ONHS Report: DARPA-SN-26-82

ERIS Shopping Notice: High Duty Cycle High Energy Lasers (HEL) for SWaP-Constrained Systems

Solicitation ID: DARPA-SN-26-82

Agency: DARPA/STO

Type: Special Notice

Deadline: 2026-11-30T17:00:00 ET

Eligibility: Maybe (Topic Dependent)

Funding: N/A

Doc Type: PS

Clearance: TS/SCI

Program Manager: ERIS@darpa.mil

Last Updated: 2026-06-04 16:05

Analyzed File: DARPA-SN-26-82.pdf

Eligibility Reasoning

This is an active and immediate search for solutions. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis in accordance with the procedures set forth in DARPA-PS-25-05.

Note: This is an AI-generated summary...

Summary

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technologies Office (STO) is seeking innovative solutions for moderate power (100W-20kW) High-Energy Lasers (HEL) designed for Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constrained systems like armored personnel carriers and unmanned aerial vehicles. The primary technical objective is to achieve a high duty cycle for continuous or repeated operation, rather than maximizing peak power. The focus is on novel engineering designs and architectures that solve the critical challenge of heat management, including efficient heat exhaust and transport, to maintain laser beam quality and operational stability. Submissions should present scalable HEL architectures with innovative cooling solutions applicable for defense and commercial use.

Overall Technical Areas

High Energy Laser (HEL) TechnologySWaP Constrained System DesignHigh Duty Cycle Laser OperationLaser Thermal ManagementHeat Exhaust and TransportAdvanced Laser GenerationLaser Cooling ArchitecturesLaser System ArchitectureLaser Beam CoherenceLaser Phase ControlLaser Beam TuningLaser Power ScalingWavelength FlexibilityDirected Energy SystemsUAV Platform Integration

Probable LBNL Areas

EESAESAETAPSA

Focus Areas

Example Priorities:

DARPA is exploring the development of new approaches to generating/amplifying high-energy lasers in the 100W-20kW power regime.
We are looking for new approaches to generating high-energy lasers for austere platforms, specifically for laser generation.
DARPA STO is looking for solutions for a high-energy laser system architecture that can scale to 1-20 kW.
Submissions should discuss scaling, wavelength flexibility...and any other meaningful trades to allow DARPA to assess the promise of the technological approach.

Specific Technical Skills:

Laser PhysicsOptical EngineeringSystems ArchitecturePower ScalingDiode-Pumped LasersFiber LasersSolid-State LasersPhotonicsOpto-mechanicsSystems Integration

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Siyun Chen	0.73	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Fanting Kong	0.73	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Vassilia Zorba	0.72	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Qiang Du	0.72	PSA \| Engineering \| Electronic Engineering
Costas P. Grigoropoulos	0.72	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Anthony Gonsalves	0.71	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Antoine Islegen-Wojdyla	0.71	ESA \| ALS \| Photon Science Development
Samuel Barber	0.71	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Hao Ding	0.71	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Mackinley Kath	0.71	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center

Example Priorities:

Key research and innovations are expected to focus on heat exhaust and transport and returning the laser to a steady state for operations...
Potential awardees will generate engineering designs for novel high-energy laser approaches that address the cooling challenges posed by continuous operation.
Current high-energy laser systems generate a large amount of heat that needs to be rapidly exhausted to maintain a high duty cycle...
Submissions should discuss...cooling architectures...and any other meaningful trades...

Specific Technical Skills:

Thermal EngineeringHeat TransferComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)Thermal ModelingHeat Exchanger DesignCryogenicsMaterials SciencePhase Change MaterialsFluid DynamicsThermo-Electric Cooling

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Nihar Shah	0.72	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Chris Dames	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Sumanjeet Kaur	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Peter Tennessen	0.71	PSA \| Engineering \| Mechanical Engineering
Evan Johnson	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Pramod Bhuvankar	0.71	EESA \| EG \| Hydrogeology Dept
Xiong Peng	0.69	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Tengming Shen	0.69	PSA \| ATAP \| Superconducting Magnet Program
Donghun Kim	0.69	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg Technologies Dept
Jose Luis Rudeiros Fernandez	0.69	PSA \| ATAP \| Superconducting Magnet Program

Example Priorities:

...while maintaining beam coherence and other traditional metrics of laser quality.
Solutions should allow phase control of the laser for purposes of beam tuning in a larger system.
Submissions should discuss...coherence and any other meaningful trades to allow DARPA to assess the promise of the technological approach.

Specific Technical Skills:

Adaptive OpticsBeam Control SystemsCoherent Beam CombiningPhase ControlNonlinear OpticsWavefront SensingLaser MetrologyOptical MetrologyFourier OpticsBeam Propagation Modeling

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Antoine Islegen-Wojdyla	0.74	ESA \| ALS \| Photon Science Development
Siyun Chen	0.71	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Valeriy Yashchuk	0.71	ESA \| ALS \| Photon Science Development
Qiang Du	0.71	PSA \| Engineering \| Electronic Engineering
Fanting Kong	0.70	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Linqing Luo	0.70	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept
Samuel Barber	0.70	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Vassilia Zorba	0.70	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt
Jeroen van Tilborg	0.69	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center
Arnaud Allezy	0.69	PSA \| Engineering \| Mechanical Engineering

Potential LBNL PIs (Overall)

Note on PI Matching: These suggestions are generated through an AI-driven semantic analysis of LBNL staff profiles.

Name	Score	Organization
Tong Zhou	0.77	PSA \| ATAP \| BELLA Center · Advanced Laser Generation
Russell Wilcox	0.76	PSA \| Engineering \| Electronic Engineering · Laser Power Scaling
Dongwoo Paeng	0.76	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Laser Thermal Management
Mengjie Yu	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Wavelength Flexibility
Antoine Islegen-Wojdyla	0.75	ESA \| ALS \| Photon Science Development · Laser Beam Tuning
Cameron Geddes	0.74	PSA \| Physical Sciences \| Accel Tech & AppPhysics · Directed Energy Systems
Stephen Leone	0.74	ESA \| CSD \| Gas Phase · Laser Phase Control
Holger Mueller	0.74	BSA \| Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging \| Structural Biology Dept · Laser Cooling Architectures
Ravi Prasher	0.73	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Heat Exhaust and Transport
Venkatesh Akella	0.73	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Applications · SWaP Constrained System Design

Fundamental Research Exemption (FRE)

Not Mentioned