Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009

6:00pm: Networking/Pizza Social
7:00pm: Presentation
8:00pm: Adjourn

Cost: Free

Title

Nonlinear optical crystals for use in consumer laser projection displays

Speaker

Dr. Dieter Jundt, Crystal Technology, Inc.

Abstract

RGB laser displays offer several advantages over currently available display types. The color gamut is larger than in CRT, LED or Plasma systems, offering more vibrant colors. The low étendue of lasers simplifies the imaging optics, may even eliminate the need for focusing, and enables small handheld projectors. While good quality red and blue lasers are available that can be modulated at the high speeds required for creating a grey-scale, this has not been the case for green lasers based on frequency-doubled DPSS lasers. Frequency doubling of diode lasers can address this shortcoming and various approaches are being pursued. Each of those approaches requires a nonlinear optical crystal that has good conversion efficiency and can be produced at low cost with good reproducibility. MgO doped lithium niobate is currently the favored crystal for this need. The talk will discuss crystal characterization techniques used to optimize the crystal growth process and address the challenges in scaling R&D processes to high volume production from crystal growth, periodic poling through device processing.

Biography

Dieter Jundt currently is Vice President of research and development at Crystal Technology, Inc. where he works towards improving the quality and manufacturability of nonlinear optical crystals while driving down cost. He grew up in Switzerland, received a Diploma degree in Physics from the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zürich and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Stanford University in 1991. After a 2-year post-doc, he joined Crystal Tech where he held research as well as technical management positions focusing on material science, crystal growth, and acousto-optic devices. He has co-authored over 40 publications and holds several patents.