Mielke, a 28-year-old graduate student working in UCF's School of Optics/CREOL, has developed a low-cost way of generating multiple beams from one laser without interference. He has a patent pending for his modelocked, multiwavelength semiconductor lasers.
"One of the problems with multi-wavelength lasers has been that the individual wavelengths compete with each other -- they're kind of noisy," said Mielke, who will graduate in December with a doctoral degree in optics. "One of the accomplishments of our research is that we were able to come up with a way to suppress that noise."
Mielke's specialty is optical telecommunications, or "sending little blinks of light down an optical-fiber line." Information is delivered in pulses of light.
One of the reasons optical telecommunications has been slow to develop compared with other methods of communication is the cost associated with using multiple lasers in a network, Mielke said. Being able to send multiple beams, or wavelengths, simultaneously from one laser cuts this cost.
Mielke is also using diode lasers, like those in common laser pointers, which also helps reduce costs. In most laser systems, a diode laser is used to pump, or power, a solid-state crystal laser. Mielke has simplified the setup by using only the diode laser.
Mielke has received many prestigious acknowledgements of past work, including the NSF-sponsored "Graduate Traineeship in Optical Science and Engineering," UCF's School of Optics Student of the Year Award, and finalist in the Collegiate Inventors Competition for the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Mielke said he credits the success of his research to the "great environment" of CREOL, his fellow researchers and advisor and optics Professor Peter Delfyett.
Recognizing research strength, presentation skills and leadership abilities, the OSA New Focus Student Award was created in 1997 to honor new innovators within the optics community.
This year, six finalists were selected and evaluated on presentations of their research at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference last month in Baltimore.
Mielke was presented the grand prize during the conference, and the remaining five finalists, including UCF student Joel McCajah Hales, each received a $2,500 prize in recognition for their research successes and academic excellence.
"The OSA New Focus Student Award provides an opportunity to highlight outstanding achievements by students within the field," said OSA Executive Director Elizabeth Rogan. "It's of great importance to give students opportunities to show their best work at this early stage of their careers. To be recognized at this level is a significant honor and this year's finalists have exemplified the characteristics of leaders within the optics community."
Additional information on OSA is available on the Society's Web site at www.osa.org. For more information on UCF, go to www.ucf.edu.