Stephen E. Harris

Stephen Ernest Harris ( born November 29, 1936 in Brooklyn ) is an American physicist and electrical engineer, known for his contributions to laser physics and nonlinear optics.

Harris studied electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Bachelor 1959) and at Stanford University, where he in 1961 made ​​his master's degree and was awarded his doctorate in 1963 under Anthony E. Siegman ( demodulation of frequency modulated light). While still a student he was 1959/60 Member of the Bell Laboratories and from 1961 to 1963 at Sylvana Electronics Systems. In 1963 he became assistant professor, associate professor in 1967 and 1971 Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Since 1979 he has also been Professor of Applied Physics ( Kenneth and Barbara Oshman Professor ). 1983 to 1991 he was the successor of Siegman director of the Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford. 1993 to 1996 he headed the Department of Applied Physics.

He invented in the 1960s, the FM laser ( FM for frequency modulation).

Harris developed in the 1980s proposals for laser in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray range.

In the late 1980s he was involved in the development of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The idea was contained in a proposal of Harris for lasers without inversion and was independent of Olga Kocharovskaya and Ya. I. Khanin in the Soviet Union proposed. It was demonstrated by Harris in 1991 with Klaus Boller and Atac Imamoglu in strontium and lead gas.

He has published over 220 scientific papers (2010) and holds 16 patents.

In 1976 he was Guggenheim Fellow. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America and the American Physical Society. In 1977 he became a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, 1981, the National Academy of Sciences, 1995, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1994 the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1981 he received the David Sarnoff Award from the IEEE Quantum Electronics Award and 1994 which, in 1985 Charles H. Townes Award of the Optical Society of America in 1999 and whose Frederic Ives Medal, the 2002 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize for Laser - Physics and 2007 Harvey Prize.

Writings

  • Electrically induced transparency. In: Physics Today. July 1997, online, pdf
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