Enam Chowdhury and XUV Laser are awarded $1.1M to study damage thresholds of interference coatings used in infrared ultra-high intensity lasers

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MSE Professor Enam Chowdhury and XUV Lasers Inc. have been selected to receive a Phase IIA award under U.S. Department of Energy High Energy Physics (HEP) SBIR/STTR program for the project titled "Interference coatings for high energy and average power femtosecondclass lasers in the 0.8-2µm wavelength range".

photo of Simin Zhang and Advisor Enam Chowdhury
Simin Zhang (left) and Professor Enam Chowdhury (right) in Ohio State's Femto-Solid Laboratory

The ultrafast coatings to be developed in this program and commercialized are of critical importance for multi-TW and PW lasers to meet the performance required for the development of the next-generation radiation and particle sources for a broad range of applications. The demand for this next generation of ultrafast lasers was suggested in National Academies of Sciences' publication Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers1, reports and white papers.

The project will help usher new technology for industry, science, health, and defense while supporting the United States' competitive edge in PW laser technology, which is widely used in DOE-supported LaserNetUS facilities, of which Chowdhury is a founding member.

Potential technology outcomes from this project include:
  • scaling down the size of large accelerators to a table-top size
  • eliminating costly nuclear reactors in medical isotope production
  • developing portable neutron sources for inspection of corrosion in concrete structures like bridges
  • mimicking space environment for radiation sources

MSE Ph.D. students helped Dr. Chowdhury write the winning proposal. Simin Zhang was responsible for developing the theory and simulations framework for the proposal, while Mohamed Noor and Emma deAngelis contributed to experimental measurements. 

$1.1 million will be split between PI Chowdhury and XUV Lasers (Dr. Carmen Menoni is co-PI) over two years.

 

Libby Culley, Senior Communications Specialist   |   culley.36@osu.edu

1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers: Reaching for the Brightest Light. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24939

Femto-Solid Laboratory

Ultrafast laser-materials interaction, non-equilibrium materials states

Dr. Enam Chowdhury, Principal Investigator

Femto-Solid Laboratory website