SBIR-STTR Award

Holographic interferometry affords a means for thenon-destructive testing of components for flaws, material defects, residualstress, and material fatigue. Present day limitations in the holographicrecording media used to store multiple holograms precludes the use of thistechnique in real-time applications. BCC proposes to use highly sensitive,chemically enhanced bacteriorhodopsin (bR) films as a reusable real-timeoptical material in a pulsed double exposure interferometer. Specifically,we will perform numerical simulations to determine the necessary film andinterferometer system parameters. These results, in conjunction with BCC'sestablished bacteriorhodopsin film technology, will enable us to fabricatea set of bR films for a series of experiments demonstrating real-timepulsed double exposure interferometry. As an optional task we willdemonstrate time-averaged interferometry. The work on this project will beperformed at the BCC facility at Syracuse University, where all necessaryequipment is available.

Holographic interferometry provides the means for the non-destructive testing (NDT) of components for flaws, arterial defects, residual stress, andaterial fatigue. Present day limitations in the holographic recording media used to store multiple holograms precludes the use of this technique in real-time manufacturing-related applications. BCC's Phase I primary research objective was to address this issue through the use of highly photosensitive bacteriorhodopsin (BR) films as a reusable real-time optical material in a pulsed double-exposure holographic interferometer. As the results in Section C show, our Phase I effort was highly successful as a working NDT system based on bacteriorhodopsin was constructed and tested. Our data indicate that a vibration free NDT system prototype based on bacteriorhodopsin is viable and that several commercial products will result from an extensive Phase II effort.