The Stanford Photonics Research Center

Lasers and Nonlinear Optics

Faculty members of the Lasers and Nonlinear Optics Working Group specialize in the design of novel laser systems and applications, nonlinear optical processes, materials, and devices.  Stanford University researchers at the Ginzton Lab have been renowned pioneers in these areas for many decades.  Recent research in this working group includes fundamental research in new materials, such as very high power laser glass ceramic active medium and far infrared nonlinear materials, which have long been a hallmark of Quantum Electronics research at Stanford.
 
Quantum electronics technology developed at Stanford has been integrated into laser sources for gravity wave sensing using long baseline interferometers and very high power coherent sources for laser driven particle accelerators.    Stanford researchers pioneered the development of the quasi-phase matching process used in engineering nonlinear materials for high efficiency frequency doubling and optical parametric generation. Continuing research in this area involves periodic domain patterning of GaAs for highly efficient generation of far infrared coherent radiation. Several revolutionary nonlinear processes have been discovered and explored at Stanford, including Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) and Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO) and Amplifiers (OPA).