A Brief Description of My Research Interests

My personal research interests have centered around the interaction of light with matter, most often visible light interacting with condensed matter. This has led me to investigate materials with unique optical properties, the operation of solid state lasers and the use of lasers for precision measurements and for the study of new high technology materials. These areas are described in more detail below and my resume, with a full publication list, is in the next section on my home page.

Optical Materials

Optical materials research currently involves studies of the propagation of light through a material with non-homogeneous refractive index and related photo-refractive properties of materials. Of particular importance now is a Bragg grating structure written into an optical fiber; these grating can be used for optical fiber lasers and sensors. I am currently looking at the effects of restricted geometries (1-dimensional) on propagation and the distributed optical feedback when these gratings are doped with active ions.

One part of this research has involved characterizing the optical properties of material using absorption and emission spectroscopy in the visible to near infra red spectral region and time resolved spectroscopy. The materials studied have mainly been those associated with new high technology applications such as solid state lasers, non-linear optics and other opto-electronic devices. In studying the way in which light is absorbed by matter and eventually re-emitted, one is led to look at how energy is transferred within matter and so another part of my work has involved the study of the transfer of energy among ions in a solid.

Laser Dynamics

One of the most interesting ways that light can interact with matter is in the stimulated emission of radiation that occurs in the action of a laser. I have examined the operation of solid state lasers, looking at the dynamics of various laser oscillators, their instabilities and how these laser instabilities can be reduced. In solid state lasers with different optically active ions the energy can be transferred from an absorbing (sensitizer) ion to an emitting (activator) ion and so thus mechanism of energy transfer become coupled with the laser dynamics.

Lasers for Precision Measurement and Materials Study

Because lasers can be used to make precision measurements I have spent some effort in optical interferometry for measurements both in free space and in optical fiber wave guides. This interferometry has been mainly for relative position measurements and for Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS). Since the precision of measurement depends on the stability of the laser this interest in metrology is related closely to the study of stabilizing of lasers described above. Lasers can also be used as a tool for the study of different material and I have studied the absorption of light by matter, the re-emission of the absorbed light and the transfer of the absorbed energy within matter.