The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) requires generous microwave power for numerous applications and is seeking lightweight, conductive material to construct active devices with high-power electromagnetic (EM) field-emission cathodes, including Galvorn material from DexMat. The material, invented at Rice University, is coming to AFRL by way of Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract (FA2394−26−C-B006) awarded to AFWERX within the Technology Transition Office of AFRL. 

The material’s characteristics hold great promise not only for defense-related applications, but for high-power microwave handling in automotive, energy, and space applications. The two-year contract requires DexMat to produce more than 1 kg of properly qualified Galvorn fiber material for cathode development.

Compared to currently used cathode materials, Galvorn fibers have been tested and shown to be capable of emitting more than 20X the current density of those competing cathode materials.

Dr. Dmitri Tsentalovich (PhD), director of product innovation at DexMat, noted, “We've been working toward this since Galvorn was still a research project at Rice. AFRL has followed this cathode data for years. This contract is a bet on where that data goes next.”

Galvorn (see image above) is one-fifth the density of copper but 97% as conductive as copper for forming powerful but lightweight cathodes in high-energy microwave tubes and other devices.