October 7, 2003
Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-0034)

Joshua Chamot
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va.
(Phone: 703/292-7730)

RELEASE: 03-320

NASA RESEARCH PROPELS DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GLASS




There's a new glass in town. The glass, developed with the
help of a unique NASA levitator facility, is available for
numerous commercial applications including lasers and
optical communications.

"We have patented a family of new glasses and have
established processes for making and using them in
practical applications," said Dr. Richard (Rick) Weber,
director of the Glass Products Division of Containerless
Research Inc., the small company that invented and produces
the glass in Evanston, Ill. "We're already making
commercial quantities of glass rods and plates for use in
lasers," he said.

REAl Glass™ -- made from Rare Earth oxides, Aluminum
oxide and small amounts of silicon dioxide -- has unique
properties that were identified using both the company's
containerless processing techniques and a NASA ground-based
research facility.

As part of a NASA research grant for a proposed
International Space Station flight experiment, Weber
conducted research in the Electrostatic Levitator at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The
levitator, where molten spheres of glowing material float
with no visible means of support or containment, is one of
the nation's few facilities where scientists can process
materials without using contaminating containers.

"This shows how basic NASA research can lead to innovative
materials and new products that can benefit everybody,"
said Dr. Michael Wargo, Enterprise Scientist for materials
science in NASA's Office of Biological and Physical
Research in Washington.

Containerless Research's development of applications and new
products for lasers, optical communications, and surgical
lasers is supported by grants from the National Science
Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

"The development of REAl Glass™ shows how the Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program works by
building on good ideas that come from basic research and
helping small businesses grow into commercial manufacturers
of innovative products," said Dr. Winslow Sargeant, who
directs the National Science Foundation SBIR
Commercialization Program for devices. "We are working with
Containerless Research Inc. by supporting product research
and development that can help them grow the business and
continue to create new products and new jobs," Sargeant
explained.

REAl Glass™ has qualities useful for creating
materials for demanding optical applications. "We've taken
many of the best qualities of the current materials and
created a new glass that can be produced inexpensively,"
Weber said.

One of the most promising uses of the glass is for lasers.
Whether it is a power laser for cutting metal for car
bodies or a medical laser used for surgery, the "heart" of
lasers is the gain medium, which is where REAl Glass™
can be used. This critical component increases or amplifies
light, resulting in an intense, highly concentrated beam
capable of precisely cutting metal parts or surgically
removing or repairing human tissue.

"Most surgical lasers now use expensive single crystals,
which limit the range of operating wavelength to very
narrow bands," explained Weber. "REAl Glass™ would
provide tunability, which can give more control over
surgical procedures, an important factor in different types
of surgery and for different skin types. Our glass can
provide efficient power lasers and expand coverage to new
wavelengths," he said.

REAl Glass™ also provides a medium for next-generation
optical communications devices that need to be small,
low-cost and powerful to provide fiber for home connections
for broadband Internet. The company can customize the glass
composition for these uses. The family of REAl Glass™
materials is patented under U.S. Patent No. 6,482,758
issued Nov. 19, 2002, and is only available from
Containerless Research Inc., or under license.

For information on NASA's Electrostatic Levitator, a list of
peer-reviewed articles describing this research, and to
download photographs to accompany this news release, visit:



http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news For information about REAI
Glass™ and Containerless Research Inc. on the
Internet, visit:



http://www.containerless.com/realglass.htm


-end-
Nasa release at
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/oct/HQ_03320_new_glass.html