Structured Light and Darkness in Nanophotonics
This webinar is hosted By: Photonic Metamaterials Technical Group
05 January 2023 15:00 - 16:00
Eastern Time (US & Canada) (UTC -05:00)
When multiple light beams overlap in three-dimensional space, their interference produces lines of complete darkness – optical vortices that can form closed loops – links or knots. In this webinar, Natalia Litchinitser will discuss how the synergy of structured light and darkness with nanostructured photonic media could bring new dimensions to the science and applications of light.
Today, the term “structured light” describes a variety of optical waveforms with the spatial inhomogeneity of one or more physical parameters in two- or three-dimensional space and time. Topological concepts once considered mainly in abstract mathematics or theoretical physics, such as singularities of the phase or polarization, topological textures, and spin-orbit interactions, are entering the field of classical and quantum optics.
In this webinar hosted by the Photonic Metamaterials, Dr. Natalia Litchinitser will discuss new families of solutions to the Helmholtz equation in three-dimensional space, such as optical links and knots, their generation and robustness in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, and their interactions with nonlinear optical media. In particular, Dr. Litchinitser designs all-dielectric optical nanostructures enabling unprecedented control over the amplitude, phase, and polarization of optical fields, for the generation of various topologies of light and darkness.
Subject Matter Level: Intermediate - Assumes basic knowledge of the topic
What You Will Learn:
• Optical singularities
• Three-dimensional states of light and darkness
• Structured light in complex media (nonlinear, scattering, turbulent)
Who Should Attend:
• Students interested in linear and nonlinear optics
• Optical engineers
• Researchers interested in nanophotonics and light-matter interactions
About the Presenter: Natalia M. Litchinitser from Duke University
Natalia Litchinitser is an Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor and Physics Professor at Duke University. Litchinitser's research focuses on linear and nonlinear optics in engineered nanostructures, metamaterials, and topological photonics, as well as the engineering of the light beams. Litchinitser earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Physics from Moscow State University in Russia. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Institute of Optics at The University of Rochester in 2000. Previously, she was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Tyco Submarine Systems. She authored seven invited book chapters and over 250 journal and conference research papers.
