Dennis Alexander

Dennis Alexander

Contact Information:

City Campus (Lincoln)
NH E417
(402) 472-3091
dalexander1@unl.edu

Kingery Engineering Professor - EMERITUS

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., 1976
  • M.Sc., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., 1973
  • B.Sc., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., 1971

Experience

Projects:

  • ARO MURI (5 years of funding): Co-linear dual pulse dual focus femtosecond LIBS
  • UnMed Corporation: Development of a wireless laparoscope, University of Nebraska Medical Center Inventer Award
  • Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research: Surface structuring of materials for development of next generation ultra capacitors
  • All optical switches for applications in next generation all optical networks

Curriculum Vitae (CV):

Alexander CV

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

  • Ultrafast lasers and their applications
  • Femtosecond ultrashort pulse propagation
  • Generation of nanostructures as well as the use of femtosecond laser for surface structuring of materials
  • Production of nanoparticles and their optical properties on surfaces
  • All optical switches for next generation all optical networks
  • NanoPhotonic devices at quantum level for all optical communication devices

In the News: Powered by the Nebraska Engineering News

Courses Taught

About Dennis Alexander

Professor Alexander joined UNL in 1975 as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. While spending 18 years in the Mechanical Engineering Department, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979 and became Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1986. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department in 1993 as a full professor.

Dr. Alexander was awarded the Kingery Professorship in 1992 and holds this professorship currently. Prof. Alexander is director of the Center for Electro-Optics and has developed one of the premier ultra fast laser facilities in the U.S. Prof. Alexander and his research group are interested in femtsoecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy using co-linear dual pulse dual focus techniques to enhance the signal for remote detection of explosives, chemicals, and nuclear threats for the DoD. Prof. Alexander and his research group are involved in the surface structuring of materials for development of next generation ultra capacitors. Prof. Alexander and his research group are working on all optical switches using femosecond laser produced nanoparticles of Er:Yb which are placed in noncircular microring cavities for multicast all optical networks. Prof. Alexander works with the UNMed corporation to produce low cost all wireless medical laparoscopes. Prof. Alexander and graduate students are also interested in theoretical modeling the interaction of single cycle femtosecond pulses with matter.

Prof. Alexander has received outstanding teaching awards and research awards. He has helped establish a student organization of the Optical Society of America and is the faculty adviser.

Selected Publications

  1. L.P. Li, Y.F. Lu, D.W. Doerr, D.R. Alexander, J. Shi, and J.C. Li, "Fabrication of hemispherical cavity arrays on silicon substrates using laser-assisted nanoimprinting of self-assembled particles," Nanotechnology, 15(3), 333-336(2004).
  2. J. Shi, Y.F. Lu, R.S. Cherukuri, K.K. Mendu, D.W. Doerr, D.R. Alexander, L.P. Li, and X.Y. Chen, "Laser-assisted nanoscale deposition of diamond-like carbon films on tungsten tips," Appl. Phys. Lett., (85)9, 1009-1011(2004).
  3. L.P. Li, Y.F. Lu, D.W. Doerr, and D.R. Alexander, "Laser-assisted Nanopatterning of Aluminum Using Particle-induced Near-field Optical Enhancement and Nanoimprinting," Nanotechnology, 15, 1655-1660(2004)
  4. L.P. Li, Y.F. Lu, D.W. Doerr, D.R. Alexander and X.Y. Chen, "Parametric investigation of laser nanoimprinting of hemispherical cavity arrays," J. Appl. Phys., 96(9), 5144-5151 (2004)
  5. D.C. Deshpande, A.J. Malshe, E.A. Stach, V. Radmilovic, D. R. Alexander, D. Doerr, D. Hirt, "Investigation of femtosecond laser assisted nano and microscale modifications in lithium niobate," Journal of Applied Physics, 97, 074316, 2005.
  6. J. Shi, Y.F. Lu, R.S. Cherukuri, K.K. Mendu, D.W. Doerr, D.R. Alexander, L.P. Li, and X.Y. Chen, "Laser-assisted nanoscale deposition of diamond-like carbon films on tungsten tips," Appl. Phys. Lett.,(85)9, 1009-1011(2004)
  7. L.P. Li, Y.F. Lu, D.W. Doerr, D.R. Alexander and X.Y. Chen, "Parametric investigation of laser nanoimprinting of hemispherical cavity arrays," J. Appl. Phys., 96(9), 5144-5151 (2004)
  8. K. K. Mendu, J. Shi, Y.F. Lu, L. P. Li, N. Batta, D. W. Doerr and D. R. Alexander, "Fabrication of Multi-layered Inverse Opals Using Laser-Assisted Imprinting," Nanotechnology, in press (2005).
  9. D. C. Deshpande, A. P. Malshe, E. A. Stach, V. Radmilovic, D. Alexander, D. Doerr, and Drew Hirt, "Morphological, spectroscopic and microstructural analysis of femtosecond laser processed lithium niobate," Journal of Applied Physics, 97, 074316, 2005
  10. JianChao Li, Haifeng Zhang, Dennis R. Alexander, David W. Doerr, Nageswara Rao Tadepalli, "Diffraction characteristics of 10 femtosecond laser pulse passing through an aperture," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol.22, No. 7, July 2005.
  11. N. Rao T., D. Alexander, D. Doerr, J. Li, H. Zhang, "Femtosecond Pulse Stretching in Microscope Objectives used for Micro/nanomachining," Journal of Laser Applications, 17, (4), 2005.
  12. Hai Feng Zhang, JianChao Li, David W. Doerr, and Dennis R. Alexander, "Diffraction Chararcteristics of a Fresnel Zone Plate Illuminated by 10 Femtosecond Laser Pulses," Applied Optics, Vol. 45, No. 33, p. 8541-8546, November 20, 2006.
  13. N.R. Tadepalli and D.R. Alexander and D. Doerr and R. Kagita and J. Li and J. Schiffern, "Measurement of Femtosecond Pulse Stretching in Microscope Objective," Journal of Laser Applications, Vol. 17, No.4, November, 2005.
  14. D. Alexander, J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, B. Koch, and R. Rudebusch, "Demonstration of a nanoparticle-based optical diode," Optics Letters, 31,(13), July 2006. Also published in: Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, July 24, 2006, Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin Vol. 31, No. 8, August 2006.
  15. Neha Singh, Dennis R. Alexander, John Schiffern, and David Doerr, "Femtosecond laser production of metal surfaces having unique surfaces structures that are broadband absorbers," Journal of Laser Applications, 18, (3), pg 242-244, August 2006.
  16. D. Alexander, J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, B. Koch, R. Rudebusch, J. Deogun, and H. Hamza, "Demonstration of a nanopartilce-based optical diode," Virtual Jounal of Nanoscale Science & Technology, Vol. 14, No. 4, July 24, 2006.
  17. D. Alexander, J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, B. Koch, R. Rudebusch, J. Deogun, and H. Hamza, "Optical diode based on core-shell quantum dots demonstrated," Materials Research Society Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 8, August 2006.
  18. JianChao Li, Dennis R. Alexander, Haifeng Zhang, Ufuk Parali, David W. Doerr, John Clark Burce III, Hao Wang, "Propagation of ultrashort laser pulses through water," Optics Express, Vol. 15, no. 4, p. 1939-1945, February, 2007.
  19. 1M. L. Rohlfs and D. R. Alexander, "Transient Plane Wave Scattering by a Dielectric Sphere," in preparation to Journal of Optical Society of America, Feb. 2009.
  20. David Doerr, John T. Schiffern, Dennis R. Alexander, "Optimization of collinear dual pulse femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of silicon," Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic 62 , 1412-1418, 2007.
  21. J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, and D. Alexander, and Jitender Deogun, "Thermally related optical hysteresis of semiconductor quantum dots," Optics Letters, Submitted September 2009.
  22. E.D. Manely, J.S. Deogun, L. Xu, and D.R. Alexander, "Network coding for DM All-Optical Multicast", Submitted to IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, Nov. 2009.
  23. Craig A. Zuhlke, Dennis R. Alexander, John C. Bruce III, Natale J. Ianno, Chad A. Kamler, and Weiqing Yang, “Self assembled nanoparticle aggregates from line focused femtosecond laser ablation,” Optics Express, Vol. 18, Issue 5, p. 4329-4339, 2010.
  24. Ufuk Parali and Dennis R. Alexander, “Interaction of a single-cycle laser pulse with a bound electron without ionization,” Optics Express, Vol. 18, No. 14, p. 15155-15168, July 5, 2010.
  25. Ufuk Parali and Dennis R. Alexander, “Modeling the interaction of a single-cycle laser pulse with a bound electron without ionization,” Book Chapter, Coherence and Ultrashort Laser Emission, Edited by F. J. Duarte, (IN-TECH), ISBN:978-953-307-242-5. Dec. 2010.
  26. Ufuk Parali and Dennis R. Alexander, “Volterra intergral equation solution of the convolutional modifier function approach for ultra short single cycle light pulse interaction with a bound electron without ionization,” accepted with correction, Optics Express, August, 2011.
  27. Cody Raml, Xiangnan He, Ming Han, Dennis R. Alexander, Yongeng Lu, “Raman spectroscopy based ona single-crystal sapphire fiber”, Optics Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 7, pp. 1287-1289, April 1, 2011..
  28. J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, and D. Alexander, “Thermally related optical hysteresis of semiconductor quantum dots,” Optics Letters, accepted with revisions, August 2011.