Recent activities on 2D materials in Q-switching of rare earth optical fibers

Harith Bin Ahmad Director, Photonic Research Centre Distinguish Professor, Department of Physics University of Malaya Lembah Pantai, 50603, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Harith Ahmad received the Ph.D. degree in laser technology from the University of Wales, Swansea, U.K., in 1983. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Physics and the Director of the Photonics Research Centre, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he has been involved in the field of photonics since 1983. He is the author of over 600 professional papers in international journals and conference proceedings. His research interests are in lasers, fiber-based devices for telecommunications, and fiber-based sensor devices. He is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia.

Rigorous characterisation of light-matter interactions in optical waveguides

B M A Rahman Professor of Photonics, Fellow IEEE, Fellow OSA, Fellow SPIE Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering City University London Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK Tel: +44-20-7040-8123, Email: B.M.A.Rahman@city.ac.uk

With the rapid development of photonics, the exploitations of light-matter interactions are extensively being exploited for many important applications. We will present the numerical methods needed to study such complex interactions and rigorous characterization of multi-octave supercontinuum generation and stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical waveguides with strong light confinements exploiting the material nonlinearity.

B. M. Azizur Rahman received the B.Sc. Eng and M.Sc. Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering with distinctions from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1976 and 1979, respectively. He also received two gold medals for being the best undergraduate and graduate students of the university in 1976 and 1979, respectively. In 1979, he was awarded with a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a PhD degree in the UK and subsequently in 1982 received his PhD degree in Electronics from University College London. In 1988, he joined City University, London, as a lecturer, where became a full Professor in 2000. At City University, he leads the research group on Photonics Modelling, specialised in the development and use of rigorous and full-vectorial numerical approaches to design, analyse and optimise a wide range of photonic devices, such as spot-size converters, high-speed optical modulators, compact bend designs, power splitters, polarisation splitters, polarisation rotators, polarization controllers, SBS, terahertz devices, etc. He has published more than 550 journal and conference papers, and his journal papers have been cited more than 4400 times. He has supervised 29 students to complete their PhD degrees as their first supervisor and received more than £11 M in research grants. Prof. Rahman is Fellow of the IEEE, Optical Society of America and the SPIE.

Black holes enabled bending, slowing and trapping of photons for integrated silicon photonic communication systems

M. Saif Islam Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of California - Davis, California 95616, USA

Nanoscale holes on the surfaces of indirect band gap semiconductors such as silicon can enable perpendicular light bending and trapping to slow-down photons and enhance the light material interactions by orders of magnitude. The ‘bending’ of a vertically oriented light beam at nearly 90 degrees can be visualized as radial waves generated by a pebble dropped into a calm pool of water. Such bending and photon trapping result in an increased optical absorption path enabling very high light absorption coefficients. This observation led to the design of integrated silicon CMOS photodetectors with high broadband efficiency and record ultrafast response - contributing to a communication speed above 40 billion bits of data per second (Gb/s). Photovoltaic devices designed based on such light bending show near unity energy conversion efficiency opening doors to high performance perpetual powering devices for IoT devices and sensor networks. We will also present transformational opportunities for a paradigm shift in high performance receiver design for various applications such as extended reach links, single photon detection, LIDAR and high-performance computing.

M. Saif Islam received his B.Sc. Degree in Physics from Middle East Technical University (1994, Turkey), M.S. degree in Physics from Bilkent University (1996, Turkey) and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 2001. He worked for SDL Inc./JDS Uniphase Corporation, Gazillion Bits, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Laboratories as a Staff Scientist, a Senior Scientist and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He joined University of California - Davis in 2004, where he is a Professor and the chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department now. Prof. Islam’s current research objectives include the development of massively parallel and mass-manufacturable synthesis and integration processes for zero-, one- and two-dimensional nanostructures for potential applications in electronics, photonics, energy conversion and sensing. He has authored/co -authored more than 250 scientific papers, organized 25 conferences/symposiums as a chair/co-chair; and holds 40 patents as an inventor/co-inventor. He received NSF Faculty Early Career Award (2006), Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2006) and Mid-Career Research Faculty Award (2012), IEEE Professor of the Year (2005 and 2009) and University of California - Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 2010. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Hundreds-um–sized fiber interferometers for picoliter sample volume micro sensing

Nan-Kuang Chen Professor, Department of Electro-Optical Engineering National United University Miaoli, Taiwan 360, R.O.C.

Nan-Kuang Chen received the Ph. D. degree from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, in 2006. From February 2014, he is a Professor with the Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National United University, Taiwan. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 international SCI journal and conference articles. He served as reviewers for 41 prestigious SCI international journals and also served on the International Advisory Committee/Technical Program Committee/Organizing Committee and Session Chair/Reviewers for more than 80 times for many international conferences, delivered 22 invited talks in international conferences and organized two international conferences (IAPTC 2011 and IEEE/ICAIT 2013). He holds 14 ROC patents, 12 US patents, 1 Korea patent, and 4 PRC patents. His research interests also include micro optical forces (Van der Wall’s force and evanescent attractive force) and its microsensing applications, dispersion engineering technique, Cr3+ -doped fiber amplifier, optical internet of things, large core high power fiber lasers, mode-locked femtosecond fiber lasers, and fiber-optic physics.

Integrated Photonic Devices Enabled by Ultrafast Laser Technology

Ajoy Kumar Kar Professor Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, Heriot Watt University Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland Email: a.k.kar@hw.ac.uk

The adoption of lasers for material processing in recent decades has enabled new manufacturing techniques for inscription, welding, cutting and 3D fabrication. Research into developing new methods of laser material processing is ongoing and has the potential to add to those already in use commercially. Our research over past decades has focused on the use of ultrafast lasers to modify materials through femtosecond laser machining which has wide ranging applications in lasers, micro-optics, 3D photonic circuits, imaging, biophotonics and medicine. Using femtosecond laser machining 3D waveguide structures can be fabricated in many materials rapidly and without the need for cleanroom facilities. We have demonstrated waveguide lasers with high repetition rates [1], large tuneability [2] and in compact configurations suitable to harsh environments [3]. Using the same inscription system, we have recently pursued the fabrication of microfluidics for biological applications, this can be combined with the integration of optical waveguides to produce highly compact integrated devices. We have demonstrated cell sorting [4], identification [5] and temperature sensing [6].Femtosecond laser machining is a unique method of material modification where an ultrashort laser pulse is focused into a material transparent to the laser wavelength. The laser pulse is absorbed at the focus through nonlinear processes creating a highly localised modification allowing for 3D fabrication within a sample. Depending on the sample and the laser parameters various modifications are possible such as refractive index change, damage and the formation of nanocracks. Refractive index change, both positive and negative is used to form waveguides as illustrated in Figure 1. Nanocracks greatly enhance the etching rate of the material when exposed to acid allowing for the fabrication of microfluidic devices, Figure 2. In my talk I will present how the ultrafast laser inscription technology can be used to develop mid-IR lasers and super continuum sources. I will also describe how all-optical devices could be monolithically integrated into a substrate in the form of opto-fluidic devices for unique biophotonics applications.


References:

1. [1] “7.8-GHz Graphene-Based 2-µm Monolithic Waveguide Laser”, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 21, 1602106, 2015.
2. [2] “Ultrabroad Mid-Infrared Tunable Cr:ZnSe Channel Waveguide Laser”, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 21, 1601405, 2015.
3. [3] “Compact, highly efficient ytterbium doped bismuthate glass waveguide laser”, Optics Letters 37, 1691, 2012.
4. [4] “Femtosecond laser fabricated integrated chip for manipulation of single cells”, Proc. SPIE. 9705, 2016 doi: 10.1117/12.2212719.
5. [5] “Imaging Flow Cytometry With Femtosecond Laser-Micromachined Glass Microfluidic Channels”, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 21, 6800106, 2015.
6. [6] “Quantum dot enabled thermal imaging of optofluidic devices”,Lab on a Chip 12, 2414, 2012.
7. [7] “Ultrafast laser inscription: perspectives on future integrated applications”, Laser & Photonics Reviews 8, 6, 827, 2014.

Professor Ajoy Kar (www.nlo.hw.ac.uk) is internationally recognised for pioneering the technology of Ultrafast Laser Inscription (ULI) for the development and fabrication of photonic devices. Based on this research he successfully spun out Optoscribe (www.optoscribe.com) which provides revolutionary 3D waveguide technology for optical communications. The company is now valued at £6 M and has attracted a total external investment of £2.5 M; it employs more than twenty five people. He has over 35 years of experience in unravelling the nonlinear optical properties of materials and their applications – his contribution to the field has been acknowledged by Honorary Fellowships awarded by the Optical Society (OSA) and the Institute of Physics (IoP). He is a pioneer of Photonics Education in the UK and Europe and has graduated more than 500 MSc students in photonics and supervised 35 PhD students. He has recently applied the principles of nonlinear optics to develop novel optoelectronic devices including lasers, supercontinuum devices and microfluidic devices for biophotonics applications using ULI. The microfluidic devices incorporate 3-dimensional inscribed channels, to enable sorting, growth, maintenance and assay of primary cells. The first cell sorter using ULI has already been developed. His current projects involve amplifiers for telecommunications, ultrafast all-optical switching in novel optical fibres, ultrafast optical nonlinearities in semiconductors and graphene, supercontinuum generation, CW and ultrafast lasers from the visible to mid-IR. During the past 5 years he has published more than 60 papers in diverse fields such Anderson localisation, Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation, waveguide lasers and Bragg gratings which have had a major impact on the development of monolithic photonic devices and photonic circuits.

Opto-electronic Materials and Devices for Successful Thin Film Solar Photovoltaics

Nowshad Amin Professor, Dept. of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment The National University of Malaysia 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.

Nowshad Amin is currently serving as a Professor at the Dept. of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering of The National University of Malaysia (@ Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), where he also leads the Solar Photovoltaic Research Group under the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI). After the higher secondary education with distinctions from his native country, Bangladesh, he received the Japanese Ministry of Education (MONBUSHO) scholarship in 1990. Accomplishing Japanese Language diploma in 1991, he achieved a diploma in Electrical Engineering (1994) from Gunma National College of Technology, Bachelor (1996) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology, Masters (1998) and PhD (2001) on solar photovoltaic technology (Thin Film Solar Cell) from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo, Japan). Later, he pursued Postdoctoral fellowship in the USA and briefly worked at Motorola Japan Ltd. His areas of expertise include Microelectronics, Renewable Energy, Solar Photovoltaic Applications and Thin Film Solar PV Development. Additionally, his research focuses on the commercialization of Solar Photovoltaic Products from his patented entities, as such he has also been serving as the CTO cum director of a University Spin-off company financed by the Malaysian Technology Development Center (MTDC). He has been serving as the project-leader as well as co-researcher of many government (Malaysia) and international (Saudi National Grant, Qatar Foundation etc.) funded projects. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, a few books and book chapters. He is actively involved in promoting Renewable Energy to the developing countries in South and South East Asia, working as an enthusiastic promoter for the affordable solar photovoltaic technologies.

European Research Towards 5th Generation Mobile Networks (5G)

Dr.-Ing. Rahamatullah Khondoker Brief Biography of the Speaker: Since January 2013, Dr.-Ing. Rahamatullah Khondoker is working as a Researcher in Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (Fraunhofer SIT) located in Darmstadt, Germany. He is also affiliated as a Lecturer at the department of Computer Science in TU Darmstadt, Germany. Before that, he worked as a Researcher and Lecturer at the department of Computer Science in TU Kaiserslautern, Germany. From this university, he completed Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) in Computer Science with the topic “Description and Selection of Communication Services for Service Oriented Network Architectures”. Before that, he completed M.Sc. in Computer Science degree from University of Bremen, Germany. He received several awards until now. He was selected as a top 10 researcher in 2015 by the academics.de Germany. He was awarded from Ericsson, Germany in the year 2008 and from the FIA Research Roadmap group in October 2011. On 8th July 2015, he completed "University Teaching Certificate" course from TU Darmstadt, Germany. He worked with the DFG project (PoSSuM), BMBF projects (G-Lab, G-Lab DEEP, FutureIN, IUNO - an Industrie 4.0 project), EU projects (PROMISE, EuroNF, PRUNO), and several industry projects. Currently, he is focusing on the security of Future Internet Architectures, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), 5th Generation Mobile Networks (5G), Internet of Things (IoT), and the next industrial evoluation called Industry 4.0. Abstract: The 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) consortium in Europe is trying to fulfill the demands of the future such that 20 billion human beings (human-oriented terminals) and 1 trillion things will be able to get reliable, and fast (latency < 5ms) Internet connectivity. This requires among others increase in wireless capacity (approximately 1000 times) and decrease in energy (around 90% savings). To fulfill these visions, several projects (for example, Flex5Gware, 5G NORMA, and mmMAGIC) have already been completed and several new projects (for example, 5GCAR, 5GCity, 5G-MoNArch) have been launched in June/July 2017. In this talk, I will discuss some of the objectives of these projects which are to improve existing Radio, Core, and Management technologies and to add new concepts and technologies like Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Cloud Computing, Fog Computing / Internet of Things (IoT), Cyberphysical Systems, Industrial Internet (for example, Industry 4.0), and Big Data.

SDM amplifiers: design challenges for fibers supporting increasing number of parallel channels

Dr. Shaif-ul Alam Principal Research Fellow Optoelectronics Research Centre University of Southampton, UK Brief Biography of the Speaker: Shaif-ul Alam is currently a Principal Research Fellow at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK from where he received his Ph.D. degree in 2001. Between 2001 and 2008 he worked for SPI Lasers (UK) Limited and Quantronix Corporation in the USA and successfully led numerous high power fiber laser product development projects. He is a recepient of presitgious Commonwealth Scholarship and JSPS Fellowship. He is a senior member of the OSA. His current research interests include fiber amplifier technology and applications of high power, short pulse fibre lasers. He has published over 250 articles in international scientific journals/conferences. Abstract: Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) based on multicore and multimode fibers has attracted considerable attention in high-capacity fiber-optic communication systems as a radical approach to increase the capacity-per-fiber by employing multiple distinguishable spatial information channels through the same fiber and overcome the current capacity limitations (~100Tbit/s per fiber) of high-speed long-haul transmission systems based on single mode optical fiber. To realize the energy and cost savings offered by SDM systems, the individual spatial channels should be simultaneously amplified within a multicore erbium doped fiber amplifier (MC-EDFA) or a few-mode erbium doped fiber amplifier (FM-EDFA). Some examples of MC-EDFA and FM-EDFAs will be presented and summarize challenges associated with the SDM amplifiers.

InGaAsP/InP Embedded Ring Modulators and Switches

Utpal Das Professor Department of EE, IIT Kanpur KANPUR 208016, U.P., INDIA. Brief Biography of the Speaker: Utpal Das did his BSc(Physics) from Presidency College (Calcutta), B. Tech. from University of Calcutta in Radiophysics and Electronics, and MS from Oregon State University. He obtained his PhD degree from University of Michigan in 1987. In 1988 he joined University of Florida as Assistant Professor, thereafter joined IIT Kanpur in 1994. He has been senior member of IEEE since 1997. He had been head of Center for Laser Technology for two terms and a member of the Working Group on Nanotechnology of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. He is currently a professor in the Dept. of EE and Center for Lasers and Photonics at IIT Kanpur. He has over 75 publications. His current interests are in the area of semiconductor optoelectronic devices and optoelectronic integration. Abstract: InGaAsP based quantum well embedded rings modeled for optical modulation and all optic switching. A 20Gbps electro-optic modulator with >12dB extinction ratio has been proposed. All optical tuning is used to theoretically demonstrate a 20G packets/s switching with a 5dB switching ratio. The fabricated micro embedded ring resonator ring using e-beam lithography and Al liftoff mask has been demonstrated and the measured device spectrum is found to match well with the simulated results. .