Industry Outreach Program

Today, more than ever before, JILA is looking to apply its considerable interdisciplinary expertise to help solve technical problems that affect the competitiveness of U.S. companies. An initial telephone call can determine if further contact would be beneficial. If you wish to explore in detail for overlap of interests, you can visit us for a day or two - our technology, staff, and graduate students will impress you - or we can send a small team to your facilities. Subsequent outcomes could include adapting some of our research to specific industry needs, engaging in cooperative research, conducting industry-oriented workshops on cutting edge topics, or hosting company scientists for a one-week-to-six-month joint R&D project in our Boulder laboratories. In any of these arrangements, confidentiality issues can be worked out in advance, the flow of intellectual property rights is usually reasonable, and costs are partially or completely covered by our Industry Outreach program.

Institutional Snapshot:

Founded as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in 1962, JILA has played a role at the forefront of research in technology and physical science ever since. JILA is staffed by scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, and benefits from both organizations through the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and the Cooperative Research and Development Program (CRADA), university laboratories and graduate students, and affiliated science and engineering groups. This unique partnership between a major university and the Federal agency assigned a leading role in U.S. industrial competitiveness is internationally recognized for its excellence in creative invention and relevant application, and is well suited to collaboration with U.S. industry.

Institutional Mission:

JILA's mission is to discover and apply new knowledge in physical science and to train leaders of the next generation of industrial and academic scientists. Our strengths include laser technology, optoelectronics, precision metrology, surface science and semiconductors, high performance computing and image processing, ultra-high precision spectroscopy and optics, materials and process science, and basic research in experimental and theoretical physical science.

Technical Contributions:

Examples of applications from our laboratories include laser wavemeters, uniquely precise mirror mounts, laser intensity stabilization technology, high precision gravimeters, low-frequency vibration isolation techniques, as well as software that delivers international time standards over Internet. Scientists trained at JILA have joined such firms as Boeing, DuPont, Ford, General Electric, and many smaller entrepreneurial companies; Los Alamos, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Oak Ridge, and other major laboratories; Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology, Wisconsin, Yale, and other universities and colleges throughout the country.

For information on how to participate in JILA's Industry Outreach program, contact Dr. James Faller, University of Colorado, CB 440, Boulder, CO 80309, (303) 492-8509, or via email at fallerj@jila.colorado.edu.

Areas of Special Expertise:

Precision Metrology
     Precision measurement techniques      
     Mechanical & optical engineering aspects of precision measurement
     Portable frequency standards
     Laser interferometry
     Optical gyroscopes
     Low frequency vibration isolation 
     Precision measurements of long distances
     Precision measurements of local gravitational field
     Low noise detection

Laser Technology and Optoelectronics
     Diode, solid state, & dye laser development
     Ultrafast lasers
     Nonlinear optics
     Real time holography
     Quantum optics
     Photorefractive systems
     Nonlinear frequency generation
     Intensity & frequency stabilization
     X-rays

Surface Science and Semiconductors
     Chemistry & physics on surfaces
     Film deposition
     Nanotechnology
     Semiconductors
     Chemistry of clusters

Information and Image Processing
     High performance computing
     Parallel computing algorithms
     Digital image enhancement
     Network delivery of high resolution images
     Network delivery of traceable (S.I.) time standards
     Quantum information

Ultra-high Precision Spectroscopy and Optics
     Ultra high-resolution laser spectroscopy
     Sensitive linear & non-linear absorption & fluorescence spectroscopy
     Efficient detection and analysis of light wavelength and polarization
     Ion & electron optics
     Single molecule manipulation and spectroscopy

Materials and Process Science
     Radical reactions
     Combustion chemistry
     Atmospheric chemistry
     Laser-initiated chemistry
     Dynamics of chemical systems
     Energetically excited molecules
     Intra- and inter-molecular energy transfer
     Collisionally induced fluorescence
     Laser cooling techniques & ultra-cool atoms
     Mobility and transport in gases      
     Fluid & gas dynamics
     Plasma physics & spectroscopy
     Stark broadening & electric field effects
     Collisions in atomic beams, vapors, & plasmas
     Magnetohydrodynamics
     Electron-ion interactions
     Radiative transfer
     Electron transport

High-precision Electronic and Optical Control of Dynamical Systems
     Specialized analog electronics
     Statistical behavior of communication channels
     Digital electronics

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