As an undergraduate, I worked for two years in a high-intensity optics group. We were studying high-harmonic generation by femtosecond laser pulses passing through a dilute inert gas. These pulses have energies of millijoules and peak intensities of 1015 watts/cm2 (a comparable intensity could be achieved by focusing all of the sunlight hitting … Continue … Continue reading High-intensity laser pulse simulation
The science data for our torsion-balance experiments is collected by measuring the rotation of the pendulum using laser autocollimators. In these autocollimators, light from a laser diode is collimated by a lens, reflected off a mirror on the pendulum, refocused by the original collimating lens, and directed onto a position-sensitive photodetector by a … Continue … Continue reading A device to measure picoradians
As an offshoot of our torsion-balance experiments, our group was involved in technology development for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a proposed three-spacecraft space mission to detect gravity waves. These spacecraft were to stay in a perfect free-fall orbit by tracking a free-floating “test mass” contained within each spacecraft. We were investigating the … Continue … Continue reading Low-energy electron gun
