Building Lithium Niobate Quantum Devices for Sensing
Amir H. Safavi-Naeini| Stanford University
Lithium niobate has emerged as a powerful platform for quantum sensing because it combines low-loss photonics, strong electro-optic response, and engineered nanomechanics on a chip. In this talk I’ll describe our progress in using thin-film lithium niobate to build integrated optical and mechanical devices that push sensing toward quantum-limited performance.
I’ll discuss new optical sensors based on squeezed light and nonlinear optics, as well as mechanical devices that transduce and process signals with extremely low noise. I’ll also outline where we think this is going — toward practical, scalable quantum sensors for applications ranging from precision measurement to molecular detection.
IQC faculty host: Bradley Hauer
About the speaker
Amir H. Safavi-Naeini is an Associate Professor of Applied Physics and, by courtesy, Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He works at the intersection of quantum optics, nanomechanics, and integrated photonics, with a focus on building chip-scale quantum sensors and transducers. His group has demonstrated quantum nonlinear photonics and squeezed-light sensors in thin-film lithium niobate, new nanomechanical devices for quantum-limited signal processing, and coherent microwave–optical interfaces.
Before joining Stanford, he completed his BASc in Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, his PhD in Applied Physics at Caltech, and postdoctoral work at ETH Zürich. His awards include the Packard Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Director’s Fellowship, Moore Inventor Fellowship, and the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Location
QNC 0101