AFRL Scientist Wins Harold Brown Award for Pioneering Laser Materials Research Published Sept. 26, 2011 By Beverly Thompson Sensors WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Air Force Research Laboratory scientist Dr. Candace Lynch received the Harold Brown Award in a ceremony at the Pentagon late last year. Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley presented the award, named for a physicist who was Air Force Secretary (1965-1969) and Defense Secretary (1977-1981). The Harold Brown Award recognizes significant research and development that led to or demonstrates promise of a substantial improvement in the Air Force's operational effectiveness, and is the Air Force's highest R&D award. Dr. Lynch is the first woman to receive the Award. Dr. Lynch joined AFRL in 2005 as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate, becoming a member of a research group that was pioneering quasi-phase-matched (QPM) materials for new infrared countermeasures (IRCM) technology. Dr. Lynch's contribution was a breakthrough technology making it possible to create lasers that emit throughout the mid-wave infrared spectrum; it has also enabled generation of 1.5 terahertz emission for threat detection and for imaging weapons that are concealed under clothing. Dr. Lynch became highly respected throughout the scientific community for her expertise and accomplishments regarding orientation-patterned gallium arsenide (OP-GaAs) crystal growth. She reported on OP-GaAs technology to the technical community in major conferences and became a leader within AFRL and the international scientific community. Dr. Lynch's basic research was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; subsequent R&D -- in which Dr. Lynch and her AFRL team members from Hanscom and Wright-Patterson Air Force Bases collaborated with researchers at BAE Systems, Stanford University, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and small businesses -- has pushed OP-GaAs technology toward commercialization. Multiple small businesses have initiated programs to replicate the OP-GaAs fabrication methods pioneered by Dr. Lynch and her AFRL team. This technology breakthrough is a national asset; it is the only capability of its kind in the world.