Diode Pumped Alkali Laser Physics Research

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The United States Air Force Academy is soliciting white papers for research under Section l - Funding Opportunity Description (a)(8), Laser and Optics Research Center of the Broad Agency Announcement USAFA-BAA-2015 Amendment 4 posted on 18 October 2018, covering requests for Laser Research.  The Laser and Optics Research Center (LORC) performs a range of research tasks in support of the AF, DoD, DOE, National Science Foundation (NSF) and other government and commercial sponsors. Making use of the extensive experimental facilities housed in the USAFA Department of Physics, the LORC pursues a range of research efforts. The research programs in this center are geared toward providing all undergraduates with a rich, relevant research experience while answering critical research needs of our highly varied customer base. Researchers may expect extensive access to premier facilities, tremendous latitude of pursuits and single-minded focus on research tasks, but must seek to incorporate student participation in their research projects, typically two to four students per semester. Current topics of interest include fundamental studies surrounding high power lasers and their application within physics experiments. High power laser research involves improving diode pumped alkali lasers and is the primary focus of this announcement. New diagnostics that measure densities, temperatures and ionization fraction are desired. Reports and published papers that describe these diagnostics are expected. Secondary research interests involve laser applications including atom interferometers, nonlinear optics, high harmonic generation, laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms, and quantum computing. Researchers are encouraged to pursue basic and applied research topics in these other areas and related subjects.

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