Title: "Optical Mode Engineering in Semiconductor Lasers."
Speaker: Kent D. Choquette, Abel Bliss Professorship in Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Photonic research has a distinguished legacy on this campus after the invention of the laser diode 60 years ago this month. We still mostly rely on Gaussian modes with an objective of reducing the number of lasing modes. Dr. Choquette will discuss control of index-guided and anti-guided optical modes in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and coherently coupled laser arrays using control of refractive index and the spatial extent of gain. Applications of non-Gaussian modes are highlighted.