HEPL NEWS
Request a copy of the HEPL Brochure by contacting Nancy Christiansen.
Or download
a scanned version.
Faculty Only
sunet id required
Forms
sunet id required
Welcome!
The development and application of advanced technology to science is a central element of HEPL and the source of its uniqueness. Over the last three decades, HEPL has developed a base of advanced technology in cryogenics and metrology. The technical investment has positioned scientists in HEPL to be at the forefront of important areas in science which could not even be considered at other institutions lacking the technical base. Stanford is fortunate in having a group of scientists associated with vision to apply it to leading scientific problems.
Visitor Information
News in brief:
NASA and The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has revealed its first all-sky map in gamma rays. The onboard Large Area Telescope's (LAT) all-sky image—which shows the glowing gas of the Milky Way, blinking pulsars and a flaring galaxy billions of light-years away—was created using only 95 hours of "first light" observations, compared with past missions which took years to produce a similar image. Scientists expect the telescope will discover many new pulsars in our own galaxy, reveal powerful processes near super-massive black holes at the cores of thousands of active galaxies and enable a search for signs of new physical laws. More...
DANIEL PALANKER'S research group at HEPL and the Stanford Medical School have developed electrosurgical technology called Pulsed Electron Avalanche Knife (PEAK). Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing licensed it to a local startup company called PEAK Surgical Inc. They recently received FDA approval for this device, and performed their first 30-40 human cases during the last couple weeks. Feedback from surgeons is exceptionally good, so this device has a potential to become a new standard of care in surgery. In contrast to conventional electrosurgery, based on continuous radiofrequency waveforms applied via large electrodes, PEAK uses microsecond pulses and micrometers-thin blade electrodes to excise tissue with cellular precision. Not only the cuts are more precise and narrow, but also, due to the very low collateral thermal damage produced by PEAK technology, the tissue heals faster, and with much less scarring and other defects, than after traditional electrosurgery. More info
ROBERT L. BYER, HEPL faculty member, professor of applied physics and director of the
Ginzton Laboratory, has won the 2009 IEEE Photonics Award. Byer, the
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor, was cited for "seminal contributions
to nonlinear optics and solid-state lasers for commercial applications
from precision measurement to manufacturing." The products of
non-linear optics, which often involve changing the color of lasers,
have wide use. For example, the yellow laser that creates an
artificial star 90 kilometers above Earth is used by astronomers to
calibrate their telescopes, to eliminate blurring from the atmosphere.
Laser televisions, another product of multi-colored lasers, are
expected to hit the market soon. Solid-state lasers have a wide range
of uses, including trimming and processing the circuit boards in cell
phones.
This site is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox or Safari