There is a critical need for a high purity commercial source of calcium lanthanum sulfide (CaL2S4; CLS). Ceramics made from CLS have an unusually broad range of transmittance in the infrared (IR), as well as high mechanical strength and environmental durability. For these reasons, CLS is an ideal material for IR windows used in applications such as multispectral imaging. CLS ceramics are not yet broadly used because the precursor powders are inconsistent, which leads to poor performance of the parts. TDA has identified a new, efficient method to manufacture the CLS powder that will be less expensive than previous methods, better-suited for a large-scale manufacturing environment, and will produce consistently high purity, high quality material from batch to batch. We have formed a partnership with a major producer of ceramic parts and will supply them with all of the CLS powder that they need to make advanced IR transparent parts for the Navy.
Benefit: Our new process will make CLS in high purity consistently from batch to batch. We will sell this material to a ceramics manufacturer who will be able to make IR windows from our CLS. Because of the broad transmittance range of this material, it will be possible to design new optical devices that use a single window for multi-band IR detection.
Keywords: IR window, IR window, Ceramics, imaging, IR, powder
