Lecture: Dr. Amnon Yariv - "Quantum Limit on Coherence of Semiconductor Lasers"

Who: Prof. Amnon Yariv, Dept. of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at CalTech
When: Friday Jan. 23rd, 4:00 pm
Where: Eng. Sciences Building 2001                                                       Snacks & Coffee will be provided

Abstract:  The talk will describe the theory, design, fabrication, and the experimental results of an effort that led to a new type of hybrid Si/III-V semiconductor (SCL) laser with a linewidth below 1 KHz. This result is nearly 3 orders of magnitude better (smaller linewidth) than that of commercial SC lasers.

Other key parameters relevant to coherence such as the phase/amplitude coupling constant, α, and the relaxation resonance frequency are reduced by more than an order of magnitude.  The fabrication employed is CMOS compatible making the new laser integrable with electronic circuits and potentially enabling a new generation of communication, time-keeping, and sensing applications.

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Bio: Amnon  Yariv  is  the  Martin  and  Eileen  Summerfield  Professor  of  Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Caltech. He obtained the B.S. (1954), M.S. (1956) and Ph.D. (1958) in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.   He went to the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey in 1959, joining the early stages of the laser effort. He came to the California Institute of Technology in 1964. 
On the technical side, he is responsible with W.  H.Louisell and A.E. Siegman for the quantum mechanical formulation of parametric (nonlinear) optics. With students and various colleagues, he proposed and demonstrated the fields of: Optoelectronic  Integrated  Circuits  (IOECS),  the  Distributed Feedback Semiconductor laser, and coupled-resonator optical waveguide. His  recent  research  is  on  3D  lidar  imaging  with  swept  frequency semiconductor lasers and limits of coherence of semiconductor lasers. 

Dr. Yariv is a member of the American Physical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  National  Academy  of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Optical Society of America. He was the recipient of the 1980 Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE, the 1985 University of Pennsylvania Pender Award, the 1986 Optical Society of America Ives Medal, the 1992 Harvey Prize, the 1998 OSA Beller Medal, the National Medal of Science 2010, and the IEEE Photonics Award 2011.

Dr. Yariv was a founder and chairman-of-the-board of ORTEL Corporation (acquired  by  Lucent  Technologies in  1998),  and  is  a  founder  and  a  board member  of a  number  of  startup  companies  in  the  optical  communications field.

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