Laboratory Directed Research and Development FY 1992

The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) funds projects that nurture and enrich the core competencies of the Laboratory. The scientific and technical output from the FY 1992 RD Program has been significant. Highlights include (1) Creating the first laser guide star to be coupled with adaptive optics, thus permitting ground-based telescopes to obtain the same resolution as smaller space-based instruments but with more light-gathering power. (2) Significantly improving the limit on the mass of the electron antineutrino so that neutrinos now become a useful tool in diagnosing supernovas and we disproved the existence of a 17-keV neutrino. (3) Developing a new class of organic aerogels that have robust mechanical properties and that have significantly lower thermal conductivity than inorganic aerogels. (4) Developing a new heavy-ion accelerator concept, which may enable us to design heavy-ion experimental systems and use a heavy-ion driver for inertial fusion. (5) Designing and demonstrating a high-power, diode-pumped, solid-state laser concept that will allow us to pursue a variety of research projects, including laser material processing. (6) Demonstrating that high-performance semiconductor arrays can be fabricated more efficiently, which will make this technology available to a broad range of applications such as inertial confinement fusion for civilian power. (7) Developing a new type of fiber channel switch and new fiber channel standards for use in local- and wide-area networks, which will allow scientists and engineers to transfer data at gigabit rates. (8) Developing the nation's only numerical model for high-technology air filtration systems. Filter designs that use this model will provide safer and cleaner environments in work areas where contamination with particulate hazardous materials is possible