Wolfgang G. Rudolph, Ph.D.
Regents’ Professor and Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy
The University of New Mexico
Dr. Rudolph has disclosed 9 inventions to STC, received three UNM-affiliated issued U. S. patents, and has one pending U. S. patent application for his microscopy and laser technologies.
His gas-filled laser technology is the first optically pumped gas laser (OPGL) on population inversion in a hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). The laser produces mid-IR (3.1-3.2 µm) lasing by optically pumping with 1.5 µm, nanosecond pulses. The laser has many advantages, including high damage thresholds and the potential for coherent emission from mutually incoherent pump sources. Furthermore, OPGLs with molecular gases offer a variety of mid-IR wavelengths specifically in the eye-safe wavelengths within the atmospheric transmission window. Creating an OPGL inside the hollow fiber has the added advantage of confining the pump and laser light over long interaction lengths in a compact configuration.
Dr. Rudolph’s research interests include ultrafast lasers and spectroscopy; microscopy with femtosecond light pulses for applications in material science and biomedicine; and lasers in the mid infrared for remote sensing and imaging through the atmosphere.
ISSUED U. S. PATENTS (UNM-AFFILIATED)
7,476,787 Addressable Field Enhancement Microscopy, issued January 13, 2009
7,869,051 System and Method for Ratiometric Non-linear Coherent Imaging, issued January 11, 2011
9,106,055 Gas Filled Hollow Fiber Laser, issued August 11, 2015
PENDING U. S. PATENT APPLICATION
Harmonic Generation Using Optimized Stacks of Thin Films