Professor
Meyer Hall Rm. 438
Phone: 273-3845
email: fkowalsk@mines.edu
PhD Stanford University.
|
Frank Kowalski
Professor Meyer Hall Rm. 438 Phone: 273-3845 email: fkowalsk@mines.edu | |
| Professor.BS University of Puget
Sound; PhD Stanford University. |
My research has covered a variety of areas, from applied work on laser printers to studies in relativity. Currently, the two major applied research areas are in ring lasers and frequency-shifted feedback lasers. The ring laser studies involve understanding the effects of mirror motion on the counterpropagating waves in the laser. Applications are in reducing the lock-in problem inherent in ring lasers and in geophysical rotation sensors. To establish oscillation, most lasers feedback light into the gain medium via an arrangement of mirrors. The light is therefore unshifted in frequency. This leads to the narrow bandwidth emission of the laser. We have studied a system in which the light emitted from the gain medium is shifted in frequency before being fed back into the gain medium. The output characteristics are quite different from a laser using the "normal" feedback method. Work with these frequency-shifted feedback lasers revolves around understanding the broadband, chirped, and pulsed behavior of the device.
Since my graduate school days I have had an interest in the interaction
of light with accelerating dielectrics. Part of this interest involves
the idea that a wavecrest in the dielectric accelerates due to the acceleration
of the dielectric.This has led to applications of ring lasers to study
this effect. In addition, predictions have been made of a phase shift for
light propagating through a dielectric fixed in a gravitational field.
Last Modified:
August 22, 2005
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