FREEDOM PHOTONICS LLC STTR Phase II Award, August 2023

DARPA is interested in technologies which enable safe optical power beaming systems.  High-efficiency wireless power transmission by a directed optical beam will greatly enhance military capabilities by enabling a multi-node wireless energy web.  We are developing high efficiency semiconductor lasers at 1550 nm which are directly suitable for power beaming.  Our laser array technology is at an eye-safe wavelength and has nearly diffraction-limited beam quality, which enables efficient transmission over long distances.  The semiconductor laser array will be integrated with a fully passive coherent beam combination architecture based on a Fourier Injected Resonator (FIRE) cavity. Our disruptive direct diode solution eliminates the need for the inefficient brightness conversion of fiber-based or solid-state laser systems, while maintaining brightness, power, and efficiency, making our technology the perfect candidate for addressing the power beaming technology gap.