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At Ohio State, researchers from the Ohio State Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Schumacher Group are using some of the most powerful lasers to explore a world where light can generate X-rays, energetic particles and new possibilities for medicine.
When you think of a laser, what comes to mind? Intergalactic space battles? James Bond in Goldfinger? A game of laser tag? You may be surprised to learn that studying lasers at The Ohio State University is much more intense. Literally.
Douglass Schumacher has been studying lasers for almost 40 years. His study of light at such an intense level has been a passion since he joined Bell Laboratories after his undergraduate work, and today involves not just lasers themselves, but also protons, neutrons and electrons, the particles that make up atoms.
“The light that I study can generate interesting kinds of radiation, such as X-rays, beams of energetic electrons, ions or even neutrons. We're seeing that laser-accelerated protons, that is protons accelerated by light, may be useful for new kinds of cancer therapies” he said.
“What I would tell someone that's never encountered an intense laser before is that it's light that's so bright, it doesn't act like the light that they're used to anymore.”
