A 480 sqr. ft. Photonics Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Wan Kuang was set up in 2006. It provides capabilities for optical measurements on components and subsystems. In Fall 2009, Dr. Kuang and his colleagues were awarded an NSF MRI for the acquisition of Vis-NIR Tunable Femtosecond Mode-Locked Laser System for nanophotonic devices and materials research. In January 2010, the new laser and the Photonics Laboratory was moved to a new 624 sq. ft. state-of-the-art room constructed as a low noise environment. Simulations are performed using available software developed in-house and on commercial software.
Equipment and Software
Several single frequency continuous wave (CW) diode lasers are
available at wavelengths of 630, 730, 850, 980, 1310, and 1550 nm.- A tunable (410 nm – 2500 nm) triple-harmonic Q-switched OPO pulse laser.
- Ando Optical spectrum analyzer: It covers from 350 nm to 1750 nm
with a noise level of -90 dBm. The equipment is capable of ±0.05 nm
wavelength resolution and ±0.02 nm wavelength linearity. - Stanford Research Picosecond Delay Generator
- Newport power meter with optical detectors and energy detectors
- Free space and fiber based Polarimeter: automated system for
polarization measurement from 400 nm to 1700 nm 
Precision optical translation and motorized rotation stages- Optical components (lens, objectives, gratings, prisms, etc.)
- CCD cameras
- Micropositioners and probes
- Faraday cage
- 1.3 GHz Network analyzer, 2 GHz RF signal generator, 1.3 GHz spectrum analyzer
- 2 Coherent energy detectors
- 2 Princeton Instruments EMCCD Pro EM 512 camera/spectrometers
Femtosecond Mode-Locked Laser System – To bedelivered by March 2010:
- Coherent Verdi Ti:Sapphire oscillator (35 fs, 80MHz repetition rate)
and 4W 1KHz Coherent Legend Elite regenerative amplifier - Coherent OperA Solo 50 fs optical parametric amplifier (800 nm pump)
with a sum frequency module - Light Conversion (serviced by Coherent) 1 ps 400 nm pump optical
parametric amplifier
- Coherent Verdi Ti:Sapphire oscillator (35 fs, 80MHz repetition rate)
- Simulation Software:
- 3D finite difference time-domain electromagnetic wave simulator with
MPI/multi-core parallel processing capability; - Simulator for dipolar wave propagation in nanoparticle networks
- COMSOL – a finite element solver for multiphysics modeling and
simulation. Both the COMSOL base module and RF module are available.
- 3D finite difference time-domain electromagnetic wave simulator with
Students and Staff
Graduate Students
- Alex English (ECE, Summer 2008)
Undergraduate Students
- Lloyd Lowe (ECE, Winter 2008)
- Nick Luong (ECE, Spring 2011)
- Dominic Wayda (CS, Summer 2011)
Funding
- DARPA
- NSF CAREER
- NSF MRI