Clifford R. Pollock

Clifford R. Pollock

Director and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

224 Phillips Hall
Phone: (607) 255-5032
E-mail: cpollock@ece.cornell.edu 

Vita in PDF 
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B.S. Rice University 1976; M.S. Rice University 1979, Ph.D. Rice University 1981 (all degrees in Electrical Engineering)

Biography

Following graduate school, Pollock was an NRC/NBS postdoctoral Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, CO. He joined the Faculty of the School of Electrical Engineering at Cornell in 1983, where he is presently the Ilda and Charles Lee Professor of Engineering. He has maintained a research group of 3-6 graduate students, and is involved in tunable solid state laser development, ultrafast pulse generation using nonlinear effects in optical fibers, and fiber optic modulators, phase shifters, and fiber Bragg tuners.

Pollock was the Associate Director of Electrical Engineering from 1994-1997. Duties included teaching assignments, advisor assignments and evaluation, space allocation for the department, and participation on the College Curriculum Governing Board, for which he was Chair 1996-1997. Since 1996 he has been the Faculty Program Leader for Duffield Hall. He serves as the interface between the university faculty and the building design team, and has been actively involved in all aspects of the design, planning, management and safety planning, and fund raising for the facility. The project recently received a building permit based in part on a major Environmental Impact Statement. Construction will begin this summer.

Research accomplishments include the discovery and development of the NaCl color center laser, which is the most powerful, stable color center laser yet discovered, and development of a tunable infrared femtosecond laser. Pollock is a fellow of the IEEE and a member of the Optical Society of America. At Cornell, he is affiliated with the Cornell Center for materials Research and the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility.

Research Interests and Activities
 
Pollock runs an experimental research program in laser development and application. Activity includes the generation of ultrashort optical pulses using advanced modelocking techniques, the development of new solid state lasers (such as Cr-ZnSe), semiconductor- diode pumping of solid state lasers, and interaction of ultrashort pulses with fiber optic devices.

Recent new work involves evanescent-coupled fiber optic devices, and the fabrication of thin-film waveguide lasers. 

Selected Publications

1. W. Gellermann, F. Luty, and C. R. Pollock, "Optical properties and stable, broadly tunable cw laser operation of new FA-centers in Tl+ -doped alkali-halides," Optics Communications 39, 391-5 (1981)

2. C. R. Pollock, F. R. Petersen, D. A. Jennings, J. S. Wells, and A. G. Maki, "Absolute frequency measurements of the 2-0 band of CO at 2.3 mm using color center laser spectroscopy," Journal Molecular Spectroscopy 99, 357-68 (1983); Journal Molecular Spectroscopy 107, 62-71 (1984)

3. Joseph F. Pinto, Efstratios Georgiou, and Clifford R. Pollock, "Stable color center laser in OH-doped NaCl operating in the 1.41 mm to 1.81 mm region," Optics Letters 11, 519-21 (1986)

4. Christopher P. Yakymyshyn, Joseph F. Pinto, and Clifford R. Pollock, "Additive pulse modelocked NaCl F+2 :O2- laser," Optics Letters 14, 621-623 (1989)

5. N. K. Shankar, J. A. Morris, C. P. Yakymyshyn, and C. R. Pollock, "A2x2 fiber optic switch using chiral liquid crystals," Photonics Technology Letters 2, 147-149 (1990)

6. Alphan Sennoraglu and Clifford R. Pollock, "Calculation of the transition energies of the F+2 :O2- laser-active color centers in NaCl," Journal of Luminescence 47, 217-225 (1991)

7. Alphan Sennaroglu, CliffordR. Pollock, and Howard Nathel, "Generation of 48 fsec pulses and measurement of crystal dispersion by using a regeneratively-initiated self-mode-locked chromium-doped forsterite laser," Optics Letters 18, 826-828 (1993)

8. CliffordR. Pollock, Fundamentals of Optoelectronics, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago (1995)

9. Duane B. Barber, Clifford R. Pollock, Laura L. Beecroft, and Chris K. Ober, "Amplification by Optical Composites," Optics Letters 22, 1247-1249 (1997)

10. E. J. Mozdy and C. R. Pollock, "Chaos in additive-pulse mode-locked lasers," Applied Physics Letters 77, pp. 1771-3 (2000)

11. Timothy J. Carrig, Gregory J. Wagner, Alphan Sennaroglu, Jay Y. Jeong, and Clifford R. Pollock, "Mode-locked Cr2+ :ZnSe laser," Optics Letters 25, 168-170 (2000)

Last Updated August 6, 2001

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