United States. Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Kansas State University demonstrated an aerosol mixture of carbon and ceramic nanotubes that has the ability to resist damage while absorbing laser light.
Coatings absorb as much energy as possible from high-power lasers without breaking down, they are essential for optical detectors that measure the output of such lasers, which are used, for example, in military equipment to deactivate unexploded mines.
The new material improves on NIST's previous version of a layer of aerosol nanotubes to power optical detectors and has already sparked industry interest.
NIST researchers suggested using toluene to uniformly coat the nanotubes with a ceramic frame. They also conducted damage studies that show how well the composite material tolerates exposure to laser light.
