Events

Physics Seminar - Quantum dots in photonic crystals: Nanolasers and single photon sources for information science

Applied Physics
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
 
For NYU Community

Stefan Strauf, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics and Engineering Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology

Progress in recent years has brought the fields of semiconductor optics and quantum information science closer together resulting in new applications for optoelectronic devices. Nanostructures such as quantum dots and photonic crystals offer rich opportunities for fundamental research of light-matter interaction down to the ultimate quantum limit where one can control and manipulate single electrons, excitons, or photons. The controlled engineering of radiative exciton transitions from semiconductor quantum dots and high-quality optical modes provided by micro- and nanocavities results in ultra-low power devices emitting classical and non-classical light states with unprecedented photon emission efficiency.  In this talk I will review our recent work on ultra-low threshold photonic crystal nanolasers [1] and high frequency single photon sources [2] based on self-assembled InAs quantum dots. I will also present recent results on a novel type of vertical quantum dot providing an a priori scalable platform for quantum information processing.


[1] S. Strauf et al., Physical Review Letters 96, 127404 (2006).
[2] S. Strauf et al., Nature Photonics 1, 704 (2007), cover story.

About the Speaker

Dr. Strauf received his Ph.D. in 2001 from Bremen University, Germany for a thesis entitled “Impurity luminescence of wide bandgap semiconductors“. After a year at the Institute of Solid-State Physics at Bremen, where he worked on entangled photons from CdSe quantum dots, he joined UC Santa Barbara in 2003 as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Strauf has led a collaborative research effort addressing projects in photonic crystal nanolasers and single photon sources supported by NSF and DARPA. In the Fall of 2006 he joined the Department of Physics at Stevens Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor. His current research interests are in nanophotonics and nanolelectronics involving semiconductor quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and graphene. He received a Max-Kade foundation fellowship in 2003 and the Davis Memorial Award for Research Excellence in 2008.

For more information about Dr. Strauf's research, visit www.stevens.edu/nanophotonics/