These short courses were offered in conjunction with the Advanced High-Power Laser Review, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 6-9 June 2011. Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits were awarded for completion of these DEPS short courses.
Course 1. Introduction to Free Electron Laser Systems Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructors: Dinh Nguyen, Los Alamos National Laboratory Duration: Full-day course CEUs awarded: 0.7 Course Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce the audience to the physics and technologies of free electron lasers (FEL) driven by radio-frequency (RF) linear accelerators (linac). The topics to be covered include rudimentary concepts of laser and electron beam physics, the generation, acceleration and transport of high-brightness electron beams, wiggler/undulator radiation, and the production of high-power, coherent laser beams using various FEL architectures. Emphasis will be placed on practical design considerations of various FEL sub-systems, e.g. electron injectors, cathodes, superconducting RF accelerators, energy recovery beam transport, wiggler designs and photon beam optics. The audience will gain the basic accelerator and FEL knowledge that will aid them in selecting and/or designing various sub-systems of an energy recovery linac FEL. Intended Audience: Prerequisites for this short course include an undergraduate science degree and an optional college-level electricity & magnetism course. Instructor Biographies: Dinh C. Nguyen received B.S. with Honor in Chemistry at Indiana University, Bloomington in 1979 and Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1984. Since joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1984, he has done pioneering work in single molecule detection, up-conversion solid-state lasers, RF photoinjectors, advanced photocathodes, and high-gain amplifier FEL concepts such as the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) and regenerative amplifier. The high-gain SASE experiments that he performed in 1997 are the first in a series of experiments that have culminated in the first X-ray FEL at SLAC. His current research includes the development of high-power FEL, high-average-current RF injectors, rugged photocathodes and new ideas of hard X-rays FEL. Dinh Nguyen is a member of the American Physical Society, the International FEL Program Committee, and the FEL Technology Area Working Group. He has published more than 60 refereed journal articles and numerous conference papers. Course 2. Introduction to Laser Beam Quality Measures Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: Sean Ross, AFRL/DE Duration:Half-day course CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: This half day short course covers the general subject of high power laser beam quality. Topics covered include: definitions and applications of common measures of beam quality including Brightness, Power-in-the-bucket, M-squared, 'times diffraction limited', strehl ratio, beam parameter product etc. Special emphasis will be given to choosing an appropriate beam quality metric, tracing the metric to the application of the laser system and to various conceptual pitfalls which arise in this field. Material presented will come from general scientific literature as well as original work done by Dr. Ross and Dr. Pete Latham, both from the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate. Intended Audience: This course should benefit anyone with an interest in laser beam quality, including program managers, scientists, engineers, and military personnel who are not experts in the field. Instructor Biography: Dr. Sean Ross has been with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, High Power Solid State Laser Branch since he received his PhD from the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) in 1998. Research interests include nonlinear frequency conversion, high power solid state lasers, thermal management and laser beam quality. Beginning in 2000, frustration with commercial beam quality devices led to the work eventually presented in the Journal of Directed Energy, Vol. 2 No. 1 Summer 2006 "Appropriate Measures and Consistent Standard for High Energy Laser Beam Quality". This paper and its conference version (presented at the 2005 DEPS Symposium) have received awards from the Directed Energy Professional Society and the Directed Energy Directorate. Course 3. Ultrashort Laser Induced Filaments: Propagation in Transparent Media Classification: Unclassified, Limited Distribution C Instructor: Pat Roach Duration: Half-day course CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: This short course introduces and discusses the main theoretical aspects of ultrashort laser pulse induced filamentation in transparent media. The properties of femtosecond filaments and some of their published applications are presented in the context of electromagnetic theory starting with Maxwell’s equations. Theoretical models developed to explain filaments thus far and the main predictions inferred from them are reviewed along with various published techniques to observe filaments and to measure their characteristics will be discussed. Instructor Biography: Dr. William "Pat" Roach is the Senior Science Advisor, Advanced Electric Laser Branch, Laser Division, Directed Energy Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory Kirtland AFB, NM. He received his B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Avila University, Kansas City, MO, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and -Columbia, respectively. Dr. Roach is a Diplomate of the American Board of Health Physics, Distinguished Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, and holds full and adjunct appointments as Professor of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences, Adjunct Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. He is a Fellow of the SPIE, Fellow of the Laser Institute of America, and a Fellow of the American Society of Lasers in Medicine. Among his many academic awards are included the American Medical Surgeons of the United States Sustaining Membership Lecture Award for Scientific Research, the Armstrong Laboratory’s Directors Award, national honors from Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Pi Sigma, and the Avila Medal of Honor. Dr. Roach is funded annually by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to investigate the mathematical structure of femtosecond laser pulse induced filamentation and high energy continuous wave beam combining. He collaborates on the physics of directed energy source development. His research is directed toward the theoretical investigations of heat deposition from electromagnetic fields and the fundamental properties associated with the electromagnetic dispersion relations in materials. Dr. Roach serves as a National Academy of Science, National Research Council Postdoctoral Advisor, a member of the SPIE Program Committee and Chair for Laser Tissue Engineering Track and Laser Interaction with Tissue and Cells of BIOS. Course 4. Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers (DPALs) Classification: Unclassified, Public Release Instructor: Glen Perram, AFIT Duration: Half-day course CEUs awarded: 0.35 Course Description: The Diode Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) system originally proposed and demonstrated by Krupke is a three level laser pumped by diode bars on the D2 transition, exciting the first 2P3/2 state of the alkali atom. Collisional relaxation to the 2P1/2 state is accomplished with a spin orbit relaxing gas such as ethane or methane, while pressure broadening of the absorption line has routinely been accomplished with He. The excited alkali atom then lases on the D1 line back to the ground state. Terminating the laser level at the ground state requires the gain volume to be fully bleached before achieving an inversion between the 2P1/2 and 2S1/2 states, resulting in pump threshold values of ~1 kW/cm2. Early laser demonstrations achieved laser output powers of 1-3 W in both rubidium and cesium with slope efficiencies as high as 82%. More recently, cw output powers as high as 145 W with in-band slope efficiencies of 28% have been reported. This course will develop the background spectroscopy and kinetics of the DPAL system, summarize recent laser demonstrations, discuss narrow banding of diode pump sources, develop the key performance and scaling equations, and outline several issues in the development of these devices for tactical weapons applications. Intended Audience: The course is intended for scientists and engineers with a basic understanding of laser engineering. Instructor Biography: Glen Perram, Professor of Physics, AFIT. B.S. Cornell University 1980, M.S. AFIT 1981, Ph.D. AFIT 1986. Professor Perram's research interests include chemical lasers, laser weapon modeling and simulation, remote sensing, and chemical physics. He has served on the AFIT faculty since 1989 and is the author of over 30 archival publications and 80 presentations.
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