Four new fellows arrive in Stanford between October 2011 and January 2012.
Tobias Lamour
Recent approaches to resonantly-enhanced THz-wave generation inside periodic GaAs, utilising difference frequency generation between signal and idler waves of a doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator, have led to record THz output power.
The aim of my project is to improve a broadly tunable, highly efficient room temperature photonic THz source, with the potential to surpass the quantum limit of optical-to-THz energy conversion approaching 10 mW of THz output power in a compact setup.
The availability of such a source will significantly improve the outlook for applications such as THz spectroscopy, non-destructive testing, remote and standoff detection of explosives and other organic compounds, to name only a view. Given the variety of applications served by this new THz source, there should be potential for commercialization as well as licensing activities from the project.
William Whelan-Curtin
Current computers are increasingly limited by power consumption and heat dissipation issues, severely limiting clock rates. Most of this power (50-80%) is consumed in the interconnects- the wires that move information around and on/off the chip. Optical interconnects promise to be faster and more efficient than their electrical counterparts. These must be integrated beside the transistors of the core, imposing three requirements- compactness, transistor compatible fabrication, and high yield/tolerance to operating conditions. This project will design and demonstrate new optical components for this challenging environment with the potential to allow a dramatic improvement in the performance of future computing systems.
Sharon Vetter
The purpose of this project is the development of a microchip-based semiconductor disk laser device with visible laser output capability. Initially the research focuses on yellow laser light, with particular applications in medical and astronomical fields. However, device design allows expansion across a wider spectral range. In this respect, identification of market driven applications will aid to streamline the specification more towards product realisation.
Chandra Natarajan
Chandra Natarajan completed his PhD at Heriot-Watt University in 2011 working on the development and applications of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs/SSPDs). SSPD offers free-running single-photon counting at telecom wavelengths with picosecond timing resolution and low dark counts. The project in Stanford aims to use SSPDs to study the spin-photon interface, which would allow quantum information from a semiconductor spin qubit to be transferred to the polarization of a photon. This would allow demonstration of entanglement between remote spins.