Forget the Spaceport. Scott Davison's ultrashort pulse (USP) laser could soon be the catalyst to spark the technology industry in New Mexico-and NMSU has an all-access pass.
Davison, president of Raydiance Inc., has begun to plant the seeds of economic growth in the heart of New Mexico by supplying various institutions throughout the state with his new plug-and-play micro optical technology, the Raydiance laser.
"We felt that New Mexico had all the right assets and components," Davison said. "There is a very strong set of intellectual capital in both the universities and the national labs, as well as a strong orientation in the state around defense and life sciences. It is a really good fit."
The significance of the new desktop-sized Raydiance laser lies not in its technical design, but in the implications of its future use. Previous USP laser technologies have been useful research tools, but they are bulky, costly and require a skilled operator for proper use. They also typically cause collateral damage to the material being examined, usually due to thermal abrasion.
The new Raydiance laser is a multi-platform "developers toolkit" that has a promising future in the medical, environmental, educational and chemical detection fields. Davison said if the technology is used to its full potential, it could transform New Mexico into a technology mecca similar to California's Silicon Valley.
"When I look at New Mexico and I see the assets in that state, it hasn't turned into the kind of new high-tech startup company incubator that it could be," Davison said. "I see a state that has huge potential, combined with a great character and livability. The timing is just right."
Among the new applications of the Raydiance laser being harbored in the state is the NMSU "gemstone project," headed by Nancy McMillan, academic head of the Department of Geological Sciences.
"The Raydiance laser is a technological marvel," McMillan said. "We had run up a dead-end with traditional technology in gem research because it was causing too much damage. The old technology hit the gems with a knockout punch. The picosecond [Raydiance] laser just kisses the stone, it barely hits it and produces energy."
McMillan's objective as the principal investigator of the gemstone project is to differentiate fake gemstones from real gemstones and to uniquely identify their chemical composition with certainty without causing damage to the stone.
There are a variety of fake jewels on the market that are treated to look similar to real stones, such as chemically-coated diamonds, rubies injected with leaded glass and synthetic forsterite being sold as tanzanite - a mineral found only in one mountain in Tanzania.
Researchers indicate the fake gem market is larger than ever, mainly due to advances in technology that allow counterfeiters to pass fake gems to experienced appraisers, who typically examine the stones only by sight and touch.
"The Raydiance laser takes out all the guess work," McMillan said. "There are many types of gem fraud. The gem appraisal and insurance business is huge."
Davison said the work being done at NMSU is only the first step in exploiting the full potential of the new technology, but that McMillan's work has been progressing at an "amazing" rate.
"Professor McMillan has taken our technology platform and applied it very quickly, with very few resources," Davison said. "She has a done a really good proof of principle that shows you can quickly use this technology to differentiate one profile from another. She has made significant breakthroughs in the idea of using the spectroscopic signature of an object to differentiate one material from another."
The professor already has plans to involve a number of undergraduate and graduate students in her research. She said the current project would eventually encompass researchers in a variety of majors.
McMillan's work is only one of six research projects on the Raydiance laser platform underway at NMSU. Other research groups are developing novel applications based on the unique properties of the Raydiance laser to discover or enhance new technologies that can be commercialized in New Mexico.
Davison said some of the most promising applications of the compact USP laser are in the medical and defense fields. In the future, doctors may be able to use the laser as a non-invasive "smart scalpel," with the ability to weave through the human body to identify and repair damaged tissue.
The laser could also be used in matters of national security, as a way to identify hazardous materials, explosives and other dangerous chemicals on our ports and borders, said Davison.
More information on the Raydiance USP laser is available at http://www.Raydiance-Inc.com.
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