OSW Basic Research STTR OSW26TZ06-NV004: Telecom Band Geometric Amplifier
Quick Answer
OSW26TZ06-NV004 is a Phase I STTR topic under the Office of the Secretary of War, Basic Research, 2026 STTR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. The program exists to move discoveries out of university laboratories and into small businesses. This topic asks for a device that amplifies telecom-band laser light using geometric phase, also called Berry phase, rather than by pumping a gain medium. The award must not exceed $250,000 over 12 months, and the technical volume is capped at 15 pages. The topic opens September 23, 2026 and closes October 21, 2026 through the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal.
The novelty here is genuine and the topic says so. Geometric amplification is a gain mechanism that has only been recently proposed, and to date it has only been demonstrated in the acoustic domain. Nobody has built one for light. The physics says you can: it can be realized using coupled resonators consisting only of linear, lossy components, so long as they can be modulated at a frequency comparable to the resonators' decay rate.
In the telecom domain the proposed realization is concrete. A pair of fiber loops including electrically tunable phase shifters modulated at roughly 1 MHz. The adiabatic evolution associated with that relatively slow modulation, together with the components' intrinsic loss, results in the accumulation of a geometric Berry phase whose complex part can be engineered to provide gain.
Phase I is a design study, not a build. Produce a complete design for a prototype based entirely on commercial off-the-shelf components, grounded in quantitative simulations that incorporate those components' specifications into the mathematical model of geometric amplification. That is an unusually clean and well-scoped 12-month effort.
Topic At a Glance
Topic number: OSW26TZ06-NV004
Title: Telecom Band Geometric Amplifier
Agency: Office of the Secretary of War, Basic Research, administered by the OUSW(R&E) Science and Technology Foundations STTR Program
Solicitation: OSW Basic Research 2026 Small Business Technology Transfer Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6, Proposal Submission Instructions
Program type: Phase I
Award: must not exceed $250,000
Period of performance: 12 months
Technical volume: not to exceed 15 pages. Technical volumes exceeding 15 pages will be deemed non-compliant and will not be evaluated
Component Technology Priority Areas: FutureG, Quantum Science
OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area: Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance
Projected CMMC level requirement: Level 1
Export control status: no topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on this topic, and none appears on any of the seven topics in this release
Classification: Phase I and Phase II efforts are expected to be performed at the Unclassified level
Wavelength: telecom band, approximately 1,550 nanometers
Modulation frequency: approximately 1 MHz
Phase II performance floor: greater than 10 dB gain with bandwidth greater than 100 kHz
Research institution partner: required, as with all STTR awards, along with a written allocation of rights agreement if selected
Phase II structure: a 10 to 12 month base period not to exceed $1,000,000 plus a 10 to 12 month option period not to exceed $1,000,000, with the entire Phase II effort not exceeding $2,000,000
Technical and Business Assistance: Phase I up to $6,500, Phase II up to $50,000 per project, in addition to the cost ceilings and not subject to profit or fee, using the mandatory SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form in Volume 5
Percentage of Work: deviations from the POW requirements are not permitted
Company Commercialization Report: information contained in the CCR will not be considered by S&T Foundations during proposal evaluations
Topic open date: September 23, 2026
Proposal deadline: October 21, 2026
Submission portal: DSIP at dodsbirsttr.mil
Keywords: telecom laser, optical amplification, geometric amplifier, Berry phase
What the Program Is For, Which Shapes How You Write
This is worth understanding before drafting, because the S&T Foundations STTR Program has a purpose distinct from most SBIR and STTR programs and it is stated plainly.
The program aims to facilitate the transition of basic research to applied research by collaborations between academic researchers and small businesses, as well as stimulating technological innovation, strengthening the role of small business in meeting DoW research and development needs, fostering and encouraging participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation, and increasing the commercial application of DoW-supported research or research and development results.
The program focuses on exploiting scientific discoveries from the DoW basic research programs and providing a mechanism to further scientific development, maturation, and commercialization. High-risk with potential for high-reward approaches are sought in addressing the scientific challenges described in the topics. These approaches should be stimulated by early research in academia supported by DoW basic research programs.
The consequence for your technical volume
In addition to the Phase I proposal content specified in the DoW STTR BAA, this program requires a narrative description of how early research in academic labs will be transitioned to the small business via this opportunity.
The Phase I Technical Proposal must also include a preliminary Phase II Plan specifying the overall vision, approach, and potential product proposed at the end of Phase II.
Both must be included within the 15-page limit.
So the technical volume carries three things a standard Phase I proposal would not: the transition narrative, the preliminary Phase II Plan, and the usual Phase I technical content, all in fifteen pages. Plan the page budget accordingly.
This topic is unusually well suited to that framing, because the foundational work is a 2025 arXiv preprint on complex Berry phase and steady-state geometric amplification in non-Hermitian systems. If your research institution partner includes an author of that work or a group working directly on it, the transition narrative writes itself. If not, say clearly whose early research you are transitioning and how.
What the Topic Is Actually Asking For
The objective
The primary goal of this initiative is to design, build, and test a device that uses geometric phase, also known as Berry phase, to amplify laser light in the telecom band at a wavelength of approximately 1,550 nanometers. The device will use radio-frequency modulation of linear, lossy elements to produce optical amplification that outperforms existing technologies in parameter regimes of interest to the Department of War.
Note the phrase "in parameter regimes of interest." The topic does not claim geometric amplification will beat erbium-doped fiber amplifiers or Raman amplifiers everywhere. It asks you to identify the regimes where it wins. That framing is an invitation, and answering it specifically is one of the strongest things you can do in this proposal.
The state of the art, as the topic describes it
Present-day devices for amplifying telecom laser light mostly produce gain by incoherently pumping a medium, optically or electrically, or by coherently pumping a nonlinear medium with a laser. Both approaches are technologically mature, and offer a range of performance tradeoffs.
In contrast, geometric amplification is a gain mechanism that has only been recently proposed, and to date it has only been demonstrated in the acoustic domain. However, the principle of geometric amplification can be applied to any domain. It can be realized using coupled resonators consisting only of linear, lossy components, so long as they can be modulated at a frequency comparable to the resonators' decay rate.
Two things in that paragraph matter. The mechanism has never been demonstrated optically, which is what makes this high-risk high-reward basic research rather than engineering. And the enabling condition is specific: modulation at a frequency comparable to the resonator decay rate. That condition is what makes fiber loops with roughly 1 MHz modulation the natural implementation, and it is the constraint your design has to satisfy.
The proposed physical realization
In the telecom domain, this can be accomplished using a pair of fiber loops that include electrically tunable phase shifters that can be modulated at approximately 1 MHz. The adiabatic evolution associated with this relatively slow modulation, together with the components' intrinsic loss, results in the accumulation of a geometric Berry phase whose complex part can be engineered to provide gain.
The word "adiabatic" is doing real work. Adiabatic evolution means the modulation is slow compared to the system's internal dynamics, which is what allows the Berry phase description to hold. Getting that hierarchy of timescales right, modulation rate versus resonator decay rate versus optical round-trip time, is the design problem, and it is where a quantitative simulation earns its keep.
Why the Department cares
Geometric gain differs from existing forms of amplification in several respects, including that it achieves photon-number gain through radio-frequency modulation. This may offer practical advantages in terms of reduced device complexity, size, and power consumption.
Read that as the value proposition. You are not pumping with a second laser and you are not doping a medium. You are modulating a phase shifter with an RF signal. If that works, the amplifier becomes simpler, smaller, and lower power, which are exactly the properties that matter for deployable photonic systems.
The Component Technology Priority Areas of FutureG and Quantum Science, and the Critical Technology Area of Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, tell you the intended application space: optical communications infrastructure and quantum-adjacent photonics. Added noise, which appears in the Phase II metric list, is the property that determines whether a quantum application is possible, so treat it as important even in Phase I.
Phase I Requirements
Produce a complete design for a prototype telecom-band geometric amplifier based entirely on commercial off-the-shelf components. The design should be based on quantitative simulations that incorporate the components' specifications into the mathematical model of geometric amplification.
Reading this scope precisely
Three constraints, and each one is a gift as much as a limitation.
A complete design. Not a concept study, not a feasibility argument. A design a reviewer could hand to an engineer.
Based entirely on commercial off-the-shelf components. This is the most consequential constraint and the most helpful one. It means you are not developing custom photonics in Phase I, and it means your design is verifiable: a reviewer can look up the datasheets. It also means the design space is bounded by what you can actually buy, which is where the real engineering judgment lies. Fiber loop length, coupler ratios, phase shifter modulation bandwidth and insertion loss, detector noise floor.
Quantitative simulations that incorporate the components' specifications into the mathematical model of geometric amplification. Not an abstract model with idealized parameters. Real datasheet numbers fed into the theory. That is the specific deliverable, and it is what separates a strong proposal from a literature review with a block diagram.
What a strong Phase I plan looks like
Build the mathematical model from the cited literature, specifically the non-Hermitian complex Berry phase framework, and state it explicitly rather than by reference.
Identify the component set with named parts and datasheet specifications: fiber, couplers, electrically tunable phase shifters with their modulation bandwidth and insertion loss, circulators or isolators, and detection.
Map the parameter space and show where gain exists. The condition is modulation at a frequency comparable to the resonator decay rate, so sweep that ratio and show the gain surface.
Predict the Phase II metrics from the simulation: gain, bandwidth, power consumption, added noise, and harmonic distortion. Phase II requires greater than 10 dB gain with bandwidth greater than 100 kHz, so your Phase I simulation should show whether the COTS design reaches that and, if not, what would need to change.
Quantify the added noise. Every amplifier adds noise, and a novel gain mechanism's noise properties are not obvious. This is the question a physicist reviewer will ask first, and the one most likely to be underdeveloped in competing proposals.
Identify the parameter regimes where geometric amplification beats the incumbents, since the objective explicitly frames the goal that way.
One caution on scope discipline
The topic says design, and $250,000 over 12 months does not fund a build. A proposal that promises a working demonstration in Phase I is not more competitive, it is less credible against a topic that asked for a design. Where you have existing hardware or prior experimental results to cite as supporting evidence, cite them, but do not restructure Phase I around building.
Phase II and Phase III, For Planning Purposes
Phase II
Optimize the geometric amplifier prototype of Phase I with respect to the following performance metrics: gain, bandwidth, power consumption, added noise, and harmonic distortion. At minimum, the device should exhibit greater than 10 dB gain with bandwidth greater than 100 kHz.
Five metrics, two with hard floors. Note that Phase II says "optimize the prototype of Phase I," which implies the build happens in Phase II, consistent with Phase I being a design effort.
Ten decibels of gain and 100 kilohertz of bandwidth are modest against a commercial erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which is the point. The topic is not asking you to beat EDFAs on gain-bandwidth product. It is asking you to demonstrate that the mechanism works optically at a useful level, and then to find the regimes where its other properties, complexity, size, and power, make it preferable.
The bandwidth figure is worth thinking about now. Modulation at roughly 1 MHz and an amplification bandwidth greater than 100 kHz are related quantities in this architecture, so your Phase I simulation should make the relationship explicit and show what sets the bandwidth ceiling.
Note also the program's Phase II structure: a 10 to 12 month base not to exceed $1,000,000 and a 10 to 12 month option not to exceed $1,000,000, with the entire effort not exceeding $2,000,000. Your preliminary Phase II Plan, which is a required part of the Phase I technical volume, should fit that structure.
Phase III
Collaborate with industrial or DoW lab partners to incorporate the lessons learned from Phase II into a commercial on-chip geometric amplifier that is superior to existing optical amplifier technologies in parameter regimes of importance to the Department of War.
Note "on-chip." The fiber loop implementation is the demonstration vehicle. The commercial end state is integrated photonics. If your team has a path to a photonic integrated circuit implementation, whether a foundry relationship or experience with silicon photonics or thin-film lithium niobate, saying so in the preliminary Phase II Plan strengthens the transition story considerably.
The Phase II Submission Window, Which You Must Plan For Now
This is a program mechanic that catches first-time applicants and it deserves its own section.
Phase II proposals may only be submitted by Phase I awardees. All Phase I awardees are eligible to submit a Phase II proposal. Phase II selections are based, in large part, on the success of the Phase I effort, so it is vital for small business concerns to discuss the Phase I project results with their Technical Point of Contact.
The 30-day window to submit a Phase II proposal is expected to commence 6 to 9 months into the Phase I period. The details on the due date, content, and submission requirements will be provided to Phase I awardees by the S&T Foundations STTR Program Management Office via subsequent notification.
This will be the only opportunity to submit a Phase II proposal for the Basic Research topics. The S&T Foundations STTR Program cannot accept proposals outside the established Phase II submission dates, and proposals received at any other time will not be evaluated.
Why this changes your Phase I plan
The Phase II window opens 6 to 9 months into a 12-month Phase I. That means you will be writing your Phase II proposal while your Phase I effort is still running, and you will be arguing Phase II merit on partial Phase I results.
Structure the Phase I schedule so that your most persuasive results land in the first six months. For this topic, that means getting the model built and the parameter space mapped early, so that by month six you can say the design closes and here is the predicted gain, rather than still being in component selection.
Note also the TPOC relationship. The program says it is vital to discuss Phase I results with your Technical Point of Contact, and the missed window is unrecoverable. Establish that contact early in performance.
The STTR Partnership and Allocation of Rights
This is an STTR, which means a formal partnership with a research institution is a condition of the award rather than a feature of your approach.
If a small business concern is selected for an STTR award, they must negotiate a written agreement between the small business and their selected research institution that allocates intellectual property rights and rights to carry out follow-on research, development, or commercialization. The instructions point to the Model Agreement for the Allocation of Rights.
STTR awards also carry statutory minimum work shares: the small business must perform at least 40 percent of the work and the single partnering research institution at least 30 percent. The OSW Basic Research instructions direct proposers to follow all general instructions in the DoW STTR Program solicitation, which is where those requirements live. Read that document, not only this one.
What the split looks like on this topic
The natural division is clean here. The research institution owns the theory: the non-Hermitian complex Berry phase framework, the mathematical model of geometric amplification, and the parameter space analysis. The small business owns the engineering: component selection against datasheets, the practical fiber loop and phase shifter design, the noise and distortion analysis, and the path to an on-chip product.
Because the underlying physics is very recent, the institution's contribution is likely to be substantive rather than nominal, which makes a 30 percent share credible. Name the institution, the faculty principal investigator, and the specific tasks, and remember that the allocation of rights agreement has to be negotiated after selection, so the sooner you have the conversation about IP the smoother that goes.
Note that the program instructions ask you to plan carefully for research involving animal or human subjects or biological agents, and warn that the short duration of a Phase I effort may preclude such plans unless coordinated before award. That is not relevant to this topic, but it is worth knowing the program says it.
Funding, Cost Structure, and Program Mechanics
The award
The Phase I amount must not exceed $250,000 over a period of 12 months. The Government anticipates making multiple Phase I awards under this topic, subject to the availability of funds and the receipt of meritorious proposals.
Note also that due to limited funding, S&T Foundations reserves the right to limit awards under any topic.
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars over twelve months is a comfortable budget for a design and simulation effort with a university theory partner, which is exactly what this topic asks for.
The 15-page limit is a hard compliance gate
The technical volume is not to exceed 15 pages and must follow the formatting requirements provided in the DoW STTR Program BAA. Technical volumes exceeding 15 pages will be deemed non-compliant and will not be evaluated.
Note the phrasing. Not "pages in excess will not be considered," which is what several other components say. Non-compliant and not evaluated. An over-length technical volume loses the whole proposal, not the extra pages. Check the page count before you submit.
Remember that the transition narrative and the preliminary Phase II Plan both sit inside those fifteen pages.
Percentage of Work
Review the updated Percentage of Work calculation details included in the DoW Program BAA. Deviations from the POW requirements are not permitted.
With a research institution performing at least 30 percent of the work, your POW arithmetic needs to be right before you finalize the subaward. Model it first.
Technical and Business Assistance
Phase I awardees may request up to $6,500 in TABA funding. Phase II awardees may request up to $50,000 per Phase II project. TABA funding is in addition to the Phase I and Phase II cost ceilings and is not subject to profit or fee.
All requests for TABA must be completed using the SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form, and the completed form must be included in Volume 5 of the proposal submission in DSIP. OSW will not accept requests for TABA that do not utilize the form or that are not included as a submission document in Volume 5.
The form requirement is absolute. For this topic, intellectual property counsel is the standout use, because a brand-new gain mechanism with a university partner and a required allocation of rights agreement is exactly the situation where getting the IP structure right early pays for itself.
The Company Commercialization Report is not evaluated
Completion of the CCR as Volume 4 is required, but information contained in the CCR will not be considered by S&T Foundations during proposal evaluations. Complete it because it is required, and put your commercialization effort into the technical volume instead, where it is scored.
Evaluation criteria, in stated order of importance
This is one of the most useful things in the OSW Basic Research instructions and it is worth quoting precisely.
All proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria listed in the DoW solicitation. The criteria will be in descending order of importance with technical merit, soundness, and innovation of the proposed approach being the most important, followed by qualifications of key personnel, and then followed by commercialization potential.
Evaluation of the Phase I proposal will include an assessment of not only the feasibility studies planned for Phase I but the overall approach and product proposed at the end of Phase II.
Awards will be made on the basis of technical evaluations using the criteria described in the DoW Solicitation and availability of S&T Foundations STTR funds.
Three things follow. Technical merit dominates, so the model and the simulation are where your pages should go. Key personnel is second and ahead of commercialization, which for a topic resting on a 2025 theoretical result means naming the people who understand that theory matters a great deal. And the preliminary Phase II Plan is not a formality, because the evaluation explicitly assesses the overall approach and product proposed at the end of Phase II.
Only Government personnel will evaluate proposals, with the exception of personnel from Strategic Analysis, Inc who provide programmatic and administrative assistance for all topics.
Notification and debriefings
Proposing firms will be notified of selection or non-selection status for a Phase I award within 90 days of the closing date of the topic. Notifications will be issued through DSIP to both the firm's Corporate Official and Principal Investigator of record. Ninety days from October 21, 2026 is approximately January 19, 2027.
Non-selected proposers may request a written debriefing within 30 calendar days of the select or non-select notification, as specified in that notification. Debriefs are typically provided in writing via email to the Corporate Official identified in the firm proposal within 30 days of receipt of the request. Requests for oral debriefs may not be accommodated. If contact information for the Corporate Official has changed since proposal submission, a notice of the change on company letterhead signed by the Corporate Official must accompany the debrief request.
The debriefing provision is genuinely valuable and underused. If you are not selected, a written debrief within 30 days tells you what to fix, and this program runs annually.
Refer to the DoW solicitation for procedures to protest the announcement. As prescribed in FAR 33.106(b) and FAR 52.233-3, protests after award should be submitted to osd.ncr.ousd-r-e.mbx.sbir-sttr-protest@mail.mil.
Foreign nationals, privacy, and classification
If the offeror proposes to employ a foreign national, refer to the DoW Solicitation for definitions and reporting requirements. Ensure no Privacy Act information is included in the submittal.
Phase I and Phase II efforts are expected to be performed at the Unclassified level.
The unclassified expectation matters for this topic, because a university photonics group working on Berry phase physics is typically an open-research environment with international students and postdocs. This program is compatible with that, unlike some other components in this cycle, and no topic-level ITAR restriction appears here. Follow the DoW Solicitation reporting requirements for any foreign nationals you propose.
Questions
Specific questions pertaining to the administration of the STTR Program and these proposal preparation instructions should be directed to Jason Day at jason.o.day.civ@mail.mil.
The instructions do not state that DSIP Topic Q&A is unavailable, so the standard DoW STTR Program BAA process applies and Topic Q&A closes to new questions two weeks before the topic closes, on October 7, 2026.
The References
Five, and they form a clean intellectual lineage from 1984 to 2025. Read all of them; there are only five and they are short.
Lane and colleagues, "Complex Berry phase and steady-state geometric amplification in non-Hermitian systems," arXiv:2503.23197, 2025. This is the enabling result and the reason the topic exists. It is also the acoustic-domain demonstration the topic refers to. Your proposal should engage it directly.
Berry, "Quantal phase factors accompanying adiabatic changes," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A 392, 45, 1984. The original Berry phase paper.
Simon, "Holonomy, the Quantum Adiabatic Theorem, and Berry's Phase," Physical Review Letters 51, 2167, 1984. The geometric formulation of the same result.
Garrison and Wright, "Complex geometrical phases for dissipative systems," Physics Letters A 128, 177, 1988. This is where the complex extension enters, and the complex part of the geometric phase is precisely what provides gain in this scheme. Load-bearing.
Bliokh, "The appearance of a geometric-type instability in dynamic systems with adiabatically varying parameters," Journal of Physics A 32, 2551, 1991. Geometric instability, which is the same physics viewed as growth rather than gain.
The set tells you something useful about how to write. Two 1984 foundational papers, two papers from 1988 and 1991 extending the idea to dissipative and unstable systems, and one 2025 paper closing the loop with a demonstration. A proposal that traces that arc and then says clearly what remains to be done in the optical domain speaks the reviewer's language. A proposal that cites only the 2025 preprint looks like it read one paper.
Note that the 1991 Bliokh citation as printed lists a 1991 year with a Journal of Physics A volume 32; if you cite it yourself, verify the bibliographic details rather than copying them forward.
Timeline and What to Do When
The dates
Topic opens: September 23, 2026
DSIP Topic Q&A closes: October 7, 2026, two weeks before the topic closes, per the DoW STTR Program BAA
Proposal deadline: October 21, 2026
Selection notification: within 90 days of the closing date, approximately January 19, 2027, through DSIP to both the Corporate Official and the Principal Investigator of record
Debriefing request window: within 30 calendar days of notification
Period of performance: 12 months
Phase II submission window: a 30-day window expected to commence 6 to 9 months into the Phase I period, and the only opportunity
A working backward plan
Before September 23. Commit your research institution partner, ideally one with direct connection to the non-Hermitian geometric amplification work, and start the subaward paperwork, since university contracting offices are slow in October. Model your Percentage of Work against the STTR minimums before finalizing the subaward. Read all five references. Build a preliminary version of the mathematical model so your proposal can show you have it, not just plan to build it. Identify candidate commercial off-the-shelf components with real datasheets, especially electrically tunable phase shifters with modulation bandwidth near 1 MHz and known insertion loss. Sketch the parameter regimes where geometric amplification would beat incumbent amplifiers. Begin the intellectual property conversation with the institution, since an allocation of rights agreement is required upon selection. Confirm SAM registration and your CMMC Level 1 posture.
September 23 through October 5. Draft the 15-page technical volume. Allocate deliberately: the mathematical model and simulation approach, the COTS component design, the predicted performance against the Phase II floors of greater than 10 dB gain and greater than 100 kHz bandwidth, added noise analysis, the parameter regimes where the mechanism wins, key personnel with the theory credentials foregrounded, the academic-to-small-business transition narrative, and the preliminary Phase II Plan with the overall vision, approach, and potential product. Remember technical merit is the top criterion and key personnel is second.
October 6 through October 7. Submit any technical questions through DSIP Topic Q&A before it closes. Administrative questions go to Jason Day at jason.o.day.civ@mail.mil.
October 8 through October 14. Build the cost volume against the $250,000 and 12-month ceiling. Price the simulation and modeling labor, the university subaward, computing, and any component procurement for validation. Complete the SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form if you want the $6,500 and place it in Volume 5.
October 15 through October 18. Complete Volume 4, the Company Commercialization Report, which is required though not evaluated. Assemble Volume 5 with the TABA form. Complete Volume 6 training and the Volume 7 foreign affiliations webform, remembering it must be the webform and will not be accepted as a PDF in Volume 5, and that no previous versions should be uploaded there. Run compliance, and count the technical volume pages carefully, because exceeding 15 pages makes the proposal non-compliant and unevaluated.
October 19 through October 20. Submit and certify in DSIP.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OSW Basic Research STTR topic OSW26TZ06-NV004?
OSW26TZ06-NV004 is a Phase I STTR topic titled "Telecom Band Geometric Amplifier," released under the Office of the Secretary of War Basic Research 2026 STTR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. The goal is to design, build, and test a device that uses geometric phase, also known as Berry phase, to amplify laser light in the telecom band at approximately 1,550 nanometers, using radio-frequency modulation of linear, lossy elements.
How much funding is available?
The Phase I amount must not exceed $250,000 over a period of 12 months. Phase I awardees may also request up to $6,500 in Technical and Business Assistance, in addition to the cost ceiling and not subject to profit or fee, using the mandatory SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form in Volume 5.
When is the proposal deadline?
The topic opens September 23, 2026 and proposals are due October 21, 2026 through the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal at dodsbirsttr.mil.
How long can my technical volume be?
Not to exceed 15 pages. Technical volumes exceeding 15 pages will be deemed non-compliant and will not be evaluated, which is stricter than simply disregarding the extra pages. The transition narrative and the preliminary Phase II Plan both count inside that limit.
What extra content does this program require in the technical volume?
Two things beyond the standard DoW STTR Phase I content. A narrative description of how early research in academic labs will be transitioned to the small business via this opportunity. And a preliminary Phase II Plan specifying the overall vision, approach, and potential product proposed at the end of Phase II. Both must fit inside the 15 pages.
What exactly does Phase I have to deliver?
A complete design for a prototype telecom-band geometric amplifier based entirely on commercial off-the-shelf components, with the design based on quantitative simulations that incorporate the components' specifications into the mathematical model of geometric amplification. It is a design and simulation effort, not a build.
Has this ever been demonstrated?
Not optically. The topic states that geometric amplification is a gain mechanism that has only been recently proposed and to date has only been demonstrated in the acoustic domain, citing the 2025 arXiv paper by Lane and colleagues. The principle can be applied to any domain, which is what makes this a high-risk, high-reward basic research topic.
How is the optical version supposed to work?
Using a pair of fiber loops that include electrically tunable phase shifters modulated at approximately 1 MHz. The adiabatic evolution associated with that relatively slow modulation, together with the components' intrinsic loss, results in accumulation of a geometric Berry phase whose complex part can be engineered to provide gain. The enabling condition is that the resonators be modulated at a frequency comparable to their decay rate.
Why would anyone prefer this to an erbium-doped fiber amplifier?
The topic's answer is that geometric gain achieves photon-number gain through radio-frequency modulation rather than by pumping a medium, which may offer practical advantages in reduced device complexity, size, and power consumption. The objective asks for amplification that outperforms existing technologies in parameter regimes of interest to the Department, which is an invitation to identify those regimes specifically rather than to claim across-the-board superiority.
What are the Phase II performance targets?
Optimize with respect to gain, bandwidth, power consumption, added noise, and harmonic distortion. At minimum the device should exhibit greater than 10 dB gain with bandwidth greater than 100 kHz.
What does Phase III look like?
Collaborate with industrial or DoW lab partners to incorporate lessons learned from Phase II into a commercial on-chip geometric amplifier superior to existing optical amplifier technologies in parameter regimes of importance to the Department. Note "on-chip," which means the fiber loop is the demonstration vehicle and integrated photonics is the product.
Do I need a research institution partner?
Yes. This is an STTR, which requires a formal partnership with a single partnering research institution, with statutory minimum work shares of at least 40 percent by the small business and at least 30 percent by the institution per the DoW STTR Program solicitation. If selected, you must negotiate a written agreement between the small business and the research institution allocating intellectual property rights and rights to carry out follow-on research, development, or commercialization, using the Model Agreement for the Allocation of Rights.
How does the Phase II submission window work?
Phase II proposals may only be submitted by Phase I awardees, and all Phase I awardees are eligible. A 30-day submission window is expected to commence 6 to 9 months into the Phase I period, with details provided by the S&T Foundations STTR Program Management Office. This will be the only opportunity to submit a Phase II proposal for the Basic Research topics, and proposals received outside the established window will not be evaluated.
What does that mean for how I plan Phase I?
You will be writing the Phase II proposal on partial Phase I results, six to nine months into a twelve-month effort. Front-load the work so your most persuasive results land early. The program also says it is vital to discuss Phase I results with your Technical Point of Contact, so establish that relationship early in performance.
How is Phase II funded?
A 10 to 12 month base period not to exceed $1,000,000 plus a 10 to 12 month option period not to exceed $1,000,000, with the entire Phase II effort not exceeding $2,000,000.
How are proposals evaluated?
Against the DoW solicitation criteria, in descending order of importance: technical merit, soundness, and innovation of the proposed approach first, then qualifications of key personnel, then commercialization potential. The evaluation includes an assessment not only of the Phase I feasibility studies but of the overall approach and product proposed at the end of Phase II. Only Government personnel evaluate proposals, except personnel from Strategic Analysis, Inc who provide programmatic and administrative assistance.
Is the Company Commercialization Report evaluated?
No. Completion of the CCR as Volume 4 is required, but information contained in it will not be considered by S&T Foundations during proposal evaluations.
Are there Percentage of Work restrictions?
Yes. Deviations from the Percentage of Work requirements described in the DoW Program BAA are not permitted. With a research institution performing at least 30 percent of the work, model the arithmetic before finalizing the subaward.
What CMMC level applies?
The projected requirement for this topic is CMMC Level 1.
Is this work classified?
No. Phase I and Phase II efforts are expected to be performed at the Unclassified level, and no topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on this topic or on any of the seven topics in this release.
Can I employ foreign nationals?
If the offeror proposes to employ a foreign national, refer to the DoW Solicitation for definitions and reporting requirements. The unclassified expectation makes this program more compatible with an open university research environment than several other components in this cycle.
Can I request a debriefing if not selected?
Yes. Non-selected proposers may request a written debriefing within 30 calendar days of the select or non-select notification. Debriefs are typically provided in writing via email to the Corporate Official within 30 days of receipt of the request. Oral debriefs may not be accommodated. If the Corporate Official's contact information has changed, a notice on company letterhead signed by that official must accompany the request.
When will I hear back, and who is notified?
Within 90 days of the closing date of the topic, approximately January 19, 2027, through DSIP to both the firm's Corporate Official and the Principal Investigator of record.
Who do I contact with questions?
Technical questions about the topic go through DSIP Topic Q&A, which closes October 7, 2026. Administrative questions about the STTR Program and these proposal preparation instructions go to Jason Day at jason.o.day.civ@mail.mil.
Positioning Advice for Companies Considering This Topic
Bring the theory partner, and put them forward. Key personnel is the second-ranked evaluation criterion, ahead of commercialization, and this topic rests on a mechanism first proposed in a 2025 paper. If your research institution partner includes an author of that work or a group actively working on non-Hermitian geometric phase, that is your single strongest asset. Name them prominently and describe their specific contribution.
Show the model, do not promise it. The Phase I deliverable is a design based on quantitative simulations incorporating component specifications into the mathematical model. A proposal that already presents a preliminary version of that model, even a simplified one, demonstrates you can do the work. A proposal that describes the model it will build does not.
Name real parts with real datasheets. "Based entirely on commercial off-the-shelf components" is a verifiable constraint, and it is the constraint that makes the design credible. Named phase shifters with stated modulation bandwidth and insertion loss, named couplers with stated ratios, named fiber. A reviewer can check them, and that is a feature.
Get the timescale hierarchy right and show it. Modulation frequency comparable to resonator decay rate is the enabling condition for the whole scheme, and the optical round-trip time is a third timescale in a fiber loop. Show the hierarchy explicitly and show where in that parameter space gain exists.
Lead your analysis with added noise. Every reviewer with a photonics background will ask what a geometric amplifier does to the noise figure, and the answer is not obvious for a mechanism that gets gain from loss plus modulation. It is one of the five Phase II metrics, it determines whether quantum applications are possible, and most competing proposals will treat it as an afterthought.
Answer the "parameter regimes" question specifically. The objective asks for amplification that outperforms existing technologies in parameter regimes of interest to the Department. That is a direct invitation. Name the regime: low power budget, small form factor, a wavelength or bandwidth where doped-fiber gain is awkward, an environment where a pump laser is a liability. A specific answer here distinguishes you.
Write the transition narrative as a real plan, not a paragraph. This program exists to move academic discoveries into small businesses. Whose discovery, moving how, through what mechanism, with what people, and what does the small business own afterward. That narrative is a program requirement and it is where the S&T Foundations mission lives.
Take the preliminary Phase II Plan seriously. The evaluation explicitly assesses the overall approach and product proposed at the end of Phase II, not just the Phase I studies. Fit it to the program's own Phase II structure of a base plus option, each 10 to 12 months and each up to $1,000,000, and make the product concrete.
Front-load the Phase I schedule. The Phase II window opens 6 to 9 months in and it is the only one. Whatever you need to show a Phase II reviewer must exist by month six. Say in your Phase I plan what will be complete by then.
Point at the on-chip endgame. Phase III is a commercial on-chip geometric amplifier. If you have any credible path to integrated photonics, a foundry relationship, silicon photonics or thin-film lithium niobate experience, mention it. It converts a physics demonstration into a product story.
Count your pages. Exceeding 15 pages makes the technical volume non-compliant and unevaluated. That is a harsher rule than most components apply, and it applies to a volume that must also contain the transition narrative and the Phase II Plan.
Start the allocation of rights conversation now. A written agreement allocating intellectual property and follow-on rights is required upon selection. On a topic where the core IP originates in a university theoretical result, that negotiation determines whether you have a commercial product at the end. Do not leave it until award.
Use the debriefing if you lose. A written debrief within 30 days of notification is available on request, and this program recurs. That is cheap, specific feedback most applicants never ask for.
