Congratulations to Pittsford Mendon senior Gregory Demos, who recently published a paper in "Optical Engineering" as lead author. The paper, titled “Laser-damage performance of gallium-alloy liquid metal mirrors,” explores the work he did while participating in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) Summer High School Research Program at the University of Rochester.

Demos’ work focused on exploring gallium-alloy–based metal mirrors, which are in liquid phase at room temperature. He investigated metrics such as reflectivity and the laser-damage–initiation mechanism under exposure to 355-nm laser pulses. This exploratory work is the first of its kind and demonstrates favorable performance characteristics of gallium-alloy metal mirrors, providing an innovative approach for the development of robust final optics in future inertial fusion energy systems.