Selim Shahriar
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Northwestern Univeristy
Putting Fast-Light to Work: Rotation Sensing, Gravitational Wave Detection, and Other Applications
In a superluminal laser, the group velocity of light far exceeds the vacuum speed of light, without violating principles of relativity. Over a certain bandwidth, the wavelength in such a laser becomes independent of the frequency. This unusual property can be harnessed for a host of applications. For example, it can be used for high precision rotation sensing, with application to inertial navigation as well as terrestrial measurement of the gravitational frame dragging effect, as a test of General Relativity. A superluminal ring laser gyroscope can be far more sensitive than the best optical or matter-wave gyroscopes. Other applications include gravitational wave detection, precision vibrometry, high speed data buffering, and coherent ladar imaging. In this talk, I will present an overview of the superluminal laser and its applications, along with recent experimental results.
Matt Sonntag
Chemistry
Northwestern Univeristy
Light Guidance in the Nanoscale: Enhanced Spectroscopy and Molecular Alignment
Considerable progress has been made in achieving dramatic localization of light below the diffraction limit. This localization has broad impacts on sensing, spectroscopy, and molecular electronics. We utilize the Finite Difference Time Domain Method (FDTD) to simulate the interaction of electromagnetic energy with metal nanostructures. The resulting enhanced fields can lead to both molecular alignment and enhanced spectroscopic characterization.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 12:00 PM
Room F235, Technological Institute
Refreshments are served at 11:30 PM
