Lasers now enable scientists and engineers to study and characterize systems with greater insight and precision than ever before. In the relatively short time since their invention in 1961, lasers have opened up entirely new vistas, including nonlinear optics for frequency conversion, optical switching, and data storage, laser-based metrology and velocimetry, laser surgery, laser materials processing, laser-based machine vision, and a myriad of techniques for using lasers to study fundamental materials properties.
New laser systems are under investigation, perhaps eventually leading to the ultimate high-energy light source, the gamma-ray laser. Some interesting laser related web sites include: ContinuumLasers, Spectra-Physics, Coherent, Inc.
Research Goals
Research at Youngstown State University's Program in Photon Induced Processes is intimately tied to both the development of lasers and their application to research into a variety of research areas. These facilities are located within the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Ward Beecher Science Hall.
Faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Drs. J. Andrews, J. Carroll, and G. Sturrus, and from the Department of Chemistry, Dr. A. Hunter, are part of the program. Research activities involve basic and applied research in a variety of laser related or facilitated topics with significant scientific and technological implications. For example:
Nonlinear
optical polymers research is important to the development of a variety
of photonic systems including high speed optical modulators, ultrafast
optical switches, and high density optical data storage media. These devices
are essential for continued advancement in the effort to transform information
storage and transmission from the electrical to the optical regime.
The
basic research on the excited states of hydrogen and other atoms is testing
fundamental molecular theories of matter in the Atomic
Beam Laboratory.
The
study of basic physical processes related to induced
gamma emission will potentially enable significant advances in a number
of areas of science and technology, such as in medical radiology, nanolithography,
rocket propulsion, and national defense. It would also open a new class
of physical phenomena to investigation, such as the possibility of multiphoton
spectroscopy of nuclei.
Research
also includes applied optical engineering projects, such as the development
of a laser Doppler interferometer, the characterization and optimization
of lighting sources for machine vision, and the application of laser feedback
interferometry to noncontact, subnanometer, microscopy.
The YSU Program in Photon Induced Processes has as a major goal the education and training of undergraduates and masters degree students at YSU. Faculty are actively recruiting students from the fields of physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering.
Due to the universal nature of many of the research techniques and apparatus used, students gain experience directly transferable to industrial and academic research settings. Furthermore, in working with program faculty, students are involved in both fundamental and applied research projects in a variety of inherently cross-disciplinary fields.
Such a multi-disciplinary background provides students with the skills and flexibility to pursue employment or graduate work in a variety of areas. In addition to individual student research projects, the program's equipment is available, as appropriate, for use in advanced undergraduate physics lab coursework and in the inorganic and polymer chemistry laboratory courses at YSU.
Dr. J. Carroll
Dr. W. Sturrus