Department of Defense reveals nanotechnology spending

17 Jun 2002

US Defense department has awarded millions of US dollars to advance photonics and optoelectronics.

The US Department of Defense has awarded USD 2.2 million to the US-based University of Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics to support a multi-institutional center for Advanced Information Technology. A multidisciplinary team of researchers will develop new photonics and optoelectronics materials for solar-powered information systems.

"The multidisciplinary environment that we have created at the institute has been a major driving force in obtaining this support," said Paras Prasad, the center's director. "By bringing engineers to work alongside physicists and chemists, we will bring these emerging technologies closer to the market-place." He also added that current solar cells only use photons from the green region of the optical spectrum. He hopes that the new materials will be able to use the entire spectrum and operate at maximum efficiencies.

Developing the materials on a molecular and nanometer scale, the researchers will focus on theoretical modelling, chemical synthesis, device fabrication, testing and integrating components into large-scale solar information systems.

The team also anticipates that these materials will improve today's encryption methods, data storage and bandwidth capabilities for the Internet.