NASA Helps Firm Launch New Type of Glass for Lasers

Originally Published MDDI January 2004

R&D DIGEST

John Conroy

A small company in Illinois has developed a new type of glass using a NASA process that resembles a space experiment. Containerless Research Inc. of Evanston claims the glass holds great potential for use in surgical lasers and other advanced commercial applications.

Called REAl Glass, the substance is made from rare-earth oxides, aluminum oxide, and small amounts of silicon dioxide. Richard Weber, director of the company's glass products division, says Containerless has begun making glass rods and plates in commercial quantities for use in lasers.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, played a key role in developing the patented substance. In addition to using his firm's processing techniques, Weber conducted research in the flight center's Electrostatic Levitator. One of the few systems of its kind in the United States, the levitator enables scientists to process materials in an environment with no contamination-causing containers. NASA says molten spheres of material float in the levitator's electrostatic environment with no visible means of containment.

Weber says most surgical lasers use expensive single crystals that limit their operating wavelength. “REAl Glass would provide tuneability, which can give more control over surgical procedures, an important factor in different types of surgery and for different skin types.” 

He claims the glass can be used to make high-power lasers with expanded wavelengths. “We've taken many of the best qualities of the current materials and created a new glass that can be produced inexpensively.” The glass also can be used for optical communications, Weber says.

Containerless is using grants from the National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovation Research program and the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research to support the developmental work.


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