Ganainy: Quantum-inspired photonic structures

Thursday, June 26, 2014 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Ramy El Ganainy, Michigan Technological University

Quantum physics is playing an ever increasing role in several interdisciplinary research fields. In this presentation, I will show how some of the elementary mathematics of quantum mechanics can be used to synthesize classical photonic structures having novel functionalities.
In the first part of this talk, after reviewing the physics of optical waveguide arrays, perfect state transfer and parity-time reversal (PT) symmetry, I will present a mathematical scheme based on non-interacting Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonians for generating Non-Hermitian optical networks that exhibit rich spectral features including higher order exceptional points and hidden symmetries.
In the second part of my talk, I will briefly present the concept of supersymmetry (SUSY) quantum mechanics and I will show how it can be utilized to engineer the eigenvalue spectrum of coupled photonic structures. Potential applications in optical communications and laser systems will be discussed.


Short Biography:
Ramy El-Ganainy received his PhD, in 2009, from CREOL for his thesis work on nonlinear optical properties of nano-suspensions. In the period from 2009 to 2012, he has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Physics Department, University of Toronto. He was a guest scientist in the Max Planck Institute for the physics of complex systems in 2013.
In 2014, he joined the department of physics in Michigan Technological University as an assistant professor of complex light wave dynamics.
His research interests range from classical optics to computational techniques for radiation-matter interactions. He has published 25 papers and given more than 10 conference presentations.