About PGL

About Us

Plymouth Grating Laboratory is dedicated to making gratings using scanning beam interference lithography (SBIL). This technique allows production of gratings on very large substrates. PGL also maintains expertise in optical coatings, reactive ion-etching, metrology, and cleaning for large optics. PGL is very familiar with the needs of the high-energy and high-power laser community.

PGL currently holds the world record for the largest MLD diffraction grating - a set of 91cm x 42cm MLD gratings for pulse compression on the University of Osaka's ILE laser (see links).

PGL was founded in 2004 by Douglas Smith and Dr. Mark Schattenburg (MIT, Kavli Research Institute) in 2004. Dr. Schattenburg had developed the basic technology of scanning beam interference lithography (SBIL) and built the first nanoruler used for small substrates at MIT with funds from NASA and DARPA. PGL designed and built a production model of the nanoruler for large grating use with the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University in Japan and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester.

PGL also maintains a partnership with Vacuum Process Technology and works with them to provide proccess technology to their custormers, mainly in the area of vacuum coating.

Biographies

Douglas J. Smith

Douglas Smith is the President and co-founder of PGL. Previously,
Doug was the Director of Coating Development at Vacuum Process
Technology. As Director of Coating Development he was responsible
for design, fabrication, and characterization of grating and coating processes. Earlier in his career Doug was Group Leader of Optical Manufacturing in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester for 17 years. He gained a great deal of experience in optics for large lasers here. While in Rochester, Doug taught courses on Optical Thin Films both during the academic year to industry and in the summer and prior to that, he was Vice-president of Production at Omega Optical for 7 years.

Doug graduated with honors from Marlboro College (majoring in Optics) in 1975 and recieved a Masters degree in Optics from the University of Arizona in 1986. He is the author of over 28 papers in coating technology. Doug is a member of the Optical Society of America and has served as the chair of the Optical Thin Films Group on the Technical Council. Doug has been co-chair of the OSA Optical Interference Topical Conference and has participated in the education program of the OSA - Rochester Section. While in Rochester, Doug was a lecturer with the Institute of Optics where he taught a course on Optical Thin Films and continues to teach in the Summer Course series. He is also a member of SPIE and the SVC- Society of Vacuum Coaters. Doug has served on the Board of Directors for the SVC.

Mark L. Schattenburg

Dr. Mark L. Schattenburg is a Senior Research Scientist in the MIT
Kavli Institute of Astrophysics and Space Research. He is Director
of the Space Nanotechnology Laboratory, Associate Director of the Nano Structures Laboratory and Senior Research Affiliate with the Microsystems Technology Laboratories. He is a leading expert on grating fabrication by interference lithography and pioneered advanced homodyne and heterodyne fringe locking technology, multi-level resist processing and achromatic interference lithography. He is the inventor of scanning-beam interference lithography and developed the "Nanoruler", the world's most precise grating patterning tool. Dr. Schattenburg received a B.S. degree in physics from the University of Hawaii in 1978 and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1984. He was appointed Postdoctoral Associate at MIT in 1984, progressing to Senior Research Scientist in 2004. He has published over 140 papers and holds six patents. He is a member of the Optical Society of America, the American Vacuum Society, SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the American Society for Precision Engineering. He was awarded the 2003 BACUS Prize by SPIE for the development of phase shift mask technology and a R&D 100 award in 2004 for the invention of the Nanoruler.

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