NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
This project was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contract No. MDA972-94-1-0015, the National Science Foundation under Contract No. ECS-9414956, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology under Contract No. 50-SBNB-4-C-8197. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily express the views of the sponsors.
Cover: For photo credit and description, see p. 12.
International Standard Book Number 0-309-05991-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 98-86525
Copyright 1998 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
COMMITTEE ON OPTICAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CHARLES V. SHANK,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Chair
ARAM MOORADIAN,
Winchester, Massachusetts,
Vice Chair
DAVID ATTWOOD,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
GARY BJORKLUND,
Optical Networks, Inc.
ROBERT BYER,
Stanford University
MICHAEL CAMPBELL,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
STEVEN CHU,
Stanford University
THOMAS DEUTSCH,
Massachusetts General Hospital
ELSA GARMIRE,
Dartmouth College
ALASTAIR GLASS,
Lucent Technologies
JOHN GREIVENKAMP,
University of Arizona
ARTHUR GUENTHER,
Sandia National Laboratories
THOMAS S. HARTWICK,
TRW (retired)
ROBIN HOCHSTRASSER,
University of Pennsylvania
ERICH IPPEN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
KRISTINA JOHNSON,
University of Colorado at Boulder
DENNIS KILLINGER,
University of South Florida
HERWIG KOGELNIK,
Lucent Technologies
ROBERT SHANNON,
University of Arizona
GLENN T. SINCERBOX,
University of Arizona
BRIAN THOMPSON,
University of Rochester
ELI YABLONOVITCH,
University of California, Los Angeles
THOMAS BAER,
Biometric Imaging Systems,
Special Consultant
DONALD SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
ROBERT SCHAFRIK, Director,
National Materials Advisory Board
SANDRA HYLAND, Senior Program Officer,
National Materials Advisory Board
DANIEL MORGAN, Program Officer,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
ROBERT C. DYNES,
University of California, San Diego,
Chair
ROBERT C. RICHARDSON,
Cornell University,
Vice Chair
IRA BERNSTEIN,
Yale University
STEVEN CHU,
Stanford University
VAL FITCH,
Princeton University
IVAR GIAEVER,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
JOHN HUCHRA,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
ANTHONY C.S. READHEAD,
California Institute of Technology
R.G. HAMISH ROBERTSON,
University of Washington
KATHLEEN C. TAYLOR,
General Motors Corporation
J. ANTHONY TYSON,
Lucent Technologies
GEORGE WHITESIDES,
Harvard University
DAVID WILKINSON,
Princeton University
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Associate Director
DANIEL F. MORGAN, Program Officer
NATASHA CASEY, Program Associate
GRACE WANG, Project Assistant
NATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY BOARD
ROBERTA. LAUDISE,
Lucent Technologies,
Chair
JAMES C. WILLIAMS,
GE Aircraft Engines,
Past Chair
REZA ABBASCHIAN,
University of Florida
MICHAEL I. BASKES,
Sandia National Laboratories
JESSE (JACK) BEAUCHAMP,
California Institute of Technology
FRANCIS DISALVO,
Cornell University
EARL DOWELL,
Duke University
EDWARD C. DOWLING,
Cleveland Cliffs, Inc.
THOMAS EAGAR,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ANTHONY G. EVANS,
Harvard University
JOHN A.S. GREEN,
The Aluminum Association, Inc.
SIEGFRIED S. HECKER,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
JOHN H. HOPPS, JR.,
Morehouse College
MICHAEL JAFFE,
Hoechst Celanese Corporation (retired)
SYLVIA M. JOHNSON,
SRI International
LISA KLEIN,
Rutgers University
HARRY LIPSITT,
Wright State University
ALAN G. MILLER,
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group
RICHARD S. MULLER,
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERT C. PFAHL, JR.,
Motorola
ELSA REICHMANIS,
Lucent Technologies
KENNETH L. REIFSNIDER,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
JAMES WAGNER,
Case Western Reserve University
BILL G.W. YEE,
Pratt & Whitney
RICHARD CHAIT, Director
ROBERT SCHAFRIK, Past Director
ROBERT M. EHRENREICH, Senior Program Officer
SANDRA HYLAND, Senior Program Officer
THOMAS E. MUNNS, Senior Program Officer
CHARLES HACH, Program Officer
BONNIE SCARBOROUGH, Program Officer
LOIS LOBO, Research Associate
MARLENE CROWELL, Financial Analyst
AIDA NEEL, Senior Project Assistant
JANICE PRISCO, Senior Project Assistant
PAT WILLIAMS, Senior Project Assistant
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation,
Co-chair
W. CARL LINEBERGER,
University of Colorado,
Co-chair
PETER M. BANKS,
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
WILLIAM BROWDER,
Princeton University
LAWRENCE D. BROWN,
University of Pennsylvania
RONALD G. DOUGLAS,
Texas A&M University
JOHN E. ESTES,
University of California, Santa Barbara
MARTHA P. HAYNES,
Cornell University
L. LOUIS HEGEDUS,
Elf Atochem North America, Inc.
JOHN E. HOPCROFT,
Cornell University
CAROL M. JANTZEN,
Westinghouse Savannah River Company
PAUL G. KAMINSKI,
Technovation, Inc.
KENNETH H. KELLER,
University of Minnesota
KENNETH I. KELLERMANN,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
MARGARET G. KIVELSON,
University of California, Los Angeles
DANIEL KLEPPNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN KREICK,
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company
MARSHA I. LESTER,
University of Pennsylvania
NICHOLAS P. SAMIOS,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
CHANG-LIN TIEN,
University of California, Berkeley
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
COMMISSION ON ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
W. DALE COMPTON,
Purdue University,
Chair
ELEANOR BAUM,
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
RUTH M. DAVIS,
Pymatuning Group, Inc.
HENRY J. HATCH,
Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc.
STUART L. KNOOP,
Oudens and Knoop, Architects, PC
NANCY G. LEVESON,
University of Washington
ROBERT M. NEREM,
Georgia Institute of Technology
LAWRENCE T. PAPAY,
Bechtel Technology and Consulting
BRADFORD W. PARKINSON,
Stanford University
JERRY SCHUBEL,
New England Aquarium
BARRY M. TROST,
Stanford University
JAMES C. WILLIAMS,
GE Aircraft Engines
RONALD W. YATES,
U.S. Air Force (retired),
Consultant
DOUGLAS C. BAUER, Executive Director
Preface
In July 1994, the National Research Council (NRC) issued a report titled Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Science: An Investment in the Future (National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.). The report found that optical science had become an integral part of a wide range of scientific disciplines and was a key contributor to economically important applications in many areas. Some aspects of optical science, however, and all of optical engineering, were beyond the scope of the 1994 report, which therefore recommended undertaking a more comprehensive assessment of the broad field of optical science and engineering.
A program initiation and planning meeting was organized by the Board on Physics and Astronomy in cooperation with the National Materials Advisory Board. This effort resulted in the formation of the Committee on Optical Science and Engineering in early 1995, under the auspices of the two boards and with funding from three federal agencies: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The charge to the committee was as follows:
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Survey the field of optical science and engineering (OS&E). Define the technical scope and institutional structure of the OS&E community.
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Examine progress over the last decade and project the future impact of OS&E on societal needs in the short (3-5 years) and long terms (5-20 years). Focus on leading-edge developments. Develop a vision for the future and identify some "grand challenges" that could give the field direction and could focus efforts in areas that have potential for benefit to society.
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Identify technical opportunities and prioritize them in the context of national needs.
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Identify institutional and educational innovations that are needed to develop and organize the field in a more coherent fashion and to optimize the contributions of OS&E to addressing critical national needs.
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Determine how public policy influences the ability of OS&E to address national needs.
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Examine trends in private and public research activities and compare them with those in other countries.
The committee met for the first time in March 1995. It held six workshops over the course of the following year to gather technical input from the optical science and engineering community. There were also presentations and public forums at several professional society meetings, to inform the community about the study, to solicit further input, and to begin building a foundation of community support for the study process. Based on these inputs, additional inquiries by members of the committee, and extensive discussion and debate within the committee, this report was prepared to present the study's findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
The committee thanks the many members of the OS&E community who provided their assistance to the study by participating in the workshops and through other means (see Appendix B). Without such a broad range of input, no single group could have hoped to examine a field as broad and diverse as this one. Thanks are also due to Doug Vaughan of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for his assistance in writing the Overview.
A final note on terminology: Many terms are used to describe this field and its various overlapping subfields. This report often simply uses the word optics, in its broadest sense, to include the whole spectrum of activity in the field, across all subfields, and from basic research to engineering.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council's (NRC's) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the authors and the NRC in making their published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The contents of the review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
Arthur Ashkin, AT&T Bell Laboratories (retired)
David H. Auston, Rice University
Arthur N. Chester, Hughes Research Laboratories
Anthony J. DeMaria, DeMaria ElectroOptics Systems
Paul A. Fleury, University of New Mexico
John L. Hall, JILA/University of Colorado
Wendell T. Hill, University of Maryland, College Park
William Howard, Scottsdale, Arizona
Daniel Kleppner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Paul W. Kruse, Infrared Solutions
Robert Laudise, Lucent Technologies
Jacques I. Pankove, University of Colorado at Boulder
Don W. Shaw, Texas Instruments (retired)
Watt W. Webb, Cornell University
and one anonymous reviewer
While the individuals listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, responsibility for the final content of this report rests solely with the authoring committee and the NRC.
