Student of the Year

2013 Neng Bai

As a promising candidate to break the single-mode fiber capacity limit, mode-division multiplexing (MDM) explores the spatial dimension to increase transmission capacity in fiber-optic communication. Two linear impairments, namely loss and multimode interference, present fundamental challenges to implement MDM. This talk will describe methods to resolve those two issues. To compensate loss of different modes, we propose multimode EDFAs with reconfigurable multimode pumps. To de-multiplex signals subject to multimode interference in the MDM, adaptive frequency-domain equalization (FDE) has been proposed and investigated. The multimode EDFA and the FDE algorithm have been used to demonstrate 30 terabit/s MDM-WDM transmission in a few-mode fiber. (see event announcement).

2012 Nazanin Hoghooghi

A novel linear interferometric intensity modulator based on an injection-locked laser as an arcsine phase modulator, is described. Spur-free dynamic range of ~130 dB.Hz^2/3 is achieved in an analog link employing this modulator. Also, direct demodulation and channel filtering of phase-modulated optical signals using and injection-locked semiconductor laser is presented. (see event announcement).

2011 Dimitrios Mandridis

The talk will present an extensive investigation of a chirped-pulse semiconductor-based Theta cavity design laser with an intra-cavity Fabry-Pérot etalon operating at 100 MHz repetition rate. A fiberized Fabry-Pérot periodic filter inserted within the Theta laser cavity mitigates the contribution of the supermode noise to the pulse-to-pulse energy variance by >10 times. Long-term stability is attained by referencing the cavity length to the etalon using a modified intra-cavity Hänsch-Couillaud locking scheme. Moreover, the high precision characterization of the etalon used in the Theta laser will be presented. A narrow linewidth laser source is used in conjunction with an acousto-optic modulator resulting in 10 parts per billion precision. The Theta laser can be used in photonic ADC and optical coherence tomography among other applications. (see event announcement).

2010 David Haefner

Angular momentum is exchanged when an electromagnetic wave encounters a scattering medium. We dem-onstrate that the spin-orbit interaction in scattering from a spherically symmetric potentials results in a spiral flow of energy in the near-field and intermediate zones. We will show how such a power flow can be observed and will discuss some consequences for field mediated interactions at subwavelength scales. As an, we will discuss the emergence of a new kind of "optical matter" where nonconservative forces and torques determine kinematic properties, which are strongly coupled to the polarization state of the exciting radiation. (see event announcement).

2009 Oleksandr Savchyn

The implementation of silicon photonics requires the development of a compact silicon-compatible light source. One of the possible routes for its realization is to use the emission from optical centers incorporated into silicon-based matrices and sensitized with dopants. It has long been thought that silicon nanocrystals can be used as efficient and dominant sensitizers of erbium in silicon-doped SiO2. In the current presentation it will be shown that the indirect excitation of erbium in this material does not require the presence of silicon nanocrystals. This conclusion clarifies a number of previously unexplained results and opens new opportunities in the field of silicon photonics (see event announcement).

2008 Georgios A. Siviloglou

We report the first observation of Airy optical beams. This intriguing class of wave packets, initially predicted by Berry and Balazs in 1979, has been realized in both one- and two-dimensional configurations. As demonstrated in our experiments, these Airy beams can remain diffraction-free over long distances while they tend to freely accelerate during propagation (see event announcement).

2007 Ying Zhou

(see event announcement).

2006 Erwan Baleine

(see event announcement).

2005 Jeremy D. Ellis

2004 Anne Janet Milliez

2003 Michael Mielke

2002 Gabriel Popescu & Sergey Polyakov

2001 Irina Puscasu