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Cavity optomechanical device

Cavity optomechanical device

Group Lead
About

We are interested in the physics and engineering of nanophotonic devices in the context of quantum information science, metrology, communications, and sensing.  We use nanofabrication technology to develop engineered geometries that strongly enhance light-matter interactions, such as parametric nonlinear optical processes, coupling to quantum emitters, and acousto-optic effects.  We study the basic device-level physics and tailor devices for specific applications, and our research generally involves computational modeling, nanofabrication, and optoelectronic and quantum photonic characterization. Recent topics have included quantum frequency conversion, single-photon and entangled-photon generation, microresonator frequency combs, optical parametric oscillators, and cavity electro-optomechanical transducers.

More generally, nanophotonic systems offer us the ability to study interesting physics in a controllable way, using platforms that are inherently suitable for the development of new technologies. Our labs are at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, and the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in College Park. 

Imad Agha

Research Areas: 

  • Integrated photonics design/fab/test
  • Integrated quantum photonics
  • Nonlinear nanophotonics

 

Where are they now?: 

Imad was a NIST/UMD Postdoctoral Researcher working in the NIST lab on quantum frequency conversion of single photons, four-wave-mixing in silicon nitride waveguides, and spectro-temporal manipulation of single photon wavepackets. He is now an Associate Professor of Physics and Electro-Optics at the University of Dayton.

Integrated photonics design, fabrication, and characterization tools

Integrated photonics provides access to a wide range of geometries and materials systems in which light-matter interactions can be harnessed to realize physically useful functions for applications in areas such as quantum information science, metrology, and sensing.  At its core, such device-level development involves design and numerical simulation, nanofabrication, and optical characterization.  Independent of the application space, our projects tend to have some common ingredients that are briefly summarized here.

Nanoscale electro-optomechanical transducers

Recent developments in the field of cavity optomechanics have resulted in devices for which GHz frequency phonons and 200 THz frequency optical photons are spatially co-located to the same length scale, often times in the context of structures that simultaneously take advantage of photonic and phononic bandgap concepts.  Taken together with the strong photoelastic properties (i.e., the coupling of strain to refractive index) of materials like GaAs, this results in very large optomechanical coupling rates, so that even the phonon's zero-point motion can appreciably shift the frequency o

Research

Integrated Quantum Photonics

We are interested in the device-level development and system-level application of integrated photonics technologies for quantum communications, computing, sensing, and metrology. Devices under current development including single-photon and entangled-photon pair sources and quantum frequency converters.

Nonlinear Nanophotonics

Collaborators and Sponsors

Collaborators:

We are fortunate to work with many excellent researchers across the world.  A partial list of recent collaborators is below; while only the Principal Investigator names are listed, they of course represent groups composed of outstanding students and postdocs that are the true engine behind all of the work.

Nonlinear Nanophotonics

Encoded Silicon Qubits: A High-Performance & Scalable Platform for Quantum Computing

Abstract: For quantum computers to achieve their promise, regardless of the qubit technology, significant improvements to both performance and scale are required.  Quantum-dot-based qubits in silicon have recently enjoyed dramatic advances in fabrication and control techniques.  The “exchange-only” modality is of particular interest, as it avoids control elements that are difficult to scale such as microwave fields, photonics, or ferromagnetic gradients.  In this control scheme, the entirety of quantum computation may be performed using only asynchronous, baseband voltage pulses on straig