Building a better laser

Photo of Linzi WuLinzi Wu ’15 has been researching how to make lasers cheaper, smaller, and more powerful by using ceramic materials instead of crystals.
Working with Professor Xuesheng Chen, she measured the optical properties of transparent ceramics doped with various concentrations of Neodymium ions to find out which concentrations produced the most efficient absorption and emission of infrared light. Linzi (pictured here) presented her findings at the 2013 Wheaton Academic Festival, and will present her work at the New England section of the American Physical Society in the fall.