Laser Research Lab

Lasers are used in everything from telecommunications to outdoor light shows to laser hair removal and surgery. What our lab looks at is laser safety, developing laser safety standards and laser injury treatment. We want lasers to be safe, but we don't want to unnecessarily limit their use. Part of our work involves proving or disproving current safety standards,as well as establishing new ones. Our group is working with Dr. Tom Eurell at Colorado State University to determine if artificial skin and artificial corneas (cell cultures) can garner reliable results, making the use of animals unnecessary.

Another area of interest is the acute effects of ionizing radiation. We have recently collected data on a project that examines blood changes after an LD50 dose (3.5 Gy) of ionizing radiation.

Watch a plasma being formed from a 35 nanosecond pulse using a 1540 nm laser !! Click here for the video.


A plasma is formed from a 35 nanosecond laser pulse.

HASL-260, High Pressure Argon Ionization Chambers Systems for the Measurement of Environmental Radiation Exposure Rates. (PDF format)