz, Optics Letters (Sept 15, 2010)
 Modeling Reconfigurable Devices
Dr. Nicholas Usechak, AFRL/RY

Instead of trying to shrink an existing system onto a photonic integrated circuit we

are investigating a new approach: dynamically addressing a segmented quantum-dot
semiconductor laser.

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 Spatially Dependent Laser Models
are Time Consuming to Solve
Simplification: Use the periodic boundary conditions to turn the
nonlinear partial differential equation system into a system of nonlinear
differential-delay equations. Solution time reduced by factor of 2,000.

absorber filter
gain

Related work pursued by Dr Thomas Erneaux (Belgium) and Dr Jason Gallas (Brazil)17
 The Delay Equation Model
Predicts Diversity (Bifurcations)

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As the gain increases the output waveform switches regimes
 ELECTROMAGNETICS
LAB TASKS
Dr. Edward Altshuler (AFRL/RY), “Novel Antenna Design” FY09 STAR Team
1. Model Electromagnetically Small Antennas: superdirective, wide-band, conformal
2. Theory/Exploitation of Metamaterials
Dr. Bradley Kramer (AFRL/RY), “Antenna Operations”
1. Phased Arrays
Dr. Saba Mudaliar (AFRL/RY), “EM Scattering Studies”
1. Predict scattering from clutter and rough surfaces
2. Pursue research in communications through plasmas surrounding hypersonic vehicles
Dr. Kris Kim (AFRL/RY), “Predict Far-Field RCS via Near-Field Data”
(Dr.) Jason Parker (AFRL/RY), “Moving Target Radar Feature Extraction”
Dr. Nicholas Usechak (AFRL/RY), “Dynamics of Reconfigurable/Agile Quantum Dot Lasers”
1. Investigate control of amplitude-phase coupling in Quantum Dot laser systems
Dr. Timothy Clarke (AFRL/RD), “Modeling of HPM Effects on Digital Electronics”
1. Derive mathematical model predicting effects (upset) on digital electronics when exposed to various
incident EM pulses
Dr. Danhong Huang (AFRL/RV), “Models for Ultrafast Carrier Scattering in Semiconductors”
1. Model IR amplifier for extremely weak signals and distant targets
Dr. William P. Roach (AFRL/RD), “Guided Waves by Laser-Induced Filamentation”
Dr. Matthew Grupen (AFRL/RY), “Electronic Band Structure for High Speed Quantum Electron Device Simulation“
1. Modeling/Simulation of quantum tunneling devices
Dr. Iyad Dajani (AFRL/RD), “Time Dynamics of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Fiber Amplifiers with Frequency
Modulation”
1. SBS suppression research to realize higher power in narrow linewidth fiber amps 19
 Other Organizations That Fund
Related Work
• NLO
1. Extensive interaction with Dr Richard Hammond/ARO on
UltraShort Laser Pulse propagation through air
--Dr Hammond served on my FY10 USLP MURI evaluation panel and I serve
on his FY11 USLP MURI panel
2. Extensive interaction with JTO/HEL
--I manage the JTO MRI “High Power Lasers Using Optically Pumped
Semiconductor Laser (OPSL) Concepts” which ends in Aug 2012
• INVERSE SCATTERING
1. Recent interaction with Dr Joseph Myers/ARO on solving problem
of detecting IEDs

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 Other Organizations That Fund
Related Work
• EM Effects on Circuitry
1. MURI at U Md on “Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Novel Sensor
Networks” is managed by Dr. Michael Shlesinger, ONR Code 30
--I served on ONR MURI panel & my related UMd efforts are
complementary
2. Dr Dev Palmer, ARO, invests in what can be characterized as
“Create the ultimate Army radio”. Mostly experiments and some
concern with topography

• COMPLEX MEDIA
1. Time domain approaches and optimal waveforms are mine
2. Unidirectional composites are mine
3. Negative Index Media and PBGs are ubiquitous

“The theory and analysis work you and AFOSR has been doing has been very important ...
particularly when "fast turnaround" and "hardware-centric" viewpoints tend to dominate DoD R&D
funding.” Dr William Stachnik, ONR Code 313 21