Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

Introduction to subcycle quantum optics and applications

Presented by Denis Seletskiy is an Associate Professor of Engineering Physics and a holder of Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in "Ultrafast and Quantum Photonics" at Polytechnique Montreal. He received his PhD from the Optical Sciences and Engineering program at the University of New Mexico in 2010, followed by a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at Air Force Research Laboratories (2010-2012) and a 5-year junior group leader position and Marie Curie Zukuntskolleg Research fellowship at the University of Konstanz, Germany. In 2017 Seletskiy established the femtoQ laboratory at Polytechnique, which is focused on advancing theory, laser technology, and metrology protocols for time-domain quantum photonics. Since October 2022, he is leading an EU-CAN consortium in Mid-Infrared Quantum Technologies for Sensing (MIRAQLS).

Classical electrodynamics operates with field amplitudes that are exactly defined in space-time. Such infinite precision is in violation of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics.

The invention of the laser accelerated the development of the modern theory of quantum optics, traditionally carried out in the frequency domain. Quantum states of light are characterized via homodyne detection, which delivers cycle-averaged information about the state. After a brief introduction, I will present a recently emerging technique in nonlinear quantum optics that allows the measurement of quantum fields on subcycle timescales, i.e. cycle-resolved. Following a review of the main achievements in this research field, I will introduce our recent proposal that uses demonstrated single-temporal-mode 10-fs bright entangled beams as a resource for improved detection of beyond-variance statistical moments of quantum distributions. I will conclude with a brief discussion of some applications including mid-infrared quantum metrology, where subcycle quantum optics is poised to uncover new opportunities.

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3:30 pm, Friday, March 10, 2023
PAIS 1100 and via Zoom. Please take the Satisfaction Survey,

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A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php