Ferroelectrics based Tunable Micro- and Nanophotonics

This talk will present the science and technology surrounding a novel class of optical devices for laser beam scanning, dynamic focusing, modulation, and frequency conversion, all based on microengineering domain walls in ferroelectrics into diverse shapes. Also, new tunable device concepts for nanoscale photon confinement are proposed by exploiting dynamic strain and electro-optic effects in artificial photonic crystal structures.

 

A dynamic focusing electro-optic lens-stack (Top) Beam Propagation Method Simulation, and (Bottom) Electro-optic lenses created by microengineered ferroelectric domains in lithium tantalate. Scale is 500 microns.

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Speaker Biography:

V. Gopalan received his Ph. D in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in 1995. His thesis work was in developing quantitative nonlinear optical probes to study complex domain microstructures. He did postdoctoral work at the electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (95-96), and as a Director’s Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (95-98). He joined Penn State University in 1999. He received the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2000, and the Robert R. Coble Award for Young Scholars in 2001. He is the Associate director of the Center for Optical Technologies, funded by the Pennsylvania Govt. His research interests are centered around nonlinear optical materials, phenomena, probes and devices.