2024 - 2025 Colloquium

As the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope approaches its planned launch date in 2027, the engineers of one of its two instruments have recent cause to celebrate. Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), a technology demonstration chasing direct images of Jupiter-like exoplanets, completed its system-level thermal vacuum test in May 2024, successfully demonstrating that it performs to its threshold requirements in a flight-like environment. Please join me as we walk through the design, function, and performance demonstration of one of the most complex optical instruments NASA has ever attempted to fly.

We will discuss the quantum limit of this free particle behavior, prospects for reaching sensitivities below the standard quantum limit of position measurements, potential applications in broadband sensing, and a plan for using a weakly-bound particle in a new precision measurement of G, the Newtonian constant of gravitation.

Beyond the energy efficiency for large AI models, I will also discuss another advantage of optical computing: the ability to process optical data directly in the optical domain. I will provide an example of using a nonlinear photonic neural network for image sensing applications, achieving an 800-fold image compression ratio to bypass the optoelectronic conversion bottleneck. Finally, I will offer an outlook on how optical processing techniques can enhance imaging and sensing efficiency, particularly for quantum light.

Solving problems with optical spectroscopy often requires measurement of highly dynamic systems and probing extreme physical/chemical environments in the presence of turbulence and high temperatures.  In this presentation, I will discuss challenges for spectroscopy in these dynamic systems, and how high-speed tunable lasers overcome these issues. 

This colloquium will give a brief introduction to reservoir computing, an overview of its theoretical foundations, including the notion of a universal family of reservoir computers that is capable of approximating a certain family of nonlinear maps from input sequences to output sequences, as well as its inherent limitations. It will then motivate and touch on efforts by the speaker and his collaborators to exploit noisy near-term quantum computers as quantum reservoir computers. Finally, the colloquium will conclude with a discussion of research directions for further development of quantum reservoir computers as well as research trends in the broader recent efforts on engineered physical learning machines going beyond reservoir computers.

In this talk, we will explore the fascinating history of attempts to pin down G, from early breakthroughs to the most sophisticated experiments of the past three decades. While these modern efforts have yet to deliver a definitive answer, they have produced innovative techniques that push the boundaries of precision measurement—methods that are as ingenious as they are instructive. Join me as we delve into the vexing journey of measuring G and uncover the scientific creativity behind this ongoing challenge.

In this talk I will discuss the key science targets for Cosmic Explorer, and some of the technical challenges it faces. I will include a focus on the optical design of the 40km laser interferometers, which is currently underway as part of a multi-institute collaboration. I will also outline the LISA mission concept, highlighting University of Florida and University of Arizona's roles in validating a key NASA deliverable to the mission: the telescopes that send and receive laser light across the vast distance between the three spacecraft. As we look forward to the 2030's, we can also consider some of the exciting multi-wavelength gravitational wave science that can be done with both instruments operating in concert.

I will demonstrate how multiscale imaging approaches can be used to detect early changes in carcinogenesis and reveal complex therapeutic responses by identifying dynamic, rare events alongside detailed sub-cellular and molecular characteristics. This technology opens new avenues for exploring biological systems, with the potential to enhance diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

The creation of a matter-wave interferometer can be achieved by loading Bose-Einstein condensed atoms into a crystal of light formed by interfering laser beams. By translating this optical lattice in a specific way, the traditional steps of interferometry can all be implemented, i.e., splitting, propagating, reflecting, and recombining the quantum wavefunction. Using this concept, we have designed and built a compact device to sense inertial signals, including accelerations, rotations, gravity, and gravity gradients.