9732516 Zhang This award provides funds to permit Dr. Xi-Cheng Zhang, Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to pursue with Professor Hyun-Shik Kang, Department of Physics Education, Chonbuk National University, Korea, for 24 months, a program of cooperative research on electro-optic field sensors and their applications. Much of the activity initially will concentrate on learning from the Korean collaborator techniques used for growth and fabrication of high quality ZnTe crystals. These electro-optic crystals then will be used as broad band field sensors for the coherent measurement of freely-propagating ultra wideband pulsed terahertz electromagnetic waves (THz beams). The present collaboration will add an international dimension to Dr. Zhang's research presently funded under NSF Grant No. ECS-9701486. The U.S. researcher expects this new collaboration to be beneficial to ongoing research under his NSF grant. The PI reports that the ZnTe sensor is so sensitive that it eliminates the need for metallic antennas and electrical connections that can interfere with accurate measurement and characterization of the electromagnetic environment. Other benefits include improved measurement accuracy by reducing susceptibility to electrical noise pick up, thus, eliminating the need for electrical power at the sensor head; the sensor head can be placed in hostile or remote areas; and the device's compactness allows measurement in small cavities. This project is relevant to the objectives of the U.S.-Korea Cooperative Science Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. and Korean scientists and engineers through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit. This project will provide international training and experience for a U.S. graduate student in a fundamentally and technologically significant area of ph otonics and optoelectronics research.. Korean participation is supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF). ***
