Laser Physics Career

Interferometric Optics

F. J. Duarte

Published Research

Current Research Interests

Fundamentals of quantum entanglement.
Compact high-power single-longitudinal-mode tunable laser oscillators.
Dirac's quantum notation in classical optics.
Physics and architecture of multiple-prism grating tunable laser oscillators.
Quantum interferometric principles applied to imaging, microscopy, optical metrology, and free space communications.
Secure space-to-space interferometric communications using N-slit interferometers.
Tunable lasers, dispersive, and interferometric physics applied to: industrial measurements, detection of clear air turbulence in aviation, and astronomical instrumentation.

Career Outline: from Gas Lasers to Quantum Entanglement

F. J. Duarte is a laser physicist, with interests in experimental physics and related theory, who has made a number of original contributions to the fields of tunable lasers and quantum optics. He introduced the generalized multiple-prism grating dispersion theory, has made various unique innovations to the physics and architecture of tunable laser oscillators, discovered polymer-nanoparticle gain media, demonstrated quantum coherent emission from electrically-pumped organic semiconductors, has pioneered the use of Dirac's quantum notation in classical optics, and derived the probability amplitude for quantum entanglement from transparent quantum interferometric principles, à la Dirac. The initial phase of his work, on N-slit quantum interferometry, led to the introduction of extremely-expanded laser beam illumination (3000:1) for interferometric techniques in microscopy and nanoscopy applied to industrial imaging measurements at the Eastman Kodak Company (1987).

Duarte studied at the School of Mathematics and Physics of Macquarie University where he was a student of the quantum physicist J. C. Ward. He also studied semiconductor physics under R. E. Aitchison. At Macquarie he was the first to graduate with First Class Honours in Physics (1978). His honours thesis was entitled Excitation Processes in Continuous Wave Rare Gas-Metal Halide Vapour Lasers. Within three years he completed his doctoral research in physics, under the guidance of J. A. Piper, on optically-pumped molecular lasers. In 1981 he became a Commonwealth Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of New South Wales where he built high-resolution UV tunable lasers for IR-UV double-resonance spectroscopy.

His career history includes appointments with Macquarie University, The University of New South Wales, The University of Alabama, State University of New York, the Photographic Research Laboratories, the Imaging Research Laboratories (both at the Eastman Kodak Company), the US Army Missile Command, the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command (leading tunable laser research projects), and The University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has also held honorary appointments at Macquarie University and The University of New Mexico. During the 1987-1992 period he was chairman of the Lasers series of conferences that focused on SDI research. At Optica, Duarte has served in various capacities and on the editorial boards of Applied Optics, Optics & Photonics News, and Optics Letters. In 2006 he founded Interferometric Optics; a research company focusing on quantum interference, quantum entanglement, and tunable lasers.

Works

The generalized multiple-prism dispersion theory is applicable to the design of narrow-linewidth tunable laser oscillators as well as to the design of prismatic pulse compressors for ultrashort-pulse high-peak-power lasers. His contributions to tunable laser oscillators include the design and construction of original narrow-linewidth multiple-prism grating (MPG) configurations, initially developed for copper-laser pumped dye lasers, which have also been applied to high-power lasers using gaseous and solid-state gain media. His MPG solid-state laser oscillators were the first to yield tunable high-peak-power, diffraction-limited, single-longitudinal-mode emission, with a Gaussian temporal profile, at the limit allowed by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

Duarte's contributions have found applications in atomic physics, astronomy, chemistry, coherence, cytology, electrophoresis, femtosecond laser microscopy, geodesics, geophysics, gravitational lensing, heat transfer, imaging, laser isotope separation, laser medicine, laser pulse compression, laser spectroscopy, mathematical transforms, microfluidics, nanobiophotonics, nanoengineering, nanophotonics, nanotechnology, nonlinear optics, optofluidics, organic semiconductor lasers, phase imaging, polarization rotation, quantum aerospace technologies, quantum computing, quantum electrodynamics, quantum entanglement, quantum fluctuations, quantum philosophy, space exploration, and tunable diode laser design.

Since 2012 he has published several works on the foundations of quantum entanglement including a transparent derivation of the probability amplitude for quantum entanglement from quantum interferometric principles. Interest on his quantum entanglement research has transcended physics into the philosophical and historical realms.

Duarte is the author of numerous archival scientific publications including 17 books published by editorials like Academic, CRC, Elsevier, Institute of Physics (UK), SPIE, and Springer. Since 2017 he has been appointed Editor of the book series Coherent Sources, Quantum Fundamentals, and Applications for Institute of Physics Publishing (London).

His latest books are: Quantum Optics for Engineers, Tunable Laser Optics (2nd Edition), Tunable Laser Applications (3rd Edition), Organic Lasers and Organic Photonics, Fundamentals of Quantum Entanglement (2nd Edition), and Quantum Entanglement Engineering and Applications.

Duarte was elected Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics, in 1987, and Fellow of the Optical Society of America (Optica) in 1993. He has received various physics-engineering distinctions including an Eastman Kodak Imaging Patent Award, for his laser and optics inventions; the Engineering Excellence Award, for the invention of the N-slit laser interferometer and its applications to imaging; and the David Richardson Medal... 'for seminal contributions to the physics and technology of multiple-prism arrays for narrow-linewidth tunable laser oscillators and laser pulse compression'... from Optica.