Technical Challenges During the Emergence of the Laser - 1960’s

Q-Switched Ruby Laser with "Rat’s Nest" Calorimeter - 1962
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In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, scientists accomplished the extraordinary feats of predicting, discovering and making the first lasers operational. Throughout the 1960s, scientists continued to lead in discovering new solid, gas and liquid materials that could be used as the active medium in lasers, providing new output wavelengths, higher energy and/or pulsed power outputs and greater efficiencies.

By 1961, electrical and mechanical engineers also joined laser R&D staffs in the development and refinement of laser systems and related equipment. We were faced with technical challenges for which we were not prepared in our education and/or prior experience. Some of the challenges we faced were:

• Engineers and physicists did not usually work together or even speak the same technical language. We learned to work in teams and to develop mutual respect for each other - because we needed each other’s unique experience and expertise.
• There were no textbooks and few journal articles about lasers; we had to learn about them as we worked on them. We were discovering new phenomena and revising existing theories.
• In the 1960’s, most engineers’ knowledge of optics was limited to what they learned in a few weeks of study in sophomore physics. Many of us had to learn more depth in geometrical optics from a book by Jenkins & White; wave (or physical) optics from a book by Strong.
• Light was traditionally measured in photometric units (lumens, foot candles, angstroms etc). We had to transition to radiometric units (joules, watts, nanometers etc).
• Safety aspects of laser beams was neither known nor respected. Laser safety became an R&D field of its own. Laser safety goggles had not been invented.
• There was no instrument used to measure the energy in an optical pulse (i.e. output of a pulsed laser.) Robert M. Baker, a Fellow Electronics Engineer at the Westinghouse Defense Center, devised and tested a “rats nest” calorimeter, composed of tens of meters of coated, fine copper wire, tangled and placed in a small beaker. The pulsed laser beam was directed into the “rats nest”; the change in electrical resistance, due to the heat rise in the copper, was measured; the temperature rise in the wire was calculated and related to the laser pulse energy absorbed by the “rats nest”.
• The physics of “negative absorption” or “optical gain” could only be understood through an understanding of modern physics and quantum mechanics. Some of us had “lightly” learned these fields in graduate studies; others had to struggle through these topics in other ways.
• Operation of solid lasers, like ruby, required fluent knowledge and facility in cryogenics and high voltage power supplies and capacitor banks. Most engineers had to learn these practices “on the job”.
• As new applications of lasers were proposed in fields such as defense, materials processing, medical therapeutics, communications, remote sensing and others, engineers were required to devise, revise and adapt equipment to accommodate laser and optical components, devices and systems.
• We learned, by mistakes, that a high power, pulsed ruby laser cannot be focused with an achromat lens without destroying the cement that joins the components of the lens together. Achromat lenses were not needed for monochromatic laser light.
• We also learned that most anti-reflective coatings, needed on gas laser tubes and the ends of solid laser rods, were also vulnerable to damage by the laser radiation. We solved this problem by positioning the end of the laser rods and the windows at Brewster’s angle to minimize reflections; thereby eliminating the need for AR coatings.

This list is far from comprehensive, but it’s what first came to mind and it’s long enough for this blog posting. Perhaps you were also working on lasers in the 1960’s. I would invite you to comment on other challenges that you faced.

Visit http://www.laserfest.org/ to learn more about the 50th anniversary celebration of the laser!

Celebrating 50 years of the Laser in 2010

A little more than 48 years ago, when I was a fledgling young electrical engineer at the Westinghouse Defense Center in Baltimore, I had a fortunate occasion that transformed my career into one of the most exciting experiences I could expect in my life. I was developing and testing some electronic timing/counting circuits for airborne radar systems; I was bored to death and wondering why I had dragged my young wife up to Baltimore from Texas to live in this “foreign land”, away from friends, relatives and Mexican food.

My engineering manager approached me just before lunch one day in June 1961, and showed me a copy of the latest issue of Scientific American magazine. He said, “Here, read this article about a helium-neon laser that had been created at Bell Labs. We want to build the second one, and I want to know if you would like to have this assignment.” I read the article, struggled through the quantum mechanics, modern physics and optics, and couldn’t imagine any practical applications for this curious device. But I also couldn’t think of anything else that I wanted to do, so I returned from lunch and responded with “why not”?

We had the HeNe lasing @ 1.153 microns (with a flat mirror Fabry-Perot etalon cavity) before the end of the year. Then we set out to build a ruby laser like Ted Maiman had demonstrated at Hughes. When we got it to operate (with a pulse energy output of about two joules), we focused the beam, with a one-inch focal length lens, on a razor blade, and blew a hole in it. Now we knew the potential application; we had the ultimate weapon to “blow ICBM’s out of the sky” and save the USA from nuclear weapon destruction! The Department of Defense also caught the laser fever; within months, R&D $$ for laser development began to flow like a river. We tried to make more powerful lasers by discovering other materials that would lase (someone even reported that they had made jello to lase.) We built ruby laser oscillator/amplifiers to raise the output power and sent them to military labs for more testing.

I not only shot more razor blades, I shot other, more exotic materials; calculated the volume of material removed and measured the impulse generated by the rapid “blow-off” at the material’s surface. In 1963 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visited the United Nations, beat his shoe on the podium, and showed a hand ruler that had a small hole in it made from a ruby laser. He declared that the USSR had the ultimate weapon that would allow them to control the world. By that time, I had determined that it might be more effective to “throw the laser at the ICBM” than it would be to try to shoot it out of the sky. Laser weapons’ research continued, and some useful devices have no doubt been developed that have made our military more efficient and our country safer.

But many more unique, useful laser applications have been developed in medicine, surgery, telecommunications, manufacturing, homeland security, lighting, displays and nanotechnology, to name a few. Lasers (today, a part of photonics) is an enabling technology that has provided new solutions to difficult problems, made our country a safer place to live and improved our quality of life. I’m so glad that I am a part of this scientific achievement. I’m an engineer and an educator; I didn’t discover the laser, but I am proud to have been part of its development; I’ve contributed to new applications; and I’ve been working for the last 35 years to build the laser (photonics) technician workforce - a critical element in this exciting and useful field.

Next year, the American Physical Society (APS), along with other sponsors, like OP-TEC, is leading a national celebration to commemorate the 50th year of the laser. This celebration is called LaserFest.

Check out the plans, information, history and opportunities to participate in LaserFest by visiting the APS web site at www.laserfest.org.

For the next several weeks I will be writing about LaserFest and some of my early memories of the emergence of the laser, including some early pioneer colleagues, technologies that had to be created/changed to support laser development, the transition from “laser systems development” to “laser applications development”, and the need/response for laser technicians.

The Photonics College Network Was Launched!

The OP-TEC Photonics College Network (OPCN) was initiated last week, at the HI-TEC Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Twenty-three faculty members and administrators were present, representing 18 of the nation’s 29 photonics colleges. Two additional faculty members also attended, representing two other colleges that are planning to start new photonics programs in the near future.

The OPCN met for five hours over two evenings, and accomplished the following:

• In a “networking session”, members exchanged contact information, program descriptions and student recruitment brochures.
• Members asked OP-TEC to create and maintain an OPCN community web site, open only to members, for the purpose of sharing successful strategies and engaging in discussions on issues and problems related to photonics technician education.
• Members agreed to participate in conducting Regional Needs Assessments of photonics technician job opportunities.
• Members agreed to participate in quarterly teleconferences, beginning in September 2009.
• Members requested OP-TEC to develop and conduct monthly webinars on photonics education innovations and technical updates. These 1-hour webinars will be led by OPCN members, OP-TEC center staff and technical experts. Topics will be agreed upon in the next six weeks, and the webinars will begin in the fall of 2009.

OP-TEC announced that matching mini grants would be awarded in 2009-2010, on a competitive basis, for selected OPCN members to initiate proven strategies to increase photonics student enrollment/retention at OPCN colleges.

Dr. Fred Seeber, Professor Emeritus at Camden County College, provided a seminar to the OPCN members on Laser Safety, highlighting the recently released ANSI Z136.5 Safe Use of Lasers in Educational Institutions. Copies of the new ANSI Standard were given to each OPCN member in attendance.

The following colleges were represented at the meetings: Bellingham Technical College; Camden County College; Central Carolina Community College; Central New Mexico Community College; College of Lake County; Delaware Technical College; Idaho State University (2-yr program); Indian Hills Community College; Indian River State College; Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2-yr Northpointe Campus); Irvine Valley College/CACT; Ivy Tech Community College; Monroe Community College; Northwest Vista Community College; Pima Community College; Sinclair Community College; Texas State Technical College; TriCounty Technical College; Valencia Community College; and, Wallace State Community College.

Membership in OPCN is available, without charge, to other two-year colleges offering photonics education. If you would like additional information about OPCN, please contact us at op-tec@op-tec.org.

Retraining for Photonics Technicians

Many U.S. employers of photonics technicians are hiring workers that are underprepared for their jobs. Some of these techs are educated/trained in other technical fields; some have only a high school education, or some post secondary education in an unrelated field. A recent study conducted for OP-TEC reveals that employers are hiring 400-600 unprepared photonics techs each year. Employers don’t want to do this, but they’re doing it to survive; they need to fill staffing slots to meet their commitments and our colleges aren’t turning out enough photonics grads.

We need 2200 new photonics techs this year, but our colleges are only producing about 250 completers. OP-TEC is working with our U.S. colleges to start more photonics AAS degree programs and to increase the enrollment and completion rates of existing programs. But it will take years for us to “build our capacity” to have enough completers to fill the annual demand for photonics techs.

In the meantime, employers will continue to “make do” with underprepared workers; and these new or transferred workers will have to “learn on the job”. On the job training (OJT) is important and useful, but it is usually limited to survival training on specific equipment and processes that are peculiar to an employer’s current equipment and work assignments. It rarely includes the basic knowledge and skills that underpin the technology and provide the foundation for survival and/or growth. In the case of photonics, this basic knowledge/skill includes geometric and wave optics, laser operation and output characteristics - and laser safety.

So, what can be done “in the meantime”? If photonics techs need some education and training in this field, and if they are near one of the colleges in our country that offers photonics courses (see a map of these college locations in my May 6 blog posting), then they should investigate the offerings that are available locally. But this option may not be practical for the following reasons:

• There is not a photonics college within commuting distance.
• You may not have the time available to attend the college 2-3 evenings/week.

To address the need of employed photonics techs for education/training in this field, OP-TEC has developed and tested hybrid online courses in optics and photonics that can be offered by any college that has the appropriate faculty and labs to teach them. The course is hybrid because of the way it is delivered. Students can take the classroom part of the course “online” from their homes, workplace or while they are on the road. Videos of the lab activities are also shown online. Periodically, students come to the college to conduct the hands-on lab activities. This can be once every other two weeks or all at the end of the course, depending on the preference of the students and the college. If sufficient students from one employer constitute a course, the labs could be conducted at the employer worksite.

The six modules in the first course cover the following basic topics:

• Nature and Properties of Light
• Optical Handling and Positioning
• Laser Safety
• Geometric Optics
• Wave Optics
• Principles of Lasers

Employers have verified that these topics constitute the “core” of basic photonics. Supplemental math material can also be included for those students who need to brush up on their skills in algebra and trig.

In our nation’s present economic condition, with a high jobless rate, the news about available jobs in photonics sounds like a golden opportunity for some unemployed workers to “get back on the payroll” and enter some rewarding careers. But if you’re unprepared for a job, you’ll probably stay at the entry-level job, with little chance for advancement; you might even get laid off when a more qualified person can be hired. So, if you want to have a successful, rewarding career as a photonics technician, it’s important that you build your knowledge and skills in the basics of photonics technology.

If you’re interested and need to get connected with a photonics college, contact OP-TEC. Or, if you’re an employer looking for a way to upgrade your techs in photonics, we can help you find a college to provide these services. Contact us for more information!

OP-TEC Will Prepare You to Teach Optics, Lasers, and Photonics

Photonics is an “enabling technology.” This means that optics, lasers, fiber-optics, and other electro-optics devices may introduce new solutions, enhance devices, or improve the performance of processes in fields such as medicine, telecommunications, environmental monitoring, manufacturing/materials processing, defense/homeland security, alternative energy, lighting, displays, and many other areas where today’s students will be tomorrow’s workers. Beginning now and growing rapidly in the future, photonics will be as integral to technology as electronics has been for the past several decades.

If you are teaching science or technology in high school, are you introducing optics and photonics to your students and giving them the foundation they will need in this area? Or if you are a college faculty member in a technical field, are you providing the basics of photonics and its applications related to your field, so that your students will enhance their career opportunities and be prepared to grow in their jobs?

OP-TEC has two courses that secondary and postsecondary educators can use to provide the photonics foundations their students will need. If you’re interested, we can help you get started.

• Course 1: Fundamentals of Light and Lasers
• Course 2: Elements of Photonics

The courses cover topics in basic light sources and optics, laser principles and laser safety, fiber optics, holography, and laser applications. The courses can be tailored to cover applications in the particular field the student is studying.

The costs for putting in Course 1 may be a lot less than you think. We have an equipment list for colleges and are developing a lower-cost version for high schools. You may even be able to borrow some of the equipment from your physics labs.

For the last two years, OP-TEC has provided hybrid online courses to train high school teachers and college faculty about lasers and optics and how to teach these courses. This spring 22 educators enrolled in training for Course 1. Over a 12-week period, they have studied (with the help of an online moderator) all six modules, engaged in online discussions, worked the problems, and observed streaming videos of the labs, where they recorded data and performed calculations. This month, the completers will travel to a ”photonics college” for three days, where they will work all of the labs, meet with experienced faculty members, and gain information about equipping and setting up a photonics lab. OP-TEC will provide the faculty training course without charge to qualified teachers. Their only costs will be their travel expenses to the “photonics college.”

As a faculty member who had completed OP-TEC's "Faculty Development" course last year for Fundamentals of Light & Lasers, Course 1, I can report that I am delighted with the support of OP-TEC's staff and their college partners! I am working to build our photonics/laser program at my campus. We are adopting the OP-TEC materials for our college and this will be the first semester that we will be using the OP-TEC Course 1 textbook. OP-TEC has been very helpful with helping me develop my course locally. I strongly recommend other faculty who wish to add photonics to their colleges & universities to consider taking the OP-TEC Faculty Development course!” Tom Millen, Assistant Professor, Electronics & Computer Technology, Ivy Tech Community College

OP-TEC will offer both courses in c/y 09-10. So if you are interested, please contact us and let us help you help your students become qualified for the jobs of tomorrow in the emerging field of photonics.

Photonics Summer Camps and Institutes for High School Teachers and Students

Emerging technologies such as photonics and nanotechnology must be experienced to be appreciated. Unfortunately, community and technical college offerings in these fields are some of the best kept secrets in the country. High school teachers, counselors, students - and their parents - need to experience these technologies first hand, and they need to learn about the wonderful, rewarding career opportunities that are available to young people.

Visits by college representatives to high schools and “gee whiz” demonstrations may open some doors, but they must be followed up by experiences in the college laboratories where students and their teachers can see how the equipment is being used and to participate in “hands-on” lab activities.

The “middle 50%” of our high school achievers are frequently not encouraged to consider careers in emerging technologies. Most of these young people are capable of mastering the math, science and technology that these careers require - and they are more inclined to enjoy and benefit from education when they see that it has a purpose. They deserve these rewarding, challenging jobs that are available to them, and our country deserves the talents that they can provide if they are encouraged and educated.

Colleges that offer technician education programs in new and emerging technologies must be engaged in intense, focused outreach efforts to high school students, teachers and counselors to build the “high school pipeline” and strengthen their enrollments. Some of the institutions in OP-TEC’s Photonics College Network (OPCN) have initiated novel and successful outreach efforts to nearby high schools. Two of them have written monographs, documenting their strategies and successes.

Texas State Technical College (TSTC) Waco employs a young, marketing-trained recruiter and the regional Tech Prep coordinator to make the initial contact with high schools throughout the state. Interested teachers, students and counselors are invited to attend hands-on, one-week summer institutes in lasers and nanotechnology. The classes are held in the TSTC labs and the attendees reside in on-campus dorms. The TSTC monograph contains descriptions of recruitment strategies, format/agenda of the institute, costs, labs/equipment and the participant manual. Enrollment in each year has doubled; this summer (the 3rd) enrollment is expected to be 60 attendees (~3 institutes). Examples of comments from participants include:

“..The presenters and presentations were excellent…I will be recommending this venue to my counterparts and my students.” (teacher)

“The LEO program is really awesome. It doesn’t just teach you about lasers, it also teaches responsibilities….I plan on coming back for the week program next year. I also hope to come to TSTC for college after that.” (student)

Indiana University of Pennsylvania's (IUP) Northpointe Regional Two-Year Campus, uses a comprehensive approach with nearby high schools that has four elements. These four elements are provided below and presented, in detail, in the IUP monograph.

1. Presentations in High School Classrooms - Hands-on presentations about lasers and electro-optics to high school 10th and 11th grade science classes reinforce the science principles, show interesting applications and describe career opportunities and educational pathways.
2. On-Campus Electro-Optic Experiences - Half day sessions at the college for 30-40 high school sophomores, juniors, seniors and their teachers, to familiarize them with EO labs and college life @ IUP.
3. Electro-Optics (EO) Summer Camps for Students - One week sessions where students experience laser and optics science/technology and learn about career opportunities from local and regional employers.
4. Workshops for Teachers and Counselors - One-day experiences to participate in laser/electro-optics hardware activities/demonstrations, discuss educational plans and tour local electro-optics industries.

Over the last three years the outreach efforts have grown from serving 500 students and teachers in 2005-06, to over 2000 students in 2007-08. They have contributed to significant student interest and enrollment growth.

To view, save and/or print these monographs from the OP-TEC website, please click on the title(s) below to access the monograph PDF file.

TSTC Waco’s Photonics Summer Institutes for High School Science & Technology Teachers
Authors: Dr. Larry Grulick & John Pedrotti, TSTC; Dan Hull, OP-TEC

Outreach Activities to Enlist High School Students for Electro-Optics Technician Programs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Northpointe Two-Year Campus
Authors: Dr. Feng Zhou, IUP; Dan Hull, OP-TEC

For more information about OP-TEC's free Program Planning Guides and monographs or to request a complimentary bound copy, please click here.

Contact Information:
For more information about the TSTC Summer Institute, please contact john.pedrotti@tstc.edu.
For more information about the IUP outreach activities, please contact fzhou@iup.edu.

The Photonics College Network

Last week I wrote about the rewarding career opportunities for photonics techs that are educated/trained at two year colleges. I also mentioned that there are over 25 community and technical colleges in the U.S. that prepare students for these careers. Most of these colleges have hard-working, competent faculty and excellent facilities. Some have new photonics offerings, some have been in operation for over 30 years - and some are struggling to overcome obstacles, such as low enrollment, retiring faculty or curricula that needs a “new look”. Overall, these colleges currently have about 700 photonics students and 280 completers each year. (Recall that our recent study revealed that U.S. employers need about 2100 new photonic techs this year.)
OP-TEC is working hard to close the gap between supply and demand. We are working with over 200 colleges that are considering or planning new programs in photonics; but new programs take time to develop - this is our long-term strategy. Our short term strategy is to help some of the 30 colleges with existing photonics programs to revitalize and grow. We believe, that with some assistance, the existing programs could significantly increase their output of completers in 2-3 years. (We’ve seen that happen in the last 3 years with our 7 Partner Colleges.) Some of that assistance will come from OP-TEC, but much of the help they need is what they can provide for each other by networking and sharing best practices. To facilitate this OP-TEC is forming the OP-TEC Photonics College Network (OPCN).

Membership in OPCN is available for faculty and administrators of two-year colleges that offer courses/programs in optic and photonics. There is no fee to join, but members will benefit - and be a benefit to others, if they are active, in terms of communication, information-sharing and participation in electronic and/or on-site meetings.

Potential benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Opportunities to network with photonics faculty and administrators of approximately twenty-five U.S. colleges currently or recently offering photonics education.
2. Access to OPCN e-mail distribution list, member roster, web forum and other networking tools to collaborate and exchange ideas and best practices.
3. OP-TEC curriculum designs, teaching modules, planning guides and monographs of best practices in photonics education.
4. Professional development opportunities and technical assistance through OP-TEC to update, enhance and strengthen photonics programs.
5. Support and information on how to increase program enrollment.
6. Identification of state-wide photonics employers and access to needs assessment survey process.
7. News updates on emerging trends in photonics applications and educational innovations.
8. Eligible for OP-TEC Mini-Grants for program improvement.
9. Information about other potential grant opportunities such as NSF/ATE, DOE and DOL grants.
10. Opportunities for OP-TEC fellowships to attend conferences or workshops.
11. Information on lab equipment availability, used equipment donations or auctions and possible exchange program.
12. Use of and training on OP-TEC’s hybrid, online course for high school dual credit and for retraining employed technicians.

The inaugural meeting of OPCN will take place July 19-20, in Phoenix, during the pre-conference of the HI-TEC conference. A limited number of Fellowships to attend HI-TEC are available to OPCN members through OP-TEC. To learn more about the HI-TEC conference, visit http://www.highimpact-tec.org/.

The Photonics Colleges represent an enormously important national resource. They are a critical link in providing the competent workforce that U.S. employers will need to remain globally competitive in this emerging technical field.

For more information about OPCN or to request a membership application, please contact Donna Flanery at dflanery@op-tec.org or call 254-741-8338 x394.