Published: October 09, 2006 11:38 pm         

Leading the way with lasers

Technology could be used to detect, neutralize explosives

TERRE HAUTE — On Monday, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology unveiled a $1 million high-tech laser laboratory that eventually could help save the lives of American troops in Iraq.

The Ultrashort Pulse Laser Laboratory could help create systems to better detect and neutralize improvised explosive devices, such as roadside bombs, that are being used by insurgents to kill American troops.

The Department of Defense provided $1 million to equip and operate the lab, located in Rose-Hulman’s Aleph Park. Many of the projects conducted there will be in partnership with the Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center at Crane.

Representatives of Rose-Hulman, Crane and Congressman John Hostettler, R-8th, attended the dedication. Hostettler, a Rose-Hulman alumnus, helped secure funding for the lab.

“Just a few years ago, engineers and scientists were only dreaming of doing the types of things that will now occur in Rose-Hulman’s new [high energy laser lab],” said Gerald Jakubowski, Rose-Hulman president.

Other potential applications include improving military defense systems and developing new methods to detect biological and chemical agents. It also has potential commercial uses in the biomedical and communications fields.

There could even be uses for law enforcement, such as in detecting byproducts from methamphetamine production or concealed firearms.

Undergraduate students will play a major role in projects. “The work that is being done in the laboratory will not only improve homeland security, but it will also help us better prepare and educate our Rose-Hulman students,” Jakubowski said.

Galen Duree, Rose-Hulman associate professor of physics and optical engineering, explained that the laser generates light pulses that last 50 femtoseconds.

“If you take one second and divide it into one hundred trillion equal intervals, the laser is on for five of these intervals,” said Duree, who will direct the projects in the laboratory. “This period of time is so short that when the light encounters an atom, it leaves before the atom can respond.”

The system concentrates so much energy in a short time interval that it enables engineers and scientists to investigate a wide area of laser applications, he said.

This lab is different from the small number of USPL labs operating at other campuses in two ways, Duree said. Faculty and students will concentrate on applications rather than theory, and undergraduate students will play a major role in the projects.

The partnership with Crane is focused on two areas — assisting Crane in developing applications of military value, and finding ways to deliver the resulting technology to the soldiers in the field as quickly as possible.

Don Schulte, head of the Ordnance Engineering Department of the Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, said he is excited about the partnership with Rose-Hulman and ways the new high energy laser lab will benefit the military.

“We owe it to those folks — the reservists, the full-time military — that are sacrificing their lives and their time away from their families,” Schulte said. They deserve nothing but the best, and we’ve got to do that.”

The war in Iraq hits home for many people, he said. “It’s family members, it’s folks you know, folks in your neighborhood,” Schulte said.

One student working in the new lab is Jeff Brown, an optical engineering major. “It’s state-of-the-art technology and the applications for it are endless,” he said.

Brown is particularly interested in biomedical applications that could be used for cancer treatments, surgery or nerve repair. “There could be really neat things as far as surgery because it doesn’t heat up tissue and damage tissue,” he said.

He’s also interested in applications that could save lives in Iraq. One possibility is using a laser to disrupt electronics that would keep a bomb from exploding.

The laser technology is complex, and Brown acknowledges that sometimes, “It’s way over my head.” But he’s learned a lot and gained much experience that could open doors for him when he graduates, he said.

Twenty-eight undergraduates and two graduate students have had an opportunity to work with the lab, which was installed this summer, Duree said.

The goal is to get some of the technology out to the military within an 18- to 24-month time frame, particularly that related to the improvised explosive devices, he said.

Hostettler said the new lab and partnership between Rose-Hulman and Crane will help provide the technology and weaponry “our military personnel will need to meet the difficult challenges of 21st century warfare.”