The Optical Society Of America And Bookham New Focus Announce Finalists For Student Award
Students from the United States and Abroad to Compete for a $5,000 Prize Recognizing Outstanding Scientific Achievements at the 2005 CLEO/QELS Conference
Washington, D.C. — The Optical Society of America (OSA) and Bookham New Focus, are pleased to announce the finalists of the OSA – Bookham New Focus Student Award, which recognizes student researchers who exemplify the skills critical to scientific achievement: excellence in research, presentation and leadership.
This year's competition attracted more than 20 submissions from a variety of prominent colleges and universities, both in the United States and abroad. Competition finalists include Ivan Amat-Roldán, Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona, Spain; Gretchen Campbell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Aaron Danner, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Preetpaul Devgan, Northwestern University; Zhi Jiang, Purdue University; Sajjad A. Khan, CREOL, University of Central Florida; Thomas P. White, CUDOS, University of Sydney, Australia; and Thomas P. White, CUDOS, University of Sydney, Australia. Six of the seven finalists will receive a $1,500 cash prize each and one finalist will receive $5,000.
"The OSA – Bookham New Focus awards encourage research excellence, presentation prowess, and leadership in the optics community among OSA Student Members," said Elizabeth Rogan, OSA executive director. "It's promising to see so many students bring this high-level of research to the table to further our understanding of how optics and photonics affects us. Our finalists are a great testament to what the future holds for us in this industry, and it is certainly an impressive outlook."
Student finalists have already passed the first round of judging, which included a thorough review their research as well as their reference letters. The seven finalists will now be evaluated on oral presentations of their research at the 2005 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO)/ Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference (QELS), taking place May 22-27 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland. Each of the seven will give a 15-minute presentation on his or her unique research, providing the judges with the last review in the selection process. Press and the public are welcome to attend this event, with the finalist reception on Tuesday, May 24 starting at 6:00 p.m. in room 327 in the Baltimore Convention Center. The finalist will be awarded a $5,000 prize on Wednesday morning, May 25 at the CLEO/QELS Awards & Plenary Session.
"We are delighted to partner again with OSA to recognize student leaders within the optics community and we look forward to honoring them at the conference," said Dr. Nadim Maluf, vice president of marketing, Bookham New Focus. "We have long been and continue to be a supporter of research in photonics, and continue to encourage the next generation of scientists and leadership in the field."
This year's finalists will present their original papers on the following topics:
- Aaron Danner, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Paper: Photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers and arrays
Summary: Photonic crystal confinement in vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers is demonstrated as a technology for achieving operation in the fundamental lateral mode with up to several milliwatts of power, and for the first time is extended to multiple defects, achieving in-phase coupling. - Gretchen Campbell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Paper: Photon Recoil Momentum in Dispersive Media
Summary: A systematic shift of the photon recoil due to the index of refraction of a dilute gas of atoms has been observed. The frequency was determined with a two-pulse light grating interferometer using near-resonant laser light. - Thomas P. White, CUDOS, University of Sydney, Australia
Paper: Wide-angle transmission into photonic crystals
Summary: Efficient coupling into photonic crystals is demonstrated. Without interface optimization, >99.4% transmission is achieved for incident angles up to 80°for high-index cylinder structures. This phenomenon is related to single cylinder and grating scattering properties. - Ivan Amat-Roldán, ICFO – Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona, Spain
Paper: MEFISTO: Measuring the Electric Field of Ultrashort Pulses by Interferometric Spectral Trace Observation
Summary: An analytical way to completely characterize ultrashort pulses is presented. This methodology is based on Fourier analysis of the frequency components of spectrally resolved interferometric autocorrelations. Experimental results are compared with the conventional SHG-GROG technique. - Preetpaul Devgan, Northwestern University
Paper: Multichannel wavelength conversion of DPSK signals using four-wave mixing in highly-nonlinear fiber without cross-gain-modulation penalty
Summary: We demonstrate simultaneous wavelength conversion of multiple DPSK channels using four-wave mixing in highly-nonlinear fiber. We achieve 20nm converter bandwidth with 85% maximum efficiency. Three 10Gb/s channels are converted without cross-modulation penalty. - Zhi Jiang, Purdue University
Paper: Spectral Line-by-Line Pulse Shaping
Summary: We experimentally demonstrate spectral line-by-line pulse shaping. The shaped pulses overlap in time, which leads to observation of a new time-dependent noise process directly linked to variations in the comb-offset frequency. - Sajjad A. Khan, CREOL, University of Central Florida
Paper: 3-Dimensional Wide Angle Laser Beam Steering Using Liquid Crystals
Summary: A liquid crystal-based scanner is presented for three dimensional beam steering featuring a novel device biasing method, large aperture, low power consumption, and ultra-fine as well as wide angle beam steering. Video demonstrations include one, two and three dimensional beam steering with a maximum of 40.92° continuous scan, all at 1550 nm.
With a distinguished history as one of the industry's leading events on laser science, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference (CLEO/QELS) is where laser technology was first introduced. CLEO/QELS combines the strength of peer-reviewed scientific programming with an applications-focused exhibition to showcase the present and future of this technology. Sponsored by the American Physical Society's (APS) Laser Science Division, the Institute of Electronic Engineers/Laser and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS) and the Optical Society of America (OSA), CLEO/QELS provides an educational forum, complete with a dynamic Plenary, short courses, tutorials, workshops and more, on topics as diverse as its attendee base whose broad spectrum of interests range from biomedicine to defense to optical communications and beyond. For more information, visit the conference's Web site at www.cleoconference.org.
About Bookham New Focus
Bookham, Inc. is a global leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of optical components, modules and subsystems. The company's optical components, modules and subsystems are used in various applications and industries, including telecommunications, data communications, aerospace, industrial and military. Since 2002, the company has acquired the optical components businesses from Nortel Networks and Marconi, as well as Ignis Optics, Inc., the business of Cierra Photonics Inc., New Focus, Inc., and Onetta, Inc. The company has manufacturing facilities in the UK, US, China and Switzerland; and offices in the US, UK, Canada, China France and Italy; and employs approximately 2000 people worldwide.
Since 1990 New Focus, a division of Bookham has provided photonics to the semiconductor, life sciences, defense, industrial, test and measurement and research industries. The New Focus product portfolio includes tunable lasers, optoelectronics, and advanced photonics tools and subsystems.
More information on Bookham, Inc. and Bookham New Focus is available at www.bookham.com and www.newfocus.com.
Bookham is a registered trade mark and all other Bookham product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bookham in the U.S.A or other countries.
About OSA
The Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together an international network of the industry's preeminent optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders. Representing more than 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Additional information on OSA is available on the Society's Web site at www.osa.org.
Source: OSA