Celebrating the International Year of Light: Evolving
Lasers to Solve Problems by Jeff Hecht
Friday, March 13, 2015 1:50 PM to 2:45 PM
UCF Student Union, Pegasus Ballroom
Jeff Hecht
Science and technology writer
Abstract:
Soon after he helped Ted Mainam make the first laser, Irnee
D’Haenens jokingly called the laser “a solution looking for a
problem.” That became a running joke in early days of lasers, because the few
lasers then available were not well-matched to many applications. But that changes
as the young technology evolved. The more we learned about laser science, the
better we could design lasers to match the needs of potential applications.
Similarly, people could take these newly developed lasers and adapt them to
solve other problems. A sterling example is the blue diode laser, developed to
play HD Video disks, and then adapted to make bright blue LEDs that laid the
foundation for solid-state lighting. Another is how the fiber amplifier,
developed for fiber-optic communications, was adapted to make industrial fiber
lasers. This talk will describe how lasers and their applications have evolved
in the past and will continue to evolve in the future.
Biography:
Jeff Hecht is a contributing editor for Laser Focus
World, and has written extensively on lasers, photonics and fiber optics for
more than 30 years. His books include Understanding Fiber Optics, Understanding
Lasers, City of Light, The Story of Fiber Optics, Beam: The Race to Make the
Laser, and The Laser Guidebook. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering
from Caltech, and is a senior member of the Optical Society of America and a
life member of IEEE.
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