St. Cloud State University Department of Physics & Astronomy Associate Professor Dr. John E. Sinko was awarded a Gentec Electro-Optics Laser Lab Award this July.
The award includes an equipment donation of a new Gentec-EO Beamage-4M laser beam profiler, a device that can measure and analyze the spatial energy distribution across intense laser pulses. Dr. Sinko’s work on laser orbital debris removal is one small piece of a global effort to learn how to reduce and ultimately eliminate the cloud of dead satellites, collision debris, rocket exhaust, and other items cluttering Earth’s orbit and endangering astronauts and functional satellites.
Dr. Sinko and his students are currently studying the physics of laser ablation of orbital debris cloud metals such as aluminum and stainless steel. The Gentec-EO Beamage-4M beam profiler will be essential to research how the energy distribution in the laser beam affects critical parameters used to assess whether laser ablative orbital debris removal is a feasible and practical technology.
Dr. Sinko conducts student-centered laboratory research on laser orbital debris removal in the Optics Laboratory in the St. Cloud State Integrated Science & Engineering Laboratory Facility (ISELF). Dr. Sinko also teaches various classes focused on physics and applied optics. Among other activities, physics and engineering students in the optics classes gain hands-on skills using powerful lasers and using technical equipment to analyze laser beams.
Gentec Electro-Optics is specialized in laser beam and terahertz source measurement and analysis. With a 50-year track record of innovation, developing and providing state-of-the-art technologies to the laser market, Gentec-EO has become an expert in the laser beam measurement field.
