We follow in the footsteps left by late Professor Shimoda in the field of quantum electronics.
Progresses of microwave and laser molecular spectroscopy pioneered by Prof. Shimoda are reviewed up to the present. In addition, his contributions to optical physics after his retirement from the University of Tokyo are described.
Professor Koichi Shimoda was appointed to RIKEN in April 1960 as a chief scientist of the Microwave Physics Laboratory. The goal of the laboratory was to develop masers into visible light with wavelengths shorter than microwaves, that is, lasers, and to apply them to chemistry and physics. In the era when masers were being developed into lasers, at the very dawn of laser technology, he achieved pioneering research results such as the demonstration of high-speed photography (the world’s first laser application), the proposal of a laser accelerator, and the development a far-infrared laser that became a model for the world. Afterward, he led laser isotope separation research at RIKEN and made a significant contribution to the development of laser research in Japan and the nurturing of young researchers through the Laser Science Research Group. In this article, in memory of Professor Shimoda, I look back on his research activities at RIKEN.
I would like to recall the conversations I had with Professor Koichi Shimoda over a quarter of a century concerning electronic circuits and electromagnetism, and to remember his enthusiasm for physics and education, as well as his personality.
Visualization experiments revealed many characteristic features of film boiling in superfluid helium (He II). Bifurcation of film boiling modes, special boiling accompanying with superheated state of He II in narrow channel, and anormal heat transfer across He II–He vapor interface at vicinity of the lambda point under microgravity condition had been visualized.