Photonics Society at UCSB
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  • Home
  • Members
    • Alumni
  • Calendar
  • Events
    • Lectures >
      • Industry Perspective Lectures
      • IPS Lectures
      • Student Lectures
      • Alumni Lectures
      • OSA Lectures
    • Outreach Events
    • Women in Photonics Week >
      • WIPW 2019
      • WiPW 2018
      • WiPW 2017
      • WiPW 2016
    • Light Science Workshop >
      • Light Science 2018
      • Light Science 2017
    • Day of Light >
      • Day of Light 2019
      • 2015 Symposium
    • Banquet >
      • Banquet 2019
      • Banquet 2016
      • Banquet 2014
    • Social Events
    • Sign-up for Student Talks
  • Education
    • Education Home
    • After-School Science >
      • Light-Pipes: Controlling Light
      • DIY Holograms
      • Color Mixing
      • LaserComm
      • Fluorescence
    • Classes
    • Outreach Events
    • Outreach Kits 2020
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Photonics Society 2022 Banquet - May 27

5/18/2022

 
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Game Night with ECE GSA - 05-24

5/12/2022

 
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Epifluorescence Microscopy  and Next Gen Sequencing at Illumina

5/10/2022

 
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Dr. Alexa Hudnut

Optical Systems Engineer

Illumina 


Friday, May 13th, 1:00 pm (PST)  -- pizza provided!
Hosted in-person in ESB 1001 and via Zoom
Bio – Alexa Hudnut is an Optical Systems Engineer at Illumina in San Diego. Her research background is true to a Biomedical Engineer – a little bit of everything. She started her research in molecular biology and gene editing and then worked her way to instrumentation design and optics. She graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2018. She is most passionate about creating medical devices that leverage Optics and Materials Science for an intentionally sustainable future.
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Abstract – Illumina’s mission is to improve human health by unlocking the power of the genome. This translates to efforts such as tracking COVID variants, determining your dog’s breed, population genomics, and everything in between. Next generation sequencing (NGS) relies heavily on epifluorescence microscopy as the backbone of instrumentation. As we look toward the future of gene sequencing, it will become more prevalent as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD).  To improve the clinical workflow, increased throughput is necessary for quicker turnaround times. These improvements are being driven by innovations such as structured illumination, multiplexing, image processing, and nanofabrication. 
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SBMA Color Mixing Outreach Event

4/8/2022

 
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As part of the SBMA Free Community Day on April 7, 2022, the Photonics Society hosted a color mixing activity on the terrace in front of the art museum. Guests learned about additive and subtractive color mixing while having fun mixing paints. Several guests proved to be talented young artists, making beautiful recreations of Van Gogh paintings by mixing cyan, magenta, and yellow paint to create a variety of colors. 

Register for the 2022 Quantum Industry Showcase

3/28/2022

 
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New possibilities in nitride photonics exploiting porosity

2/21/2022

 
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​​Dr. Rachel A. Oliver
Director of the Cambridge Centre for GaN
University of Cambridge
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Friday March 4th at 1:00pm PST in Henley Hall 1010 and via Zoom
Pizza Provided in-person!
Porous semiconducting nitrides are effectively a new class of semiconducting material, with properties distinct from the monolithic nitride layers from which devices from light emitting diodes (LEDs) to high electron mobility transistors are increasingly made. The introduction of porosity provides new opportunities to engineer a range of properties including refractive index, thermal and electrical conductivity, stiffness and piezoelectricity. Quantum structures may be created within porous architectures and novel composites may be created via the infiltration of other materials into porous nitride frameworks.    A key example of the application of porous nitrides in photonics is the fabrication of high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) from alternating layers of porous and non-porous GaN.  These reflectors are fabricated from epitaxial structures consisting of alternating doped and undoped layers, in which only the conductive, doped layers are electrochemically etched. Conventionally, trenches are formed using a dry-etching process, penetrating through the multilayer, and the electrochemical etch then proceeds laterally from the trench sidewalls.  The need for these trenches then limits the device designs and manufacturing processes within which the resulting reflectors can be used. We have developed a novel alternative etching process, which removes the requirement for the dry-etched trenches, with etching proceeding vertically from the top surface through channels formed at naturally-occurring defects in the crystal structure of GaN. This etch process leaves an undoped top surface layer almost unaltered and suitable for further epitaxy. This new defect-based etching process provides great flexibility for the creation of a variety of sub-surface porous architectures on top of which a range of devices may be grown.  Whilst DBR structures enable improved light extraction from LEDs and the formation of resonant cavities for lasers and single photon sources, recent development also suggest that thick, subs-surface porous layers may enable strain relaxation to help improve the efficiency of red microLEDs for augmented reality displays.  Meanwhile, the option of filling pores in nitride layers with other materials provides new opportunities for the integration of nitrides with emerging photonic materials, such as the hybrid-perovskite semiconductors, with perovskites encapsulated in porous nitride layers demonstrating greatly improved robustness against environmental degradation.
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Images from https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45344
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Milan Mashanovitch Technical and Leadership Talks - Nov 18

11/9/2021

 
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Dr. Milan Mashanovitch

Co-Founder and CEO

Freedom Photonics
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Thursday, November 18th, 11 am (PST) in Henley Hall 1010
​Pizza will be provided!

Cutting edge diode lasers and PICs for sensing applications
Over the past several years, many new application areas for photonics in optical sensing have opened up. In this talk, we will review record performance diode laser and PIC technology developed by Freedom Photonics for a variety of optical sensing applications - gas sensing, atomic sensing and LIDAR.  
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Basic skills for a good technical team leader 
​Many engineers with advanced degrees end up leading high-impact technical teams, in pursuit of research, development or production. In this talk, we will discuss various practical issues related to being a good team leader. 
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Student Lecture Oct 28 - KaiKai Liu and Jake Ewing

10/23/2021

 
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Join us at Henley Hall 1010 on 10/28 at 1pm! Free Pizza Provided! 

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Jake Ewing
DenBaars Group
Materials Dept, UCSB
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MicroLEDs for next-generation display technologies

Micro light-emitting diodes (µLEDs) are promising candidate many next-generation displays technologies including television screens and augmented reality (AR) glasses. Advantages of µLEDs include high efficiencies, self-emissivity, high brightness and long operating lifetimes. Current research focuses on improving growth methods and processing of µLEDs to achieve size-independent efficiency across the entire color spectrum. This talk will provide an overview of the progress of µLED technology as well as current research being conducted at UCSB

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KaiKai Liu
Blumenthal Group
ECE Dept, UCSB

Photonic integrated coil resonator for laser stabilization with ultra-low thermodynamic noise limit

Stable lasers and reference cavities provide the frequency standards and precision measurement references and are an essential component in a wide range of applications including coherent communications, atomic and optical clocks, and quantum communications and computation. On-chip laser frequency reference cavities have been drawing attention and interests, as on-chip optical ultra-low loss waveguide resonators are able to achieve Q factors above 100 Million.
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In this talk, I will introduce the landscape of table-top stable lasers and bulk optical reference cavities and move on to our recent progress towards on-chip ultra-high Q reference resonator and the resonator design and engineering to mitigate the thermodynamically driven noise. We demonstrate the stabilized laser reaches the resonator intrinsic thermorefractive noise limit.

Fall 2021 Beach BBQ

9/17/2021

 
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Fall 2021 Ice Cream Social

9/17/2021

 
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Dr. Julia Majors - Master Oscillator Packaging for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)

7/8/2021

 
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Dr. Julia Majors

Optical Program Manager
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Avo Photonics, Inc.


Thursday, July 15, 10:00 - 11:00 am (PDT)
5 years after the earth-based gravitational wave observatory, LIGO, made its first detection of gravitational waves, work is already well underway in preparing for the next generation of gravitational wave observatories – in orbit around the sun. Working with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, we are building what will be the “quietest” oscillator in (and above) the world to serve as the core light source for the interferometric system. The system is based on a non-planar ring oscillator (NPRO) model, which I will discuss along with some of the challenges that arise when developing laser systems for space applications.

Student Lecture by KaiKai Liu on Milliwatt Threshold 0.5-Hz Linewidth Si3N4 Brillouin Laser

5/25/2021

 
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Friday May 28 at 1:00 pm 
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KaiKai Liu
Blumenthal Group
ECE Dept, UCSB

Milliwatt Threshold 0.5-Hz Linewidth Photonic Integrated Si3N4 Brillouin Laser

Narrow linewidth lasers are an essential component in a wide range of applications including coherent communications, atomic and optical clocks, and quantum communications and computation. Laser cavity Q factor plays the crucial role in semiconductor laser linewidth. Ultra-low loss SiN waveguide resonators are extremely advantageous for making Hz linewidth lasers.
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In this talk, I will introduce the unique linewidth property of Brillouin lasers and present our recent progress towards Billion Q photonics integrated SiN waveguide resonators and the demonstration of the milliwatt threshold Brillouin laser with 0.5 Hz Schawlow-Townes linewidth.

Quantum Industry Showcase 2021

4/26/2021

 
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The UCSB Quantum Foundry and the UCSB Photonics Society hosted the 2021 Quantum Industry Showcase on April 22 and 23. You can watch the Keynote address and the fireside chat below.  You can also find more information and presentations from the event at ​https://qis.quantumfoundry.ucsb.edu/. 
Like these videos? Watch the full QIS 2021 playlist at 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xulQc4G_R9w&list=PLtIKDPzlP_wMvxVLMWlnP-lP6kb7Lr29l

Student Lectures - Shubhra Pasayat and Chris Zollner

3/16/2021

 
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1:00 PM Friday, April 2nd

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Shubhra S. Pasayat
Mishra group 
ECE Dept, UCSB

III-Nitride Strain relaxation enabled by Porous GaN for optoelectronic applications 

In my talk, I will discuss the conceptualization, fabrication and optimization of the strain relaxed substrates followed by process optimizations which led to our demonstration of world’s first <10 µm sized red LED with measurable efficiency.

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Chris Zollner
Nakamura group 
 Materials Dept, UCSB

Ultraviolet LEDs for disinfection applications: efficiency bottlenecks and novel approaches  ​

In this talk, I will discuss why III-nitride based deep-UV LEDs remain less than 10% efficient, whereas blue and white GaN LEDs are now well over 60%. Next, I will summarize our approach to improving UV LED efficiency using improved material quality, device design, and fabrication technologies. Finally, I will suggest some possible future trends, and what it will take for UV LEDs to become the dominant UV light source.

Breaking the Bounds of Imaging in Label-Free Nanoscopy, Micro-Endoscopy and Ophthalmology - Dr. Zalevsky

1/26/2021

 
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​Dr. Zeev Zalevsky
Professor of Electrical Engineering
​​Bar-Ilan University
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Thursday, February 25th, 10 am (PST) via Zoom
Meeting ID: 854 2977 2482  Passcode: 230903
Both human vision and imaging systems have limited capability to separate spatial features, and this information can only be extracted from a limited range in depth. These limitations arise from diffraction, i.e., the finite dimensions of the imaging optics and the geometry of the sensor. In this talk, I will present novel photonic approaches to exceed the resolution limitations of geometric optics. I will show how those concepts can be adapted to micro endoscopy as well as to microscopy-related configurations, including ophthalmic devices for correcting visual deficiencies.
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Images from https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2514861
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From Dr. Zalevsky's talk -- an introduction to noise equivalent resolution

Infrared Applications for Safe and Healthy Living - Dr. Perera

1/26/2021

 
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​​Dr. Unil Perera
Regents’ Professor of Physics
Georgia State University


Friday, January 29th, 10 am (PST) 
​Infrared detectors and imaging systems are becoming increasingly important in a diverse range of astronomic, military, and civilian applications. This field has gained significant attention while incorporating various materials and architectures into detector designs with a strong focus on applicability into clinical domains. Dr. Perera will discuss recent detector structures, and his latest work on disease detection. Biomedical applications of infrared include an exploration of an Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid, Equipment-free, and Deliverable (ASSURED) diagnostic regimen and testing its clinical feasibility for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and cancer screening. A study using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sampling mode analyzed  body fluids in order to identify reproducible,  stable,  and statistically significant differences  in spectral signatures of the IR absorbance spectra between the control and disease samples. These results show that serum samples can be used to detect the biochemical changes induced by these diseases. 
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Image from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17027-4
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Image from https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17027-4
​Student’s t-test (two-tailed unequal variance) p-values of absorbance. Discriminatory region for lymphoma with higher significance (p < 0.05) are amide I of protein, amide II of protein, C-H bends of CH3/CH2 groups in α- and β- anomers, asymmetric phosphate I, and carbohydrates with predominant contributions nucleic acids (DNA/RNA via PO2 − stretches). Discriminatory regions of melanoma are amide I and carbohydrates with predominant contributions of nucleic acids.
Plots of the protein secondary structures (α-helix, β-sheet) and their ratio. (a) Quantified integral (area covered) values of α-helix components are less for tumorous cases compared to control. (b) Integral values of β-sheet components are higher for tumorous cases compared to control

Student Lecture Series - January 22, 2021

1/20/2021

 
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1:00 PM Friday, January 22nd
Zoom Meeting --– Meeting ID: 847 3105 9791 --- Password: 792878  --- Zoom Link


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Yahya Mohtashami
​Schuller group
ECE
Dept, UCSB



​Light-Emitting
Metasurfaces

In this talk, we show that we can increase the light extraction efficiency of, impart directionality upon, collimate, and focus the spontaneous emission from InGaN/GaN quantum wells, using phased-array metasurfaces.

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Seamus O’Hara
Sherwin group
Physics
Dept, UCSB



​Optical Sensitivity to Wavefunctions of Electron-Hole Pairs in Semiconductors
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Strong THz laser fields can explore non-linear, non-equilibrium phenomena in matter. The talk will focus on photons emitted by electron/hole re-collisions, and how the polarization of these photons carries information about the semiconductor.

Dec. 18 Virtual Game Night

12/11/2020

 
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Dr. Mengjie Yu - Integrated Lithium Niobate Photonics

10/26/2020

 
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Dr. Mengjie Yu

Postdoctoral Fellow

Harvard University Laboratory
​for Nanoscale Optics

​Thursday, November 5th, 10 am (PST) via Zoom
Lithium niobate (LN), the workhorse of optoelectronics, is an excellent photonic material with large electro-optic coefficient, Kerr nonlinearity and piezoelectric response, and a wide optical transparency window. Recent advances in nanofabrication technology have allowed for the realization of ultra-low loss LN waveguides and are opening exciting opportunities for next-generation nonlinear photonic technologies with higher integration density and advanced functionalities. In this talk, I will review our recent developments of thin-film LN devices, including optical frequency combs, supercontinuum generation, optical frequency shifting, acousto-optic control. In addition, I will discuss the potential of LN platform for applications in nonlinear frequency conversion, frequency metrology, and microwave photonics.
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Following the technical talk, I will give a  short professional development talk, including networking and volunteering in the photonics community, and I will cover some career advice for graduate students.
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Images from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.09621.pd

Dr. Gabriella Cincotti - Multidimensional Optical Multiplexing

10/22/2020

 
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Dr. Gabriella Cincotti

Full Professor 

Head of Photonics Research Group

University Roma Tre


Monday, October 26th, 11 am (PDT) via Zoom
Fiber communications support a wide range of residential, mobile and enterprise services, within core, metro, and access optical networks. The 5G and beyond wireless is expected to have a dramatic impact on the fiber infrastructure, bringing new severe requirements such as higher data rates, ultra-high bandwidth, lower latency, accurate synchronization, network slicing, ultra-high reliability and massive connectivity for many devices. Adaptive, flexible and efficient optical resource management, as well as agile bit-rates are the key technologies to exploit the whole bandwidth of single-wavelength, single-core and single-mode fibers. All-optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and Nyquist-optical time division multiplexing (N-OTDM) are the two most suitable approaches to efficiently generate Tb/s superchannels, by optically multiplexing subcarriers or by time interleaving short sinc-shaped pulses. The superchannels are generated in the optical domain, in a power-efficient way, also overcoming the restrictions related to the bandwidth of modulators and digital signal processing devices. A planar arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) can be designed to implement the conventional or fractional Fourier transform and efficiently generate OFDM and Fr-OFDM superchannels, that are less sensitive to nonlinear distortion and chromatic dispersion effects. The ultimate efficiency in physical resource exploitation can be achieved only in a truly flexible system, where it is possible to switch from OFDM to N-OTDM and vice versa, through intermediate fractional grids. Starting from experimental results of a novel approach for hybrid time-frequency multiplexing, this talk will focus on additional multiplexing domains, such as polarization, space, wavelength and code. Suitable AWG configurations can be designed for simultaneous frequency and polarization or mode and frequency multiplexing, as well as for generating optical codes in asynchronous code division multiple access (CDMA) and optical packet switching systems.
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Image from https://doi-org/0.1364/OE.25.00349
Gabriella Cincotti is a Full Professor at the Engineering Department, University Roma Tre, Rome Italy; she leads the Photonics Research Group and is in charge of the courses of Photonics and Biophotonics. She is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), she was an elected member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Photonics Society (2017-2019) and currently she is serving in the IEEE Photonics Publications Council. She was a technical program committee (TPC) member of the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) (2010-2012), also serving as Chair of the Access Subcommittee. She was also TPC member of the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) (2016-2018). She served as an Associate Editor of Optics Letters (2008-2014) and she serves as Deputy Editor of Optica since 2017. She has authored or co-authored over 300 research papers in leading journals and conferences. Her main research interests are in the field of planar lightwave circuits, photonic devices and subsystems for high-speed optical signal processing. Recently, she moved part of her research interests toward super resolution imaging and point of care testing for biomedical and microbiological applications.
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