The interview begins with a discussion of Giallorenzi’s youth, including his education and anecdotes about his early jobs, as well as his undergraduate and graduate work at Cornell University and his work on the scattering of laser light in Chung Tang’s laboratory there. Giallorenzi recounts his first laboratory job at GT&E Laboratories working on laser displays and arc lamps, and his move soon thereafter to the Quantum Optics Branch at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. He discusses his work at NRL on fiber optics applied to sensor technology, including acoustic and magnetic sensors, and to pathbreaking R&D in microwave photonics. He also discusses his move to leading the then-newly created NRL Optical Techniques Branch, the departure of staff working on nuclear fusion to Livermore, and new R&D directions within his branch that were necessitated by the termination of work on liquid crystals. He recalls his relationship with NRL Director of Research Alan Berman, his promotion to Optical Sciences Superintendent, his division’s focus on high-power lasers, including MIRACL, and his decision to terminate a branch within the division. He further discusses his relationship with the Pentagon, status as a member of the Senior Executive Service, and experiences as a high-level administrator. The interview concludes with discussions of other technologies NRL worked on, the balance between basic and applied research at the lab, awards Giallorenzi has received, and his work with advisory panels, the Naval Center for Space Technology, and the Optical Society of America (now Optica).
Topics discussed include: her early education and family background, education, first job, expermental work, work at Columbia University, study at the University of Chicago, PhD research, teaching at Brooklyn College, Bell Laboratory, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, DNA, Charles Duke, Art Epstein, GTE, Rochester Univeristy, J. R. Schrieffer, William Shockley, Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., Victor Weisskopf and the Xerox Corporation.
Summary of work and development of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and diode lasers done in the 1950s and early 1960s at Sylvania Research Laboratories, and at General Telephone and Electronics Laboratories, 1961-1964. Semiconducting Compounds Group investigates intermetallic compounds, especially GaAs and HgTe in the 1950s. Group joins the Battelle Memorial Institute group, 1957. Group effort devoted to GaAs from 1958. Group leaders discussed, Don Wahl, Henry Minden, and Sumner Mayburg. Work prompted in part by Heinrich Welker's 1952 report on preparation and properties of III-V compounds. Description of research proposals, notebook entries, reports, and memos pertaining to invention of GaAs laser, GaAs diffuse diode lasing, 1961-1962, and the cylindrical GaAs laser diode, 1963; GT&E activity in light emitting diodes and laser diodes reduced by 1964. Also prominently mentioned are: K. Arnold, J. Birman, R. Harrigan, Paul Keck, M. J. Massoulie, J. L. Pankove, B. Smith, and Otto Weinrich.
