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Prof. Pablo Bianucci

Concordia U.
Email: pablo.bianucci@concordia.ca

Date of Live Presentation: Fri, 29-Mar-2024
Location: St. Francis Xavier Univ.



Title

Tightly squeezing light in small spaces

Abstract

Can we make lasers faster and more efficient? Can we explore the interaction between quantum mechanical matter and light? Can we detect the presence of a single virus in a drop of water? Can we play with the propagation speed of light pulses? It turns out that we can do that, and much more, by trapping light very tightly. Thanks to advances in fabrication technology it is now routinely possible to make structures that can keep light confined in microscopic spaces. When this happens, the interactions of light with matter can change in both quantitative and qualitative ways and we can harness these changes to our advantage. The workhorse device for trapping light at such small scales is the optical micro-resonator. I will introduce the working principles of different optical micro-resonators, how they can be fabricated, and some of the cool phenomena that have been demonstrated with them.


Short bio

Pablo Bianucci did his undergraduate studies in Physics at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, finishing in 2001. He then moved to the University of Texas at Austin to do a PhD, which kept him busy until 2007. After that, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, McGill University, and Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. In 2012 he started as a professor at Concordia University's Department of Physics, where he is now an Associate Professor. His research involves optical microresonators of different types, both looking at their fundamental physics and at possible applications.


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