The objective of this program is to significantly advance the technology of the measurement of simultaneously spatially and temporally complex, ultrafast-varying light.
Intellectual merit: The intellectual merit is the development of two powerful single-shot devices to measure such light. It will also involve the use of these devices to measure important, currently immeasurable light pulses, significantly advancing important fields in science and technology. One device will measure the complete temporal intensity and phase of an arbitrary light pulse and be used to measure the most complex light pulses ever deliberately generated. Another will, for the first time, measure the complete spatio-temporal intensity and phase of a single arbitrary light ultrafast pulse, specifically, an "ultrafast lighthouse" and also a "light bullet."
Broader impacts: The broader impacts follow from the fact that the vast majority of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time have resulted directly from improved methods for measuring light. Unfortunately, most light is currently immeasurable because it involves simultaneous complex variations in space and ultrafast variations in time. As a result, these new devices, which significantly extend and transform humankind?s capability in this realm, should find application in a wide range of fields, far beyond those in this project. For example, light scattered from tissue is too complex in space and too fast in time to measure using currently available methods but, if measurable, could in principle be used eventually for powerful new medical diagnostics using techniques like those being developed in this project.
