We study the behavior of optical materials at high laser intensities.

In Layman's Terms:  We zap materials with high intensity lasers to develop new types of "nonlinear optical" materials

Applications:  Protecting our troops and their automated systems from laser damage, high speed communications, advanced laser radar, fiber-optic switching networks, photonic phase array antennas, optical sensors, optical computers

Recent Achievements: We have developed the first materials that can be used for power limiting in the blue region, phosphine-substituted oligothiophenes

Experimental Example: Below is shown a "Z-Scan Experiment" to characterize nonlinear optical materials

Energy dependent open aperture
z-scan measurements of P(S)T₂P(S) excited by picosecond laser at 430 nm