Lasers

Laser work at Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory (AFCRL) (Rudolph Bradbury); early work on ruby lasers (Charles H. Townes, John Howard); Department of Defense (DOD) high-energy laser program; Steve Harris and Anthony DeMaria; optical masers and phased array lasers; CO2 laser at Avco-Everett; reform of service laboratories (Peter Schweitzer), 1960s; laser color centers and pump light attenuation (application to rangefinders); interaction with Office of Naval Research; spinoffs of laser research. Laser damage studies at AFCRL (q-switching); instigated by Peter Avizonis and Art Guenther; Raman light (R. K. Chang), development of Optical Parametric Oscillators; simulated Brillouin scattering (George Wolga); tunable laser work (Tony Siegman, Steve Harris); Avco Gas Dynamic Laser (GDL); Erlan Bliss and Dave Milam; Stickley replaced by Howard Schlossberg; dispersion of laser damage group; transfer of laser glass and damage experience to DOE—Livermore. Stickley moves to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Glenn Sherwood, Maurice Sinnot, Ed Gerry, David Mann, Steve Lukasik; Laser Window Program; DARPA interdisciplinary materials science program; Chemical Laser Damage Program (J. A. Harrington). Joins the Department of Energy (DOE) and its laser fusion program; politics and recruitment; Lawrence Livermore Laboratory vs. Los Alamos National Laboratory; DOD vs. DOE laboratories. The Strategic Defense Initiative; Stickley moves to Battelle Memorial Institute.

Maser research at Hughes Research Laboratories. The laser; Maiman’s work; building a laser rangefinder; Q-switching; stimulated Raman scattering; other laser research. The impact of Sputnik and the Vietnam War on Hughes Aircraft Co. Procedures for selecting research projects.

This interview deals with Siegman's education, from 1949 to 1957, as an undergraduate at Harvard University, Hughes Aircraft Company work-study fellow at the University of California in Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Also prominently mentioned are: Hubert Heffner, Rudolf Kompfner, Frederick Emmons Terman, Ping K. Tien, Dean A. Watkins, Joseph Weber, and John R. Whinnery.

In the interview Shimony discusses his undergraduate years at Yale in mathematics and philosophy; influence of C. S. Peirce, A. N. Whitehead; reactions to Hume; studying under Robert Calhoun and Paul Weiss; the bases of Shimony's physical realism; Army service at Ft. Monmouth, 1953-55; physics Ph.D. at Princeton; reading EPR; interaction with Eugene Wigner; teaching and doing research on the philosophy of quantum mechanics at MIT in the 1960s; first reactions to Bell's 1965 paper; collaboration with J. F. Clauser, M. A. Horne, and R. Holt on tests of Bell's inequality; the 1970 Varenna summer school on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics; the researches on hidden variable theory and on quantum mechanics of von Neumann, G. Mackey, J. P. Vigier, C. Piron, J. M. Jauch, E. Specker, and S. Kochen; the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics: potentiality and nonlocality; the search for non-linear modifications of quantum mechanics; neutron interferometry; interactions with C. Shull, A. Zeilinger, and D. Greenberger; devising measures of entanglement; plans for future research.

Topics include: Yanhua Shih's early interest in physics and in Joseph Weber's experiments on gravitational waves; the Cultural Revolution in China delays Shih's studies; Shih's college studies in China and graduate work at the University of Maryland. His use of spontaneous parametric down conversion; the influence of contacts with Soviet physicsits. Shih takes a job at Baltimore County branch of the University of Maryland. Sheh and Morton Rubin elaborate their biphoton concept; their experiments to elucidate the concept; funding sources.

Views on the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan era; concerns about destabilization of defense capabilities; development of defensive technology including laser weapons and particle beams; advances in computer technology; Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation of March 23, 1983; Edward Teller's involvement; strategic perspectives on defense systems, defense budget, nuclear weapons, technological developments and superiority, unilateral disarmament, Soviet war policy.

Recollections of research on the HF cw (continuous wave) laser. Gross' work at Aerospace Inc. from 1965 on. High altitude atmosphere reaction associated with atmospheric re-entry. Collaboration with T. Jacobs on the cw laser design and HF gas-dynamic laser research (Hartunian); comments on three independent Atomic Energy Commission proposals for laser isotope seperation; contacts with foreign scientists (N.O. Basov, A.N. Oraevskij).

Research on nonlinear optics at MIT, 1962-1967. Other laser research in MIT period. Responsibilities as Vice-President and Director of Research at Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), 1959-1961. Interest at IDA and ARPA in lasers and laser weaponry. Contemporary evaluations of Robert Dicke’s superradiance paper. Townes’s change of research field from nonlinear optics to radio astronomy in the late 1960s.

Research on nonlinear optics at MIT, 1962-1967. Other laser research in MIT period. Responsibilities as Vice-President and Director of Research at Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), 1959-1961. Interest at IDA and ARPA in lasers and laser weaponry. Contemporary evaluations of Robert Dicke’s superradiance paper. Townes’s change of research field from nonlinear optics to radio astronomy in the late 1960s.

Childhood and youth; his family life and siblings; eduation at Furman during the Depression, 1931-1935; merit scholarship. Graduate study at Duke University in 1936; shifts to Caltech during second year; early interest in astronomy; works with Fred Zwicky. His first job and Bell Telephone Laboratories, from 1939-1947; scientific associates (Deal Woodridge, William Schokley). Discussion of work on microwave spectroscopy and NH₃ spectrum; competition with Bleaney and Good. Accepts I. I. Rabi's offer to join Columbia University faculty in 1948. Interest in molecules, atoms (not solid state physicians), and in short microwaves; comments on teaching, students and faculty; department head from 1952-1955. Inventions of the maser and laser in the 1950s, background ideas; Teshkas' and Lambs' writings on stimulated emission. Purcell, Pound, Dicke did not think of maser; discussion of effects contributing to the appearance of stimultaneity of inventions. Masers in radioastronomy; consultantship at BTL; joint laser invention with Arthur Schawlow. Interactions with Gordan Gould; BTL's interest in the laser.