Dr. Ralph H. Page
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P.O. Box 808, L-460
Livermore, CA 94551-0808 USA

Phone: 925-423-6682
Fax: 925-424-2495

Email: page4@llnl.gov

Dr. Page received a BS degree in physics from Caltech.  After a brief hiatus as a microwave and traveling-wave-tube engineer at the Watkins-Johnson Company (Palo Alto, CA,) he joined the laser-and-supersonic-molecular-beam group of Professors Y. T. Lee and Y. R. Shen at UC Berkeley.  His research there involved nonlinear-optical light generation and spectroscopy (from IR through XUV) of atoms, molecules, and van der Waals clusters.  Since then, his abiding interest in atomic/molecular/optical physics, and in the interaction of radiation with matter, have led to studies of samples in regimes of ever-increasing temperature, density, and pressure.  At the IBM Almaden Research Center he used laser spectroscopy to diagnose RF sputtering plasmas.  Upon joining LLNL’s AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) program, he made contributions in spectroscopy, enrichment-process physics, and high-power-laser design.  A transfer into the ASSL (Advanced Solid-State Laser) group furnished a pathway into condensed-matter spectroscopy, where he was the co-inventor of a new class of tunable mid-IR lasers.  While there, he initiated a project to develop a narrowband all-solid-state tunable visible light source, thereby pioneering the use of distributed-feedback fiber lasers and cladding-pumped amplifiers, now used in the front end of NIF (National Ignition Facility.)   This project evolved into the LLNL effort to construct powerful fiber-laser-based 589 nm sodium-guide-star light sources.  Page was simultaneously the mentor of some UC Davis Department of Applied Science graduate students.

Dr. Page spent 2001 developing frequency-agile tunable diode lasers at the Agilent Technologies Laboratory (Palo Alto, CA.)  The restart of Pu laser isotope separation hastened his return to LLNL in 2002, to the Physics and Advanced Technologies directorate.  Notable accomplishments since then include the first demonstration of a continuous-wave flowing-inorganic-liquid-host Nd laser, and the first demonstration of a multimode-diode-pumped alkali-vapor laser.  These laser schemes are both aimed at minimizing refractive-index variations in the gain medium, allowing scaling to high power with good beam quality.

Presently, he is engaged in the analysis of data from shots at the Omega (University of Rochester) laser, and in various problem-solving activities for NIF.

Page is an author of 46 journal articles and holds 9 U.S. patents.

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