Joint OSE/ECE Seminar by Dr. Stavroula Foteinopoulou on When conventional "wisdom" fails: Designing slow-light waveguides
Departmental News
Posted: December 8, 2021
Date: Friday, December 10, 2021
Time: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Location: Woodward Hall, Room 147
Abstract:
Slow electromagnetic (EM) waves have been attracting increasing interest across the spectrum, from microwaves to telecom and visible light owing to their vast potential for applications like optical buffering, controlled signal time delays as well as enhancement of non-linearity and optical gain. With the use of a paradigm system I discuss here why conventional “wisdom” fails when designing slow-light waveguides. In particular, I show that obtaining a large light slow-down factor is not a simple matter of looking for guided modes with a low group velocity. By careful analysis of the propagation in the paradigm waveguide system, I have determined a figure of merit for efficient light slow-down that encapsulates the key principles to take into account when designing slow-light waveguides.
Biography:
Dr. Stavroula Foteinopoulou is a Research Professor with the ECE Dept. of UNM. She received her Ph.D. from Iowa State U. and has held positions in U. of Namur (Belgium), FORTH (Greece) and U. of Exeter (UK). Her research focuses on theory and design of photonic platforms for extraordinary light control across the EM spectrum. She holds one US patent and has authored more than 35 journal publications and conference papers, which to-date received more than 3300 citations (source Google Scholar). She is serving as an associate and feature editor for the Optica (formerly OSA) Optical Materials Express Journal, as an associate editor for the Journal of the European Optical Society: Rapid Publications and has been the Chair of the annual SPIE conference Active Photonic Platforms for the past ten years. In 2016, she was honored by the American Physical Society (APS) as an outstanding referee, a lifetime recognition.
