Materials tomorrow
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Materials tomorrow
I
’ve always identified myself as a scientist, and have had a keen interest in materials research for nearly as long as I can remember. In my lifetime, I’ve seen evidence of the impact of materials research on our standard of living as well as our lifestyle. My fervent hope is that materials research will help us solve many of the big problems that surround us, and that the materials of tomorrow will make our lives better, perhaps even in ways that we cannot dream of today. We can speculate about how our quality of life would further improve if materials research were to enable various approaches to problems that currently face us. Some of these solutions may have to wait until the distant future, but one can always dream of advances that would make these a reality. As an opening thrust, I note that I have been using lasers in my research for almost 40 years. During that time, extraordinary advances have been made in wavelength coverage, optical power levels, and other characteristics of lasers. A few years ago, I acquired a laser system based upon a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser,1 an optical parametric oscillator, a frequency doubler, and a frequency tripler that (in principle) allows wavelength tuning from ~250 nm to more than 2000 nm, by using the system in different configurations. It is an extraordinarily versatile system that has served my research needs well. However, this system falls significantly short of the ideal system that I would like to have.
Some of my colleagues and I have fantasized for years about a laser system that would basically be a black box allowing us to dial up the laser wavelength (from the deep UV to the far IR), optical power level (up to many watts of average power), optical pulse duration (continuous wave to sub-femtosecond), and pulse repetition rate (single shot to a rate approaching the inverse of the pulse width). All limits would have to be in accordance with the laws of physics. It is difficult for me to imagine what laser material (or set of laser materials) would allow this. Of course, we want this to be a compact laser system that easily fits on an optical bench and is affordable by the average researcher. Oh, and if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, we’d like to be able to perform measurements using outputs at two or more wavelengths during any given measurement. For example, we might want to perform a pump-probe measurement with the pump pulse at one wavelength and the probe pulse at a different wavelength. Or we might want to perform a four-wave mixing experiment with three different wavelength pulses, or two pulses of different durations and one continuous-wave beam. Is this wish pure science fiction (or science fantasy), or is there hope that I might be able to purchase such a system in my lifetime? Worldwide, we have many medical problems that cause various levels of discomfiture up to and including great pain and suffering. I want a medicine that I can take in simple pill form that will cure all medical issues from hair loss to cancer MRS BULLET
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