Interview with Philip Kornreich

Featured Engineer

Philip Kornreich

Philip Kornreich - Professor, Syracuse University

How did you get into electronics/ engineering and when did you start?

My father was an engineer. I started as a young boy.

How did you get into optical electronics? Were there any first projects or jobs that started your research down this path?

After graduating from University of Pennsylvania with Ph. D. in EE started teaching and researching at Syracuse University. I took over the Solid State lab of the EE department. I worked on various Solid state problems. My first project was measuring the Symmetry Properties of strain dependent resistance at very low temperatures in various semiconductors. Eventually I worked on various electronic and optoelectronic devices most were my inventions. We worked on a Optical Camera that was read out using Surface Wave Acoustic Waves. One obtained the Fourier transform of the Image, my invention. In 1996 we started out Optical Fiber Work. First we made optical fiber manually by one person holding the Fiber Preform and another person heating the bottom of the preform with a torch. Eventually we build a complete fiber lab with Fiber Drawing Tower from salvaged pars. We make fibers with various coatings at the glass core glass cladding boundary of the fiber. Semiconductor coating for light amplification, Lithium Niobat Coating for strain sensing, sonar sensing and spectrum analysis an 5 nm thick Gold films for Bio Sensors and other applications. In 2007 our lab was kicked out of our original location and we moved to a research building where I met Professor Bart Ferall. Professor Ferall and I now investigate the possibility of animals including us seeing in 3D with each eye separately. Professor Hartmann and I work on Guided Laser Nuclear Fusion in a fiber.

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

Various Optical Fiber Fabricating Equipment

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

Apple Works

What is on your bookshelf?

Books on Quantum Mechanics, Optics, Fibers etc.

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve? (special way to analyze circuits, special process you use to make something, etc.)

No, I just sometimes think of new things

What has been your favorite project?

Laser Nuclear Fusion in an Hollow Core Optical Fiber.

In our guided laser fusion we apply a very short pulse of about 6 Femto Seconds to a Lithium Deuteride (LiD) nano crystal. The LiD crystals have approximately 30 nano meters long sides. This light pulse is 67 time shorter than the pulse of the conventional Laser Fusion. This pulse strips away the electrons that hold the crystal together from the atoms in the crystal in the first half femto second. This leaves the positively charged Lithium and Deuterium nuclear cores that would eventually fly apart and form the previously described plasma. HOWEVER, the ions are heavy and it takes them about 30 femto seconds to move significantly. Thus for a very short time the ions remain in their crystal locations. The electric field of the light pulse is aligned with the axis along which the atoms are located in the LiD crystal. The electric field of the light pulse will accelerate both the Lithium and Deuterium Ions in the same direction along the crystal axis. The light electric field will accelerate the lighter Deuterium ions faster than the heavier Lithium ions. If the electric field of the light pulse is strong enough the ions will collide, overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse. All this has of occur long before the ions randomize and become a plasma. The Deuterium ions are GUIDED to collide with the Lithium ions and fuse. The average power to produce about 2000, 6 femto second long very very strong light pulses does not represent much average power. With 2000 pulses per seond in a small physical space basically operating at room temperature this device can produce a lot of net practically useful energy. Recall that the conventional Laser Fusion experiments can only be fired once per hour. We have some detailed calculations. We are now looking for some lab with the appropriated laser to try the experiment. We need a log wavelength very very strong femto second laser. The technology to make such a laser exists even though the particular type laser might not yet exist. The lasers of the present Laser Fusion Experiments cannot be used because they use long light pulses that increase too gradually and have the wrong wavelength.
(THIS HAS NEVER BEEN PATENTED NOR OWNED BY ONE OR ANY NATION.)

Do you have any note-worthy engineering experiences?

Invention of Coated Core Optical Fibers, Semiconductor Cylinder Fiber, 3Dvision with one eye one camera

What are you currently working on?

1) Lithium Niobate Cylinder Fiber, Fiber with a 40 nm thick Lithium Niobate coating at the core cladding boundary us as strain sensor, light phase modulator, spectrum analyzer.

2) Gold Cylinder Fiber, Fiber with a 5 nm thick gold film at the core cladding boundary used as Bio Sensor, nm resolution scanning light microscope.

3) Semiconductor Cylinder Fiber, Fiber with a 15 nm thick Cd3P2semiconductor layer at the core cladding interface used as light amplifier, laser

4) Investigation of depth perception with a single eye or single camera where each pixel can measure the distance to the point on the object that is in focus at the pixel. This is accomplished with a short light guide and multiple sensors at each pixel. The animal eye has such light guides rods and cones. The light guide sense the phase of the light waves that contain the range information.

5) Laser Guided Nuclear Fusion in an Optical Fiber. It guides Deuterium Ions to collide with Lithium Ions in Lithium Deuteride nano crystals. The process occurs before the Ions have move much due to the inertia of the Ions.

What direction do you see your business heading in the next few years?

Finish present projects successfully

What new applications or products do you see in the near future using light amplifiers and nm small scale fiber?

Using the Lithium Niobate Cylinder Fibers (LNCF) as miniature spectrum analyzer, Since Light is guided through the 5 nano meter thick gold layer the Gold Cylinder Fibrs (GCF) can be used as a scanning light microscope with nm resolution. It can be used to write the foto resit masks for preseb nm scale Integrated Computer Circuits, the circuits that form our present electronic gadgets. The Semiconductor Cylinder Fiber (SCF) has many applications as communicating light amplifier, laser, and in the form of plates with about one million SCF as a True Image Light Amplifier in full color and 3D. The present night vision goggles are in 2D and black and white only. The most interesting to make are the GUIDED NUCLEAR LASER FUSION.

With 3D television and movies being a new trend I would be interested if could tell us more about “Coated Core Optical Fibers” and how 3D vision is accomplished with this technology?

The above described Semiconductor Cylinder Fiber (SCF) can be used in the form of plates with about one million SCF as a True Image Light Amplifier in full color and 3D. The present night vision goggles are in 2D and black and white only.

What challenges do you foresee in our industry?

Being able to have our new developments be accepted by society.

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