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It was the second day of a 3-day-long tech demonstration at the David Taylor Model Basin at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, MD, where attendees had gathered to stand around in the dark to look at something they mostly couldn”t see. It was a long-range, free-space power beaming system—the first of its kind.
“Everyone in the industry has been waiting for this discovery. This is a paradigm shift in the field of high-temperature oxidation. We are now establishing new principles for understanding the degradation mechanisms in this class of materials at very high temperatures.” Many current and future technologies require alloys that can withstand high temperatures without corroding.
The research team that announced the first optical rectenna in 2015 is now reporting a two-fold efficiency improvement in the devices — and a switch to air-stable diode materials. The improvements could allow the rectennas – which convert electromagnetic fields at optical frequencies directly to electrical current – to operate low-power devices such as temperature