Franklin Dollar and experiementing with ZEUS
From right, Ruben Gonzalez, looks up as Victor Flores points to one of the screens in the Control Room of the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultra-short laser pulse System (ZEUS) at the U-M Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences in the Carl A. Gerstacker Building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Both are students in Franklin Dollar’s research group at the University of California, Irvine. Gonzalez is an undergraduate, Flores is working toward his PhD.
Dollar’s work involves making the plasmas and seeing what they do, and optimizing experiments to produce X-rays or particle beams. These have applications in medicine, semiconductor engineering, basic research, and more. Dollar describes the experiment he and his team are currently running as “one of the most powerful interactions in the known universe.” When the infrared laser fires it is invisible to human eyes. Additionally the laser is conveyed inside a series of metal boxes that prevent any of the light from escaping. Even so, the concrete reinforced Control Room is the nearest anyone wants to be because at peak power the laser is three petawatts, or more than 100 times the global electricity production, but only for a few quintillionths of a second. The laser itself does not create radiation, but when it reaches the experimental room, the light interacts and generates radiation. There are extensive protocols for making sure that no people are in the area, since unnecessary radiation dose is never a good thing.
Dollar got both his Masters in Electrical Engineering in 2010 and his PhD in Applied Physics in 2012, from the University of Michigan. The students on his team from Physics and Astronomy at UC, Irvine are PhD’s Josh Lewis, Christopher Gardner, Victor Flores, and undergrad Ruben Gonzalez.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing
Franklin Dollar and experiementing with ZEUS
From right, Ruben Gonzalez, looks up as Victor Flores points to one of the screens in the Control Room of the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultra-short laser pulse System (ZEUS) at the U-M Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences in the Carl A. Gerstacker Building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Both are students in Franklin Dollar’s research group at the University of California, Irvine. Gonzalez is an undergraduate, Flores is working toward his PhD.
Dollar’s work involves making the plasmas and seeing what they do, and optimizing experiments to produce X-rays or particle beams. These have applications in medicine, semiconductor engineering, basic research, and more. Dollar describes the experiment he and his team are currently running as “one of the most powerful interactions in the known universe.” When the infrared laser fires it is invisible to human eyes. Additionally the laser is conveyed inside a series of metal boxes that prevent any of the light from escaping. Even so, the concrete reinforced Control Room is the nearest anyone wants to be because at peak power the laser is three petawatts, or more than 100 times the global electricity production, but only for a few quintillionths of a second. The laser itself does not create radiation, but when it reaches the experimental room, the light interacts and generates radiation. There are extensive protocols for making sure that no people are in the area, since unnecessary radiation dose is never a good thing.
Dollar got both his Masters in Electrical Engineering in 2010 and his PhD in Applied Physics in 2012, from the University of Michigan. The students on his team from Physics and Astronomy at UC, Irvine are PhD’s Josh Lewis, Christopher Gardner, Victor Flores, and undergrad Ruben Gonzalez.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing