Summer Scholar Explores the Flexibility of Fibers

The biggest surprise so far for NIF & Photon Science Summer Scholar Montrey Freeman has been the flexibility of physics. The thinner he pulls the doped glass in the NIF Optical Fiber lab, the more it challenges his preconceived notions about the substance.

"I had no idea glass would bend like plastic—it just keeps going and going," said Freeman, who has been exploring the properties of optical fibers in the fiber lab. Working with his mentor, NIF Fiber Laser Group Leader Mike Messerly, Freeman is analyzing how to strengthen the fibers.

Freeman traveled 3,000 miles across the country for the opportunity. As a materials science engineering graduate student at Virginia’s Norfolk State University, he found working on the physics of optical fibers a challenge at first. He earned his undergraduate degree in math from Allen University, an historic institution founded by former slaves in his native South Carolina, and he currently studies materials science engineering. At Norfolk State, his most recent project involved nanotechnology and nano-electrodes in rats’ brains. So in a way he’s gone from working with brain fiber to laser fiber.

"This was a whole other area than I’m used to," Freeman said, "but that’s what I hoped for when I applied here. Because no matter what, I knew I would be doing top-of-the-line science for this internship; I wouldn’t just be doing busy work."

And in fact, his project—testing the tensile strength of NIF optical fibers—is expected to produce data that will feed into the fabrication process and potentially help fine-tune the fiber lab’s acid-cleaning and cleanroom-assembly procedures, according to Messerly. "The goal is to make our laser fibers stronger, with Montrey’s help," Messerly said.

To find ways to make fibers more consistent, Freeman is working primarily on LLNL’s unique fiber draw tower, the only one of its kind in the national laboratory system. It enables the drawing of custom fiber optics of select purity and varying diameters. Freeman is expanding his experience by working in both the tower and the cleanroom, where he also has worked at Norfolk State, a historically black college which has a partnership with the Lab in its optical fibers program.

For his internship experience, Freeman also had the advantage of comparing his current internship project with work he’s done in other summers, including a previous internship with Livermore Lab in computer science and one with Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. He’s taken advantage of his opportunities this summer by renewing his explorations of the nearby Bay Area.

Among the highlights, he said, have been the NIF & Photon Science Summer Scholar program’s regular Wednesday symposiums. Open to all summer interns, the symposiums offer lectures from scientific leaders on a range of cutting-edge subjects that Freeman said are especially interesting because they cover in-depth physics that are new to him. "And then I might end up going and doing it later (in the Lab) so it will really click," he said.

Freeman dreams of living in Europe and Australia some day. His favorite pastime is taking in a satisfying action-adventure film on the big screen. His long-term goal is to work in the national laboratory system, because he finds contributing to the art of research rewarding.

"There are so many variables in the work in a lab—that’s what I like," he said. "We can only focus on finding the perfect recipe to figure out how to get the best results, and that’s a fun challenge in itself."