REU Site: Ultraintense Lasers and High Field Photonics

About This Grant

This three-year REU Site: Ultraintense Lasers and High Field Photonics is hosted by Colorado State University (CSU). The goal is to offer new research opportunities to undergraduates in the technically and scientifically challenging field that is critical and vital to industries and the nation’s economy. Laser-generated EUV light is opening new revolutionary opportunities in areas including microelectronics, nanotechnology, and materials and the mass production of the next generations of computer processors and memory. This REU program is a collaboration among a group of researchers and engineers from Colorado State University and University of California Berkeley (UCB), working with faculty at the University of California Merced, Morehouse College, Front Range Community College and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and industry partners. Students will have interactions with world-leading industry partners in the semiconductor and laser fusion energy industry through seminars and tours and with graduates from the NSF Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology Engineering Research Center who are currently working in industry. REU participants who complete a summer of research at CSU or UCB will have the option to continue their research the following summer in an industry lab through internships funded by industry. The program will provide students with a unique opportunity designed to understand high power laser science and technology and to become involved in laser fusion- related research projects that are challenging and highly interdisciplinary. The faculty and research labs produce cutting-edge research and have partnerships with industries that are leaders in the development and commercialization of products and the next generation of technology (including critical tools for the fabrication of cell phones and computers, and clean energy generated by nuclear fusion). This REU program will work to instill confidence in students to make educated choices about their future careers in STEM by providing sessions on preparing for graduate programs and for career opportunities in industry positions. The program will contribute to educating a workforce in a field of critical national economic importance for global competitiveness in lasers and optics, especially EUV science and technology and laser fusion. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.