Jacob Khurgin and collaborators receive funding through DoD's MURI program

Jacob Khurgin

Jacob Khurgin, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will serve as a co-PI on a project sponsored by the US Department of Defense. Funding is provided through the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. The project is a collaboration between researchers at four universities: the University of New Mexico (lead institute), the University of Washington, Notre Dame, and Johns Hopkins University.

“[MURI] supports research by teams of investigators that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline in order to accelerate research progress,” said Melissa L. Flagg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for research, in a press release.

The project–Multidisciplinary Approaches to Radiation Balanced Lasers (MARBLE): Rare-Earths and Semiconductors in Disks, Fibers, and Microstructures–will address critical issues of radiation-balanced lasers (RBL) in rare-earth doped solids and in semiconductor disc lasers. Investigators aim to advance RBL technology at a fundamental level, which will greatly benefit the science of optical refrigeration and all-solid-state cryocoolers. The ability to demonstrate high-power lasers without net internal heat generation will have immense payoffs in key DoD mission applications.