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Day 3 at FiO/LS 2014: Impressive beyond expectations

by Shamsul Arafin


Like yesterday, FiO/LS 2014 continued to impress us today with many events, such as technical sessions, tutorial talks, poster sessions, symposia, special events and more! I was really happy and amazed by attending at these events. It’s the time now to update you with some of its highlights:

In the morning, the invited talk on Quantum-dot Microcavity Lasers with Superradian Coupling and Non-classical Light Emission, by Frank Jahnke, Univ. of Bremen, Germany was very inspiring and impressive. His invited talk mainly included the discussion on the experimental realization of quantum-dot nanolasers with three-dimensional photon confinement and low laser threshold. He also pointed out how he and his group identified the superradiant coupling effects leading to a giant photon bunching and excitation trapping inside a three-dimensional optical resonator with an ensemble of semiconductor quantum dots. Later, he introduced the theoretical results they came up with to verify the experimental realizations.

During the coffee break right after the morning session, I entered into the Exhibit Hall to see the latest advancements and developments of optical instrumentation or relevant products brought to your by the optics industry. The leading optics manufacturers participated in this great event and exhibited their latest products to a large number of enthusiastic conference attendees. I also got the chance to talk to the representatives of a few companies, such as Edmund Optics, Newport Corporation, Thorlabs, Optimax, and Inrad Optics to update myself about the new optical components, their use in the optical setup, etc. .

To inspire and motivate young minds just starting out in the optics field and celebrate the International Year of Light, OSA’s FiO arranged a Student Chapter Competition. I was happy to spend some of my time to get familiar with the best ideas that young students came across to create optical demonstrations, and to improve public understanding of how light affects our daily lives. A variety of demos were presented such as laser-can for loud/low voice recognition, guiding light using refraction, light diffraction using compact discs, are some of them, mainly demonstrating properties of light.

I also attended another nice tutorial talk in the afternoon given by Prof. Thomas L. Koch, Dean of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, USA on III-V and Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuit Technologies.Initially, he briefly described the history of photonic integrated circuits, and  then switched into fabrication challenges and process flow to realize InP-based active and passive devices on the same substrate. In addition, he presented several methodologies to integrate laser sources and waveguides monolithically. In summary, this tutorial reviewed the status of InP and Si PIC technologies, including strengths and application domains of each.

A Special Event titled as OSA Fellow Members Lunch was one of the most attractive events I attended today. The program started with a big announcement, given by the past OSA president, Dr. Philip H. Bucksbaum, on OSA Leadership and Board nominations. Then JDSU was declared to be the winner of the 2nd OSA Enabled by Optics Award. On behalf of JDSU, Dr. Andre Wong then gave a very impressive talk on their innovative light source used in 3D sensing technology with a fantastic introduction on the comparison between the technological development of 30 years ago and today. He also mentioned that such 3D sensing technology enables interactions with devices naturally using bodies, gestures, eyes or voice and is used in gaming. Later, he described  the promising applications or the emerging 3D sensing markets, such as gaming, TV, mobile, and security that they are trying to capture. At the 2nd part of the program, Dr. Tom Hausken, OSA Senior Industry Advisor, presented a video featuring a comprehensive talk on the necessity of 3-D imaging and gesture recognition. 

Tomorrow is going to be another fascinating day and will be filled with many interesting events. Tomorrow I will fly back home and will thereby miss them. However, I will keep my eyes out for the daily wraps from another blogger, Pedro Vallejo-Ramirez. So, stay tuned. 
 
 

Posted: 22 Oct 2014 by Shamsul Arafin