Visiting Associate Professor
Education
- Ph.D., Washington State University (1997)
- M.S., Washington State University (1994)
- B.A., Saint John’s University (1992)
Research Areas of Interest
Femtosecond lasers and their use in understanding ultrafast processes in materials, femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy, nonlinear optics.
Select Publications
B. Crossman, G. Taft, “ Transient transmission oscillations in doped and undoped lithium niobate induced by near-infrared femtosecond pulses,” J. Mater. Res. doi:10.1557/jmr.2018.414 (2018).
C. G. Durfee, T. Storz, J. Garlick, S. Hill, J. A. Squier, M. Kirchner, G. Taft, K. Shea, H. Kapteyn, M. Murnane, S. Backus, ” Direct diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser,” Opt. Express20,13677 (2012).
G. J. Taft, M. T. Newby, J. J. Hrebik, M. Onellion, T. F. George, D. Szentesi, S. Szatmari, and L. Nanai, ” Ultrafast dynamic reflectivity of vanadium pentoxide,” J. Mater. Res.23, 2 (2008).
M. L. Schneider, M. Onellion, X. X. Xi, Xianghui Zeng, Arsen Soukiassian, P. Omernik, and G. Taft, “Electron dynamics in metallic and spin-glass cuprates,” Phys. Rev. B70, 012504 (2004).
G. Taft, A. Rundquist, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, K. DeLong, R. Trebino, I. Christov, ” Ultrafast optical waveform measurements using Frequency Resolved Optical Gating,” Opt. Lett.20, 743 (1995).
Dynamic Reflectivity Measurement
An ultrashort laser “pump” pulse with a duration less than 100 fs (1 x 10 -13 s) energizes charged particles at the surface of a sample, temporarily changing the surface reflectivity. A lower energy probe pulse reflects from the energized surface after a controllable time delay. The change in the reflected probe light is measured versus the time delay. This helps understand charge dynamics in the sample on ultrashort timescales.
