ORC Seminar Series

"Wideband nonlinear optics"

Date: Wednesday 1 August
Time: 3pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre B, Building 46

In this talk I will cover some of the basic concepts relevant to wideband nonlinear optics. These will include the three most widely used sets of equations: Maxwell's equations, the second order wave equation, and the new directional field techniques. I will show that the primary approximation that needs to be used in (most) pulse propagation models is the decoupling of forward and backward fields. Under this approximation, a single first order wave equation describes the pulse, and can be converted into an envelope form in which there are no bandwidth restrictions at all. It is perfectly possible to obtain accurate results even when envelope bandwidths orders of magnitude larger than the chosen carrier frequency. The example of carrier-wave shocking is used to illustrate this point, as well as place analytical constraints on the decoupling of forward and backward fields.

Dr Paul Kinsler graduated from the University of Auckland with a BSc and MSc, then from the University of Queensland  with a PhD in Quantum Optics in 1994. After that he moved into the field of semiconductors, working at the University of Sheffield, the Institute of Microwaves and Photonics (U. Leeds), and then T.U. Delft. He is currently working in nonlinear optics at Imperial College London. His research interests span both optical and semiconductor physics, with a particular interest in quantum behaviour, nonlinear interactions, and carrier dynamics.

Most recently he has been working in the field of wideband nonlinear optics, in which time he has examined the limits of traditional pulse envelope propagation methods, pioneered a directional rewriting of Maxwell's equations, and derived envelope methods for pulse propagation  without any bandwidth restrictions. Other interests involve generation of wideband Raman combs, and investigations of optical carrier shocking and carrier-envelope phase.