Special Colloquium: Manijeh Razeghi, "Quantum Phenomena for the Information Era"

April 19, 2023
Manijeh Razeghi

Title: "Quantum Phenomena for the Information Era"

Abstract: 

We are living in an unprecedented era of hyper-connectivity that is redefining our society and culture—and this has only just begun. 

From data collection and search engines to e-commerce, the internet has become the ubiquitous cloud that is connecting every aspect of our daily lives. Powering this cloud is an intricate web of globally connected data centers, each filled with thousands of computers networked together and linking us to a seemingly unlimited breadth of information and content. Nowadays, our mobile devices provide various forms of connectivity that allows instant access to thousands of applications and all of the internet. The resulting explosion in data is staggering and the amount of data created globally will roughly double every two years. Meanwhile, healthcare as our parents knew it is being transformed. New wearable devices can track heart rate, glucose levels, and food intake, helping doctors and caregivers monitor the biometrics of their patients—regardless of their location—to identify patterns that may lead to more successful treatments. Even more leading-edge: there are Wi-Fi chips meant to be swallowed to deliver a raft of information instantly to doctors. All of these advances offer unparalleled possibilities to enrich the lives of people around the world while generating growth and opportunity across the global economy. But none of this would be possible without a quantum mechanical understanding of atoms—the most fundamental building block of our modern age. 

The semiconductor is one of the most pervasive and powerful inventions in human history from the beginning up to now. It has been ranked fourth in the list of top innovations since the invention of the wheel, surpassed only by the printing press, electricity, and penicillin, but ahead of eyeglasses, paper, and even the steam engine. It is hard to imagine what modern life would be like without semiconductors. It would probably more closely resemble the Industrial Age than anything we know now—and era when electronics and optoelectronics were very primitive and light bulbs were among the most amazing technology in the world. 

The material covered in this talk will be a unique blend of the most important topics related to semiconductor materials and related Quantum Devices  largely as a result of  my  own  focused background   that has been molded by  my  career-long efforts to understand the structure of atoms and semiconductor material systems that make a practical impact. 

Bio: 

Manijeh Razeghi was the Head of the Exploratory Materials Laboratory  at Thomson-CSF (France) during the 80’s where she developed and implemented modern metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), GasMBE, and MOMBE for entire compositional ranges of III-V compound semiconductors from deep UV to THZ.. Developing these tools was fundamental in enabling her to achieve high purity semiconductor crystals with a consistency and reliability that was often unmatched, thereby leading to new physics phenomena in InP , GaAs, GaSb, and AlN  based semiconductors and quantum structures. She realized the first InP Quantum wells and Superlattices and demonstrated the marvels of quantum mechanics in the low dimensional world. 

She joined Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, as a Walter P. Murphy Professor and Director of the Center for Quantum Devices in Fall 1991, where she created the undergraduate and graduate program in solid-state engineering.  

She has authored or co-authored more than 1000 papers, more than 34 book chapters, and 20 books, including the textbooks Technology of Quantum Devices (Springer Science Business Media, Inc., New York, NY U.S.A. 2010) and Fundamentals of Solid State Engineering, 4th Edition (Springer Science Business Media, Inc., New York, NY U.S.A. 2018).  Two of her books, MOCVD Challenge Vol. 1 (IOP Publishing Ltd., Bristol, U.K., 1989) and MOCVD Challenge Vol. 2 (IOP Publishing Ltd., Bristol, U.K., 1995), discuss some of her pioneering work in InP-GaInAsP and GaAs-GaInAsP based systems.  The MOCVD Challenge, 2nd Edition (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, 2010) represents the combined updated version of Volumes 1 and 2.  She holds many U.S. patents and has given more than 1000 invited and plenary talks.   Her current research interest is in nanoscale optoelectronic quantum devices. From deep UV to Thz. 

Dr. Razeghi is a Fellow of MRS, IOP, IEEE, APS, SPIE, OSA, Fellow and Life Member of Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Fellow of the International Engineering Consortium (IEC).   She received the IBM Europe Science and Technology Prize in 1987, the Achievement Award from the SWE in 1995, the R.F. Bun shah Award in 2004, IBM Faculty Award 2013, the Jan Czochralski Gold Medal in 2016, the 2018 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering, and many best paper awards. She is an elected life-Fellow of SWE, IEEE, and MRS. The member of Academy of Europe in 2021.

 

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Dec
05
Donna Strickland Colloquium
OSC Colloquium: Donna Strickland, "High Intensity Fiber lasers for Nonlinear Optics"
3:30 – 5 p.m., Dec. 5, 2024

Ti:sapphire lasers offer the largest bandwidths and therefore the shortest pulses.   The highest laser intensities have been achieved using Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) of large diameter solid state lasers.  CPA was needed to avoid damage from the nonlinear process of self-focusing.  The disadvantage of solid-state lasers is the limited average power.  On the other hand, diode pumped fiber laser systems offer significantly higher average power than solid state lasers. Self-focusing is eliminated in single mode fibers by guiding and so nonlinear optics can be beneficial rather than detrimental and used to broaden the gain bandwidth.  Single fiber laser amplifiers will not reach the highest intensities offered by solid state lasers, but in this talk, I will discuss developing fiber laser amplifiers for nonlinear optical interactions such as mid-infrared generation and laser acceleration of electrons that require high intensity and benefit from high average power.

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