is a Japanese laser scientist. He published more than 700 papers in international journals. His research encompasses

gas laser A gas laser is a laser in which an electric current is discharged through a gas to produce coherent light. The gas laser was the first continuous-light laser and the first laser to operate on the principle of converting electrical energy to a las ...

solid state laser A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid, rather than a liquid as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers. Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are generally considered as a separate class f ...

s, high power

fiber laser A fiber laser (or fibre laser in Commonwealth English) is a laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, thulium and holmium. They ar ...

s, ceramic lasers for

inertial confinement fusion Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a fusion energy process that initiates nuclear fusion reactions by compressing and heating targets filled with fuel. The targets are small pellets, typically containing deuterium (2H) and tritium (3H). Typical ...

research,

gravitational wave Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that Wave propagation, travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravity, gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...

detection, high field science and industrial applications.

Education

Ueda received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from

Osaka University The , abbreviated as UOsaka or , is a List of national universities in Japan, national research university in Osaka, Japan. The university traces its roots back to Edo period, Edo-era institutions Tekijuku (1838) and Kaitokudō, Kaitokudo (1724), ...

in 1969 and 1971, respectively. He received a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

in 1977.

Career

He was with the R&D center of

JEOL is a major developer and manufacturer of electron microscopes and other scientific instruments, industrial equipment and medical equipment. Its headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan, with 25 domestic and foreign subsidiaries and associated companies ...

from 1971 to 1976, where he investigated

atomic spectroscopy In physics, atomic spectroscopy is the study of the electromagnetic radiation absorbed and emitted by atoms. Since unique elements have unique emission spectra, atomic spectroscopy is applied for determination of elemental compositions. It can ...

and its applications. From 1976 to 1981, he was a staff member at the Physics Department of Sophia University in Tokyo, where he studied the relaxation processes of

CO2 laser The carbon-dioxide laser (CO2 laser) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed. It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964 and is still one of the most useful types of laser. Carbon-dioxide lasers are the highest-power continu ...

s. After joining the Institute for Laser Science at University of Electro-Communications in 1981 he investigated the kinetics of KrF

excimer An excimer (originally short for excited dimer) is a short-lived polyatomic molecule formed from two species that do not form a stable molecule in the ground state. In this case, formation of molecules is possible only if such atom is in an elec ...

s and the physics on generation of intense relativistic e-beams. He developed a high power KrF laser facility including multistaged amplifiers and a target chamber for laser-plasma interaction. He investigated ultra-high peak power lasers in the range of

nanosecond A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, of a second, or seconds. The term combines the SI prefix ''nano-'' indicating a 1 billionth submultiple of an SI unit (e ...

to sub

picosecond A picosecond (abbreviated as ps) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−12 or (one trillionth) of a second. That is one trillionth, or one millionth of one millionth of a second, or 0.000 000 000 ...

pulse duration. In 1990 he began to develop an ultra-stabilized laser-diode-pumped solid laser system for

gravitational wave detection Gravitational-wave astronomy is a subfield of astronomy concerned with the detection and study of gravitational waves emitted by astrophysical sources. Gravitational waves are minute distortions or ripples in spacetime caused by the acceleration ...

. He developed super-white light generation and laser rainbow using self-trapping phenomena in gases and solids irradiated by intense and ultra-short pulses. He created new ideas on high power

s including fiber embedded disk lasers for industrial applications. He developed new concepts of solid state lasers like hybrid solid state lasers and ceramic lasers along with Konoshima Chemicals, Japan. He is a pioneer of fiber laser research in Japan. He developed kilowatt fiber-disk lasers and fiber

Raman laser A Raman laser is a specific type of laser in which the fundamental light-amplification mechanism is stimulated Raman scattering. In contrast, most "conventional" lasers (such as the ruby laser) rely on stimulated electronic transitions to amplify ...

s. His current interests cover laser applications. He is also a pioneer of high quality optics in Japan. He was the professor and the chief of the section on ultra-high power lasers at the Institute for Laser Science of the University of Electro-Communications from 1981 until 2011. He was a director of Institute of Laser Science from 1996 until his retirement. He was also a visiting fellow at Toyota Physical and Chemical Institute. Currently he also occupies a leading scientist position in the Institute of Applied Physics under the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

Professional societies

He is a member of Joint Open Laboratory on Laser Crystals and Precision Measurements of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After his retirement, he is still active as a scientific advisor in Hamamatsu Photonics and also adviser for several international laser programmes and conferences. He serves as a chairman, secretary general, and the member of the following committees; Corresponding member of Science Council of Japan Member of Committee of Journal Publication Issues of Science Council of Japan Member of IUPAP Working Group on Communication in Physics Board member of Physical Society of Japan Co-Chair of JJCQE (Japan Joint Council on Quantum Electronics) Member of ICQE (International Council on Quantum Electronics) Program Co-chair of CLEO PR 2009 Editor-in-chief of Optical Review Associate Editor of Laser Physics Letters Editor of High Power Laser Science and Engineering. He served on many academic committees. Board member: OSA (2000-2002), JSAP (1999-2001), IPAP (2000-2001), Laser Society of Japan (2006-) Chair: IUAPA 017 (2005-2008), CLEO PR STC (1995-2007) Conference Chair: IQEC 2005 in Tokyo, Kaya conference in 2004 Editor: Topical Editor of Applied Optics (1996-2002), JOSA Editor for topical issue (2007), Quantum Electronics (2000-2003.

Recognition

Ueda is an OSA fellow, JSAP fellow, and received many science awards including the National Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government, which is one of the best recognitions by the Japanese Government towards the contribution of science.

External links

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Proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ueda, Ken-ichi Living people Japanese physicists Academic staff of the University of Electro-Communications Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences 1946 births Laser researchers