Dr. Kung is a leading expert in the generation and application of vacuum ultraviolet (vuv) and soft x-ray radiation. A number of the techniques he developed have been implemented in cutting edge scientific instruments. He pioneered the development of harmonic generation in inert gases to generate vuv light. The coherent 118.2 nm (10.5 eV) light that he first generated is now commonly used as the primary ionization radiation in mass spectrometers world-wide for soft ionization of molecular species ranging from air pollutants to large biomolecules. His innovative demonstration of using a pulsed supersonic beam significantly simplified the generation and application of short wavelength radiation in the windowless region (below 104 nm) that enabled ultrahigh-resolution extreme UV spectroscopy and highly-sensitive state-specific detection of molecular fragments from chemical reactions. The supersonic pulsed nozzle is now used by many groups for short-wavelength generation. Gas-phase laser plasma generation and some table-top x-ray laser and high harmonic generation schemes employ the pulsed nozzle as a clean source to make vuv light and soft x-ray radiation from high power lasers, leading to significant scientific and technological advances.
Since coming to Taiwan, Dr. Kung has focused his efforts in the development of intense high-resolution lasers and new types of compact all-solid-state tunable laser sources and to explore applications with these light sources. His achievements include the invention of using phase-conjugate mirrors to suppress ASE in ultra-high-gain dye laser and Ti:sapphire laser amplifiers, building the first narrowband grazing-incidence all solid-state OPO, all-solid-state tunable visible OPO, and the first all solid-state mW tunable uv source. These efforts have cumulated in the demonstration of the first monolithic white light laser suitable for high fidelity laser displays and projectors, and extremely-sensitive portable trace gas sensors employing photoacoustic detection that can be utilized for detecting environmental green house gases and homeland security related toxic gases.
His current research interest is in the development and application of multiple harmonics generated by molecular modulation and by cascaded quasi-phase-matching. With the intense high-resolution lasers developed in his lab he has recently generated sub-cycle pulses with electric fields that are less than one femtosecond in duration. This work sets the stage for the synthesis of periodic electrical waveforms of arbitrary field distribution in the optical regime.
Dr. Kung has published over 90 papers in high impact refereed journals. These papers have been cited by more than 1400 times. He is the inventor or co-inventor in 7 U.S. patents, 5 Republic of China patents and one German patent, with 2 patent applications currently under review. In the last 5 years, he has made more than 50 presentations in international and national conferences, and given 36 invited talks in various universities and overseas meetings.
Dr. Kung has trained over 30 B.S. and M.S. students and research assistants since coming to Taiwan. A majority of them have gone on to pursue an advanced degree. Four now hold faculty positions including one in the EE department of NTU, two in the Physics Department of Fu Jen University, and one at the National University of Singapore. Those still attending school are in graduate schools that include MIT (Electrical Engineering), CalTech (Physics, Electrical Engineering), Harvard (Applied Science), Rice University (Physics), Michigan (Electrical Engineering), and Northwestern University (Chem. Engineering). Most of the rest are employed in high tech industries in Taiwan.
Dr. Kung's E-mail is akung@pub.iams.sinica.edu.tw.