Advance Program

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the Optical MEMS & Nanophotonics 2008
Advance Program
(updated 9 July 2008)

Biography: Yasuhiko Arakawa received B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in the electrical engineering form the University of Tokyo, in 1975, 1977, 1980, respectively. In 1980, he started his academic carrier by joining the University of Tokyo as an assistant professor and was promoted to a full professor in 1993. He is now Professor of Research Center for Advanced Science and technology, the University of Tokyo. He is also the Director, Institute for Nano Quantum Information Electronics, The University of Tokyo.  He is a Fellow member of IEEE.

His main achievement includes proposal of the concept of quantum dots and quantum do lasers (82), pioneering theoretical work on quantum effects on lasing dynamics in semiconductor lasers (84), discovery of exciton-polariton Rabi-vacuum oscillation in semiconductor nanocavity (92), discovery of continuum in density of states in quantum dots by PLE (92), the achievement of high temperature stability in high speed quantum dot lasers (04), the first demonstration of single photon sources at telecommunication wavelength(04) and the highest operation temperature of 200K achieved in all-solid single photon sources by using GaN quantum dots (06).  

He is the recipient of many awards including IEEE William Streifer Award, Leo Esaki Prize, Fujiwara Prize, IBM Science Award, ISCS Quantum Device Award and The Wall Street Journal Technology Award 2006. He is authors of more than 400 papers in scientific journals and invited speakers at more than 200 international conferences.

Biography: Kerry Vahala is Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Professor of Applied Physics at Caltech. He also received his Ph. D. (85) in Applied Physics at Caltech. His research on micro-resonators has led to wafer-based devices operating in the Q regime above 100 million and has also provided low-loss methods for coupling directly to optical fiber. These devices have enabled micro-scale Raman and Parametric sources as well as cavity QED on-a-chip systems. His current research is focused on a range of opto-mechanical phenomena associated with radiation pressure in microresonators. Vahala is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, was the first recipient of the Richard P. Feynman Hughes Fellowship, and is also a recipient of an Alexander Von Humboldt Research Award. He received both the Presidential Young Investigator and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Awards; and has been a topical editor for the Journal of the Optical Society of America and Photonics Technology Letters. He was also program co-chair for CLEO 99 and General Chair for CLEO 2001.

Abstract: The physics of cooling and amplifying mechanical motion using optical forces is reviewed. Optomechanical oscillation to microwave rates will be described, as well as progress towards optomechanical cooling to the quantum ground state. Possible future directions of this emerging subject of cavity optomechanics are discussed.

Biography: After completing his PhD in physics in 1987 at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (Germany), he spent two years as a postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel (U.S.A.). From 1990-1995 he was C3-Professor at Universität Dortmund (Germany), since 1995 he is C4-Professor at Universität Karlsruhe (TH) . Since 2001 he has a joint appointment at Institut für Nanotechnologie of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH . Since 2001 he is also the coordinator of the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) in Karlsruhe. His research interests comprise ultrafast optics, nonlinear optics, near-field optics, photonic crystals, and photonic metamaterials. This research has led to various awards and honors, among which are the DFG Leibniz Award 2000, the European Union René Descartes Prize 2005, and the Carl Zeiss Research Award 2006. Since 2006, he is also a member of Leopoldina, the German Academy of Sciences.

Abstract: We review recent progress in the field of metamaterials for photonics. Examples are artificial magnetism at optical frequencies, negative phase and group velocities, and enhanced nonlinear phenomena.