ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
                              &
           IEEE LASERS AND ELECTROOPTICS SOCIETY


                        Feb. Meeting

Date:  Thursday, 17 Feb. 2000
Time:  7:00 PM refreshments, 7:30 PM talk
Place: National Institute of Standards and Technology
       325 Broadway, Boulder, CO
       Room 1107


Title: Practical tabletop soft x -ray lasers open new 
       opportunities in science

       Jorge Rocca
       Colorado State University



Abstract:

The generation of intense coherent soft x-ray radiation with 
compact devices is expected to make important contributions 
to several diverse fields of science and technology. Research 
at Colorado State University has resulted in the 
demonstration of a new approach for the development of soft 
x-ray lasers, that resulted in compact and practical 
ultrashort wavelength laser devices that can fit in a 
fraction of a normal laboratory table. Utilizing a fast 
discharge excitation of a gas-filled capillary channel the 
first high average power soft x-ray laser was demonstrated. 
This laser emits at 46.9nm with an average power of several 
mW. The spatially coherent average power per unit bandwidth 
generated by this laser is comparable to that emitted at this 
wavelength by undulators at third generation synchrotron 
facilities, and its coherent peak power is six orders of 
magnitude larger. The development of these lasers has now 
reached a point at which these sources can be employed in new 
exciting scientific applications ranging from materials 
science to the diagnostics of dense plasmas. The development 
of these new laser sources , their use in applications, and 
future prospects will be discussed.


Biography:

Jorge J. Rocca is a Professor of Electrical and Computer 
Engineering at Colorado State University. His current 
research interests are in the development and physics of 
tabletop soft x-ray lasers, and their applications. He has 
conducted research and published more than 200 papers in 
technical journals and conferences on topics related to short 
wavelength radiation sources, lasers, plasmas and gaseous 
electronics. In 1994 his research group made the first 
observation of large soft x-ray amplification in a discharge-
created plasma, a result that lead to the demonstration of 
the first high average power tabletop soft x-ray laser. He is 
a Fellow of both the Optical Society of America and the IEEE, 
and is a member of the American Physical Society. He was a 
National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator 
for 1985-1990 and in 1995 he received the Researcher of the 
Year Award from the Colorado State University Research 
Foundation. He has served as Associate Editor of the IEEE 
Journal of Quantum Electronics for 1994-1999 and Chair of the 
IEEE/LEOS subcommittee on Short Wavelength and  Gas Lasers 
for 1998-1999, and is currently the Chair for X-Ray XUV and 
Physics subcommittee of the Optical Society of America 
Technical Council. He has co-chaired the SPIE conference on 
Soft X-Ray  Lasers and Applications in 1995, 1997 and 1999,  
and is a member of the international advisory board of the 
International Conference on X-Ray Lasers.