A new program from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could lead to opening a new era in optics and imagers for America's national defense.

DARPA's EXTREME Optics and Imaging Program aims to dramatically reduce the size and weight of optical systems for military applications and focuses on developing new "engineered optical materials." These materials include two-dimensional metasurfaces; 3D volumetric optics and holograms.

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It aims to introduce engineered optical materials (EnMats) and associated design tools for creating innovative optical systems with improved performance, new functionality, and drastically reduced size and weight.

It will do this by finding ways to manipulate light in ways beyond the conventions of classical reflection and refraction, delivering optical systems the size of a sugar cube.

If successful, EXTREME could introduce a new era in optics and imagers for national defense.

EXTREME optical components would be lighter and smaller, enabling miniaturization of imaging systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. The multifunctional nature of these devices could offer improvements in a wide variety of imaging systems by reducing size and weight without compromising performance for systems as diverse as night vision goggles, hyperspectral imagers, and IR search and track systems.

"We've seen significant technical advances in recent years in the communities of optical system design, materials science and fabrication, and multiscale modeling and optimization," said Predrag Milojkovic, DARPA program manager.

"EXTREME seeks to capitalize on this momentum by uniting these separate communities to revolutionize optics and imaging as we know it."

To achieve its goal, EXTREME is focused on developing new EnMats -- both two-dimensional metasurfaces as well as 3-D volumetric optics and holograms -- that manipulate light in ways beyond classical rules of reflection and refraction.

EXTREME also will address multiscale modelling to enable design and optimization of EnMats across vastly different scales, from nanometer to centimeter, for example.

The program aims to demonstrate an optical system with engineered surfaces where control of light propagation is decoupled from a specific geometric shape and can be tuned. EXTREME also seeks to demonstrate a volumetric optical element the size of a sugar cube or larger that can perform a multitude of functions simultaneously in visual and infrared bands, such as imaging, spectrum analysis, and polarization measurements, among others.

TagsDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, EXTREME Optics and Imaging Program, EXTREME