Its purposes are to perform multidisciplinary laser research, to educate students, to conduct outreach activities toward underrepresented minorities, and to spur the development of new technologies.
Lasers open the door to the ultrafast world.
Limited only by the wavelength of light itself, lasers can generate the shortest controllable bursts of energy available. Eventually, such questions as how molecules move in liquids or gases, how electrons collide in semiconductors and superconductors, and how light initiates the vision process will be answered. If you were to point a flashlight into the night sky, its light could travel all the way to the moon in about one second. The applications of ultrashort-pulse lasers range from communications systems far more efficient than today's fiber optics, to an alternative to x rays for imaging through tissue, to a new generation of smaller, faster, and more efficient computers based on ultrashort optical rather than electrical pulses. These laser systems are also important in basic physics research.