Light-matter interaction in ENZ media (August 2024)

Title: Light-matter interaction in ENZ media, plasmonic systems and atomic vapor (S Choudhary, August 2024)

Speaker: Dr. Saumya Choudhary, University of Rochester

Date: Friday 9 August 2024 / 11am - 12pm

Location: Building: 15, Auditorium 253; Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Host: Antoine Islegen-Wojdyla 

Abstract: The interaction of light with matter close to a resonance, or when the material permittivity vanishes (also called epsilon-near-zero or ENZ) can significantly enhance nonlinear optical effects such as self-action effects, wave mixing and harmonic generation. The ability to control and tailor these interactions through structuring either the light or the material is crucial for applications ranging from all-optical signal processing, communication, and directed energy. In this talk, I will discuss our recent results in (a) the enhancement of ENZ-mediated light matter interaction in polaritonic structures, and the use of the giant ultrafast nonlinear response in the ENZ for ultrafast gating, and (b) structuring an intense beam of light for preventing its breakup due to self-action effects in the presence of phase instabilities

biography: Saumya Choudhary is currently a postdoctoral associate in the group of Prof. Robert Boyd at the University of Rochester where she has been working on several projects spanning the fields of nonlinear optics and nanophotonics. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in Optics from the University of Rochester in 2023, a Master’s in Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada in 2016, and a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering from The Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad, India in 2013.

Recording