This award provides funding to implement and evaluate ultrafast optics and fiber laser frequency comb advanced laboratories at Bethel University and the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. Fiber laser frequency combs based on a proven, cost-efficient carbon nanotube design will be built and utilized at the University of Arizona in its graduate-level optics lab and at Bethel University in its upper-level physics courses. Bethel is a primarily undergraduate institution (18 graduates per year averaged over the last five years) with a strong history of open-ended advanced lab projects. The growing number of applications of a fiber laser frequency comb (e.g. precision length measurement and molecular spectroscopy) will serve to enhance the creativity and novelty of Bethel University's advanced lab context. The ultrafast laser and fiber laser frequency comb labs will educate and train graduate and undergraduate students in laser science, linear and non-linear optics, engineering and ultrafast measurement.
