Laser Lab Focuses on Protective Eyewear.

• Author: Foster, Sharon
• Position: Army Soldier Systems Center - Brief Article

When the nuclear arms race was in full swing, the Laser Eye Protection Program at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., measured thermal transfer through laboratory materials and clothing systems using a special laser and instrumental manikin.

Data was fed into a computer code that calculated skin-burn severity similar to what would happen during an atomic bomb explosion. Two manikins dressed in burned-out desert and woodland camouflage uniforms, on display at the center, are reminders of that era.

"We stopped that testing ... as the nuclear threat diminished," said Barry DeCristofano, a chemical engineer at the laser lab. "Now, we are working solely on eye protection.

Four kinds of lasers in the lab can produce all wavelengths necessary to test laser eye protection. A picosecond-pulse laser is used for probing optical properties of developmental materials, and a nanosecond-pulse laser is used for optical limiting measurements.

Besides lasers, the lab uses equipment to test other requirements. Ballistic evaluation of eye...