Speaker
Phillip Evans
(Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Summary
Optics research in the Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory ranges from the generation, manipulation and detection of single photons in the Quantum Information Science Group, to the generation and coherent combining of few-hundred Watt level beams in custom laser systems in the Complex Systems Group. The role of the Directorate Laser Safety Officer is therefore varied - with hazards spanning the entire visible and near-IR spectral regions over a power range in excess of 200dB often on the same optical table. In this talk, I shall discuss the challenges of laser safety in the multi-program active laser laboratories, with a dynamic research population that includes summer interns to senior staff.