Nonlinear Optics with a Few Photons and a Single Molecule

Event details

Date	01.11.2016
Hour	11:00 › 12:00
Speaker	Prof. Dr. Vahid Sandoghdar
Location	SV 1717
Category	Conferences - Seminars

EPFL IMT Distinguished Lecture Series

Abstract: I plan to start this presentation with an overview of our work over the past decade on the efficient coupling of light and single quantum emitters [1-7]. The long-term goal of these projects is to establish a platform for nano-quantum-optical operations and cooperative interactions in a mesoscopic system of photons and quantum emitters [8]. In order to achieve this, we have developed novel microcavity [9] and chip-based nanoguide circuitry [10] for use at cryogenic conditions. The main discussion of this talk will be on nonlinear optical phenomena in a simple two-level atom. We will see that a single organic molecule can act as an efficient nonlinear medium for switching weak beams of light [9-11].

Bio: Vahid Sandoghdar obtained his B.S. in physics from the University of California at Davis in 1987 and Ph.D. in physics from Yale University in 1993. After a postdoctoral stay at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris he moved to the University of Konstanz in Germany in 1995, where he started a new line of research to combine single molecule spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy. In 2001 Vahid Sandoghdar accepted a chair at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2011 he became director at the newly founded Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Sandoghdar is one of the founders of the young field of Nano-Optics, which merges various methods and research areas to investigate fundamental issues in the interaction between light and matter at the nanometer scale. His current research ranges from quantum optics, plasmonics and ultrahigh resolution microscopy to nanobiophysics.

References:
[1] I. Gerhardt, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 033601 (2007).
[2] G. Wrigge, et al., Nature Physics 4, 60 (2008).
[3] G. Zumofen, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 180404 (2008).
[4] J. Hwang, et al. Nature. 460, 76 (2009).
[5] M. Pototschnig, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 063001 (2011).
[6] Y. Rezus, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 093601 (2012).
[7] S. Faez, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 213601 (2014).
[8] H. Haakh, et al., Phys. Rev. A, to appear.
[9] D. Wang, et al., in preparation.
[10] P. Türschmann, et al., in preparation.
[11] A. Maser, et al., Nature Photonics 10, 450 (2016).