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High Refractive Index Polymers from Elemental Sulfur for Infrared Thermal Imaging and Optics
In collaboration with the Pyun and Norwood groups, we develop a new class of high refractive index, optical polymers that will allow for the first time the use of low cost, plastic optics for long wave infrared (LWIR) thermal imaging. The key to accelerating materials design, fabrication and development is the development of new high-throughput computational methods with machine learning that afford vastly improved optical transparency in the LWIR spectrum from 8-12 µm, which is the primary spectral window used for LWIR thermal imaging. This advance enables the development of lower cost IR imaging systems, which strongly impact the defense and automotive sectors, and allow for large scale entry of this technology into consumer markets, such as smartphone optics.
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