This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
MRI: Acquisition of Vis-NIR Tunable Femtosecond Mode-Locked Laser System for Nanophotonic Devices and Materials Research Boise State University (BSU) proposes to acquire a wide-wavelength-tunable (400?2500 nm), mode-locked, femtosecond laser source and measurement system to enable multidisciplinary research in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. The proposed acquisition consists of an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) pumped by a degeneratively-amplified, mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser and a CCD-based pump-probe transient spectrometer. The broad spectral tunability coupled with a high temporal resolution provides remarkable flexibility to support a diverse array of research topics that represent a unifying theme of nanophotonic materials and devices. The topics to be covered are: (1) ultra-compact, ultra-fast optical processing on a DNA nanobreadboard, (2) photonic crystal slow wave devices, (3) photothermal cancer therapy, (4) characterization of multilayer high-k dielectrics using photon-assisted tunneling, and (5) ultrafast protein conformational change dynamics. This capital equipment acquisition offers a basic infrastructure upon which a core group of research instrumentation will be built. The acquisition also has a broader impact on graduate and undergraduate education, as well as outreach activities. These goals will be pursued by a concerted effort to build a quantum optics and nanotechnology graduate program; by a focus on the involvement of undergraduates in cross-disciplinary research; by a mentoring effort to ensure involved undergraduates consider graduate study in science or engineering; by new undergraduate and graduate learning modules involving the laser system; and by several outreach activities in collaboration with the Discovery Center of Idaho.
