Abstract 570 Lawson Alabama Laser Research Initiative The Alabama Laser Research Initiative proposes to establish a unique world-class Laser Research Facility at the University of Alabama at Birmingham which will provide spectrally tunable laser pulses for photonics research and development. The facility will help to develop systemic linkages between the science, engineering, and mathematics infrastructure in Alabama in the area of lasers and photonics. Specific areas of research to be pursued in this initiative include the development of new active media for future commercial laser systems, research into new types of nonlinear optical materials for optical switching, and research into new types of optical systems for laser beam profile modification to enhance the efficiency of laser systems. The new active media research (solid state impurity doped and color centers) is spurred by the need for lasers at new wavelengths, and will result in the development of new irradiated color centers and impurity doped crystals. These new active media will ultimately have applications as new types of products for commercial laser companies, including spectrally tunable solid state lasers, passive Q-switches, and mode-lockers. The nonlinear optical materials research is motivated by Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial applications such as sensor hardening, optical processing or computing, and optical switching, and will involve the development of new highly photorefractive NLO materials. Color-center laser-based experiments will be used to characterize these materials. Ultimately, this will lead to improved nonlinear optical (NLO) materials for DoD and commercial applications. The beam profile modification research is motivated by the need to transform a Gaussian laser beam profiles into a more uniform irradiance distributions for applications such as projection processing of materials. The proposed research in the area of novel beam reshaping will lead to beam reshapers for use in producing massive arrays of micro-optical elements. This Alabama Laser Research Initiative will provide opportunities to educate undergraduate and graduate students (including participants in the Alabama Alliance for Minority Participation program) in laser and photonic sciences and technologies. The emphasis of this educational process will be to develop applied skills that will be directly used (i) in new commercial laser and photonics companies located in Alabama; and (ii) to modernize current Alabama based industries. In addition to educating students, the proposed research will help to develop new laser and photonics technologies that can be transferred to Alabama industries to develop new products and to improve manufacturing processes.
