Protecting soldiers from blinding lasers.

• Position: Warfare - Brief Article

An enemy laser beam can reach and blind a pilot or soldier in about one-billionth of a second. University of Central Florida, Orlando, researchers are trying to develop a protective eyeglass-like device that would react quickly enough to prevent such injury.

Working with chemists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, UCF scientists already have the technology to make objects darken quickly enough to prevent blindness from a laser beam, maintains Eric Van Stryland, dean of the College of Optics and Photonics. The next step is to incorporate that technology into an object small enough to be worn comfortably by soldiers and pilots.

The new technology works like sunglasses that gradually get darker when the people wearing them step into sunlight and lighter when they return inside. The optics worn by soldiers and pilots must work a lot faster, however, as a typical laser beam lasts only about 10-billionths of a second. At that speed, the damaging laser pulse can reach a pilot flying at 10,000 feet in 10-millionths of a second.

The transparent materials in the device would have to recognize...