Local-Field Effects and Nanostructuring for Controlling Optical
Properties of Photonic Materials

Ksenia Dolgaleva

The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Photonics)

Abstract:

I will present my Ph.D. work performed at the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. I investigated the methods of controlling and improving the linear and nonlinear optical properties of photonic materials through nanostructuring and local-field effects. I will present an overview of various projects that I have undertaken within this broad topic.
The first part of my talk will be devoted to composite laser gain media. It involves both nanostructuring and using local-field effects to control the basic laser parameters, such as the radiative lifetime and small-signal gain.
In the second part I will talk about microscopic cascading in nonlinear optics. This local-field effect has been mostly overlooked or underestimated, but could prove useful in quantum optics.
Finally, I will overview two of my side projects: characterization of laser performance of a new dye, oligofluorene, embedded into cholesteric liquid crystal structures, and distinguishing between molecular and structural chirality by measuring polarization changes of light diffracted from artificial planar chiral structures.

Biography:

Ksenia Dolgaleva obtained her M.S. in Physics from Moscow State University, Russia. She was awarded a prize for an outstanding Master thesis from Russian Physical Society. She has recently completed her Ph.D. program at the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA. There she worked under the supervision of Prof. Robert Boyd. Ksenia worked on various projects, including composite laser materials, local-field-induced microscopic cascading in nonlinear optics, optical activity in artificial chiral structures, cholesteric liquid crystal laser, and single-step phase-matched third-harmonic generation in a 1D photonic crystal. While in Prof. Boyd's group, Ksenia co-authored 11 papers, published and submitted for publication in refereed journals, and one encyclopedia article. She presented at 8 international conferences on Optics, and co-authored 4 more conference presentations given by other researchers. Ksenia was awarded a prize for an outstanding student presentation at the Frontiers in Optics OSA Annual Meeting in Rochester in October2008. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, working with Prof. Stewart Aitchison.