2003-2004 Assessment of the Army Research Laboratory (2005) / Chapter Skim
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8 Nanotechnology
8 Nanotechnology
Pages 45-50
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From page 45... ...
The review included 18 separate presentations covering approximately 30 individual projects, a poster session and laboratory tour, and a significant dialogue between the reviewers and presenters. The eight review members, drawn from existing panels of the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board, represented a composite of academic and industrial expertise.
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From page 46... ...
The consensus working definition presented by ARL is as follows: "Nanotechnology is seeing properties that you do not see in bulk." ARL's rationale for involvement in such technologies was explained to the Review Team as being derived from the following statement of the Army's vision: "The Army must provide combat commanders with agile, versatile, and strategically responsive forces, completely integrated and synchronized as members of the joint interagency team and with the Army's coalition partners." An additional element of its rationale is that ARL needs to invest in opportunity-driven research that leads to revolutionary change, focusing in particular on technology innovations that provide smaller, smarter, lower power, and lighter support for fighting forces. Nanotechnology, by contributing to reductions in the size of devices and/or by providing new material characteristics, is deemed by ARL to have the potential for such revolutionary change.
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From page 47... ...
These results are mentioned here because they reflect advances reported in the reviewed presentations, regardless of how well they fit within the definition of nanotechnology provided above. • Demonstrated improved infrared sensor devices using quantum wells, • Higher-power infrared lasers using quantum wells with world-record efficiency and power, • Nano-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
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From page 48... ...
Many of these latter questions are not being addressed by the current nanotechnology community, but they will be essential for turning the technologies into robust opportunities. • In the materials group, determining how to avoid upsetting currently highly successful classical efforts while providing key intellectual and modeling infrastructure to support increasingly molecular-level focus.
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From page 49... ...
This sensor is a polymer embedded with an enzyme that changes color in the presence of sarin nerve gas; this sensor has been transferred to a new company. Contributions to the Broader Community Given the early state of nanotechnology development, it is not surprising that both the nanotechnology community as a whole and the specific ARL community are still formative in nature.
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From page 50... ...
For example, when future soldiers are literally wrapped in nanotechnology systems, security issues will include protecting them against outside influence and ensuring that such systems cannot easily be used by hostile forces. Previous chapters of this report have addressed the relevance of crosscutting issues to specific ARL directorates.
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