Towards Chip – Integrated Low-Noise Lasers

When:
March 12, 2015 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm America/New York Timezone
2015-03-12T18:30:00-04:00
2015-03-12T20:00:00-04:00
Where:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, MA 02421
USA

Photonics Society – 6:30 PM – Thursday, 12 March

Towards Chip-Integrated Low-Noise Lasers

William Loh – National Institute of Standards and Technology

Many applications in basic and applied science fundamentally depend on how accurately time or frequency can be known and therefore have their performance tied to the performance of their master oscillator. At optical frequencies, these oscillators (narrow-linewidth lasers) are important for resolving spectral features with high precision, for achieving low bit-error rate performance in coherent optical communications, for performing high-resolution interferometric measurements of distance, temperature, or strain, and for serving as the seed laser for the most advanced optical-atomic clocks.

We present here the development of a new class of ultra-low noise lasers based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a centimeter-scale microresonator. Using this configuration, we achieve noise levels below that of fiber and solid-state laser technology with corresponding lasing linewidths below 100 Hz. Taken together with the laser’s compact size and low pump-power requirements, the SBS microcavity laser exhibits promise as the next generation technology that can bring the performance of state-of-the-art lasers onto a chip-scale platform.

12 March - Photonics Loh

William Loh received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2009 and 2013, respectively. He is currently a National Research Council Fellow conducting his postdoctoral research in the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research interests include novel structures and schemes for semiconductor optical devices, microwave-photonic oscillators for synthesis of low-noise RF signals, physics of noise processes in oscillators and optoelectronic systems, and modeling of optical phenomena in photonic systems and devices. He is the recipient of the MIT Siebel Foundation Scholarship in 2009, the IEEE Photonics Society Fellowship in 2012, and the NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2013.

This meeting begins at 6:30 PM Thursday March 12, 2015 and will be located in the cafeteria at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA 02420. The meeting is free and open to the public. All are welcome. Prior to the seminar there will be social time and networking from 6:30 – 7:00PM. Dinner will also be provided. The seminar will begin at 7:00PM. For more information contact Jade Wang, Boston IEEE Photonics Society Chapter chair at jpwang@ll.mit.edu, or visit the Boston IEEE Photonics Society website at www.bostonphotonics.org.

Directions to Lincoln Laboratory: (from interstate I-95/Route 128)

From Exit 31B

  • Take Exit 31B onto Routes 4/225 towards Bedford – Stay in right lane
  • Use Right Turning Lane (0.3 mile from exit) to access Hartwell Ave. at 1st Traffic Light.
  • Follow Hartwell Ave. to Wood St. (~1.3 miles).
  • Turn Left on to Wood Street and Drive for 0.3 of a mile.
  • Turn Right into MIT Lincoln Lab at the Wood Street Gate
  • Have a valid driver’s license to present to security.

 From Exit 30B

  • Take Exit 30B on to Route 2A – Stay in right lane
  • Turn Right on to Mass. Ave (~ 0.4 miles – opposite Minuteman Tech.).
  • Follow Mass. Ave for ~ 0.4 miles.
  • Turn Left on to Wood Street and Drive for 1.0 mile.
  • Turn Left into MIT Lincoln Lab at the Wood Street Gate
  • Have a valid driver’s license to present to security.

All attendees must present a valid driver’s license to MIT Lincoln Laboratory security. To get to the Cafeteria, proceed toward the Main Entrance of Lincoln Laboratory. Before entering the building, proceed down the stairs located to the left of the Main Entrance. Turn right at the bottom of the stairs and enter the building through the Cafeteria entrance. The Cafeteria is located directly ahead.

To assist us better plan this meeting, please pre-register at: http://www.ieeeboston.org/Register/.