Quantum Optics and Photonics

• Microcavity research

  Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators

  Linear and nonlinear optics with crystalline and amorphous high-Q whispering gallery mode resonators is important and interesting because the resonators allow interaction of light with tens and hundreds of meters of a material the resonators are made from. It is practically impossible to fabricate a high quality sample, for example stoichiometric crystal, of this size. With whispering gallery mode resonators, however, surface reflection does the trick: for light circulating inside the small resonator, the crystal appears to be very long. Moreover, small volumes of whispering gallery modes significantly increase efficiency of nonlinear processes in the resonators. All this opens novel opportunities for both fundamental science investigations and engineering applications of optically transparent materials. The examples of high efficiency electro-optical modulators, photonic receivers, tunable filters, and nonlinear parametric converters we recently designed and demonstrated are only the beginning.

  

• Slow light

  Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in atomic vapors induces extremely steep dispersion which gives rise to the phenomenon known as the slow light. Group velocity of slow light can be many orders of magnitude less than the speed of light in vacuum. Our research is carried out in the context of the slow light applications for communications and data processing. It includes the study of slow light Doppler dragging, the effects of the drive standing wave, nonlinearity with respect to the probe light, and others.

  

• Femtosecond laser

  Frequency Metrology Using Femtosecond lasers
  

  We are developing femtosecond-laser frequency combs that will allow us to accurately count oscillations of visible light (with frequencies over 1015 Hz). Using compact, rugged fiber-based lasers and photonic crystal fibers, this apparatus will be essential for developing the next generation of all-optical atomic clocks.

• COEO ...

  We are developing a coupled opto-electronic oscillator. The scheme combines the the short optical pulse generation from a mode locked laser and opto-electronic oscillator. The coupled device is capable to generating low jitter high speed optical pulses and, at the same time, producing ultra-low phase noise microwave signal at 10 Ghz and higher.