News
The lastest headlines
Congratulations to Nick and Libby Black on the birth of their first child, Henry Anderson Black, on September 11, 2020. Nick is a current PhD student in the Boyd group at the University of Rochester.
16 Sep 20
Congratulations to Ksenia Dolgaleva on the birth of her son Ivan on August 12, 2020. In the back row of the photo is Evgueni Kobzev (father) holding Ivan and standing next to Ksenia. In the front row are Ivan’s sisters Anastasia (left) and Nina (right). Ksenia is on her way to having a whole family of physicists.
26 Aug 20
Congratulations to Akbar Safari and his wife Mobina Alizadeh on the August 5 birth of their daughter Melody Safari.
17 Aug 20
Congratulations to Zahirul Alam and his wife Fatima Uddin on the July 4 birth of their son Aydin Muhammad Alamuddin.
29 Jul 20
Congratulations to John and Eimi Heebner on the occasion of their wedding on July 20 at Yosemite National Park.
28 Jul 20
(From what John tells me, this photo is not a fake; the Milky Way really is that bright with a 10 sec exposure.)
Congratulations to Saad Jaddua for successfully defending his MSc thesis on July 23, 2020 via a Zoom link.
27 Jul 20
Thesis title: Propagation of a Single Photon in a 1-D Waveguide Coupled to a V-Type Atom.
Photo: Clockwise from upper left: Jeff Lundeen, Committee Member; Robert Boyd, Thesis Supervisor; Jacob Krich, Committee
Member; Saad Jaddua, MSc Candidate; André Staudte, Committee Chair.
Congratulations to Girish Kulkurani and his wife Mugdha Kulashreshtha on the July 10 birth of their daughter Mehak Kulkurani.
15 Jul 20
Congratulations to Mehul Malik
30 Jun 20
Congratulations to Boyd-group alumnus Mehul Malik who was recently promoted to Associate Professor of Physics at Heriot-Watt University.
Congratulations to Katherine Bearne and her teammates for their victory at the 2019 FISU University World Cup.
3 Dec 19
Congratulations to Mohammad Mirhosseini (former group PhD student) who has just accepted a faculty position at Caltech.
11 Nov 19
Robert Boyd receives certificate from Max Planck Director Florian Marquardt naming him Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen.
4 Nov 19
Robert Boyd visits the University of Minnesota to present the Colloquium of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
18 Apr 19
The photo shows Mitchell Luskin, Sang-Hyun Oh, Bob, Jim Ledger, and Tony Low on the observation platform of the Guthrie Theatre with the Mississippi River in the background.
Congratulations to our former group member Alexander Gaeta for winning the 2019 Charles Hard Townes Award.
8 Apr 19
Robert Boyd with Robert Millard (left), Chair of the MIT Corporation, and Susan Hockfield (right), former President of MIT
22 Feb 19
Robert Boyd wins the 2018-2019 University of Ottawa Researcher of the Year Award
19 Feb 19
Lab visit with Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr. Donna Strickland
18 Jan 19
Congratulations to Robert Fickler who has just joined the faculty of Tampere University. He is looking for students and postdocs to join him.
13 Nov 18
New graduate course to be offered fall 2018. Boris Braverman and Robert Boyd will be jointly teaching a course on Quantum Information and Metrology PHY8191(C) during the fall semester.
28 May 18
Congratulations to Omar Magaña! Omar has just accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics at Louisiana State University. Way to go, Omar.
25 May 18
Congratulations to Sebastian Schulz for his new faculty position at the University of St. Andrews.
26 Mar 18
Congratulations to Mehul Malik for his new faculty position at Heriot-Watt University.
26 Mar 18
Boyd group reunion in Baton Rouge
15 Mar 18
Physics family photo where former Boyd-student Mark Gruneisen meets current Boyd group members Robert Fickler and Fredéric Bouchard at the International Conference on Quantum Communication, Measurement and Computing (QCMC) at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
Marco Liscidini of the University of Pavia presents the Quantum Photonics seminar on Engineering non-classical light in integrated devices
7 Mar 18
Robert Boyd Working to Realize Orbital Angular Momentum Quantum Cryptography Protocol
22 Feb 18
Chinese researchers have put forward a new quantum cryptography standard which Robert Boyd has begun work to realize in the lab. (link)
Photonics breakthrough could significantly boost internet speeds
9 Feb 18
A breakthrough in materials for photonics applications could result in faster internet speeds by a considerable order of magnitude. Published in Nature Photonics, the new technology combines two known concepts: meta-materials consisting of arrays of antennas and a thin film of a non-linear material. (link)
Metamaterial could boost internet speeds, cut power
7 Feb 18
A team from the University of Ottawa and Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute and Cork Institute of Technology has developed a custom, artificial material that could improve several nonlinear optical applications. Alongside better internet speeds, the team suggests that thinner lenses could be created for cameras and mobile phones, as could
“Generation of Caustics and Rogue Waves from Nonlinear Instability” named Editor’s suggestion
10 Dec 17
“Generation of Caustics and Rogue Waves from Nonlinear Instability” named Editor’s suggestion in Physical Letters Review. (link)
Taiwan’s Minister of Science Visits the Boyd Group.
25 Oct 17
Liang-Gee Chen, Taiwan’s Minister of Science and Technology visits the Advanced Research Group.
Congratulations to M. Zahirul Alam
19 Oct 17
for being selected by the Award Committee to receive the Best Student Paper Award (first place) for his paper “Unity-order Nonlinear Index Change in a Metasurface” presented at Photonics North 2017 in Ottawa.The award certificate will be presented to him at the IEEE Ottawa Section Annual General Meeting(AGM), to be held
Dr. Orad Reshef is awarded the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship
17 Jul 17
Dr. Orad Reshef is awarded the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship for his proposal, “Nonlinear optics in integrated zero-index media.” (link)
A 100-year-old physics problem has been solved at EPFL
23 Jun 17
EPFL researchers have found a way around what was considered a fundamental limitation of physics for over 100 years. They were able to conceive resonant systems that can store electromagnetic waves over a long period of time while maintaining a broad bandwidth. (link)
“Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides in a Kagome Lattice” named Editor’s Pick
1 May 17
“Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides in a Kagome Lattice” was named Editor’s pick. (link)
Physicists detect exotic looped trajectories of light in three-slit experiment
6 Jan 17
Physicists have performed a variation of the famous 200-year-old double-slit experiment that, for the first time, involves “exotic looped trajectories” of photons. These photons travel forward through one slit, then loop around and travel back through another slit, and then sometimes loop around again and travel forward through a third
“Application-tailored optimisation of photonic crystal waveguides” named paper of the week
1 Nov 16
The paper “Application-tailored optimisation of photonic crystal waveguides” was named paper of the week by the Journal of Optics. (link)
Robert Boyd was appointed as a IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer a second year in a row
17 Aug 16
Robert Boyd awarded the 2016 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science
17 Aug 16
Robert Boyd was awarded the 2016 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science for his to recognize outstanding contributions to basic research which uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light. (link)
Dr. Robert Fickler is awarded the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship for his proposal, “Twisting Macroscopic Quantum Light.”
17 Jun 16
Record Optical Nonlinearity in a Semiconductor
5 May 16
Researchers at a U.S. university have found a record nonlinear optical response in a commonly available semiconductor (Science, doi: 10.1126/science.aae0330). The results could open new avenues for building tiny structures for many nanophotonics applications. (link)
Indium Tin Oxide Might Be the Material Photonics Has Been Waiting For
28 Apr 16
A team led by Robert Boyd, a physicist at the University of Ottawa and the University of Rochester, has found that a transparent metal called indium tin oxide (ITO), which is often used in touchscreens and on airplane windows, can achieve a particularly high degree of optical nonlinearity—making it a good candidate
‘Game-changer’ for photonics applications: Researchers demonstrate record optical nonlinearity
28 Apr 16
A team, led by Robert W. Boyd, Professor of Optics and Physics at the University of Rochester and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Nonlinear Optics at the University of Ottawa, has demonstrated that the transparent, electrical conductor indium tin oxide can result in up to 100 times
A twist on Hanbury Brown—Twiss interferometry offers new approach for remote sensing
8 Apr 16
In a paper, published in Science Advances today, the researchers demonstrate that for light from a source such as the Sun, random fluctuations of intensity give rise to correlations of twisted light beams. They showed the presence of these correlations by modifying a now classical experiment called Hanbury Brown – Twiss
Researchers demonstrate a new way to characterize twisted light
1 Apr 16
Researchers at the University of Rochester have overcome experimental challenges to demonstrate a new way for getting a full picture of twisted light: characterizing the Wigner distribution. (link)
Robert Boyd awarded the 2016 Charles Hard Townes Award
14 Mar 16
Robert Boyd was awarded the 2016 Charles Hard Townes Award by the Optical Society of America for fundamental contributions to the field of nonlinear optics, including the development of methods for controlling the velocity of light, of quantum imaging methods, and of composite nonlinear optical materials. (link)
Physicists experimentally realize a quantum Hilbert hotel
21 Oct 15
In their paper, the physicists proposed two ways to model this phenomena—one theoretical and one experimental—both of which use the infinite number of quantum states of a quantum system to represent the infinite number of hotel rooms in a hotel. (link)
Adding Quantum Rooms to the Hilbert Hotel
15 Oct 15
An optical experiment realizes one of the room-changing operations in the Hilbert Hotel—a fictitious establishment that illustrates some perplexing properties of infinity. (link)
Robert Boyd presents his view on Charles Townes’ legacy at a meeting of former Townes Ph.D. students
17 Aug 15
Article selected for Journal of Optics as a Highlight of 2015
2 Jul 15
Our article titled “Beyond the effective index method: improved accuracy for 2D simulations of photonic crystal waveguides” was selected by the editors of Journal of Optics as a Highlight of 2015. (link)
Dr. Gerd Leuchs and Dr. Robert Boyd invited for Max-Planck-Forum in Berlin on Quantum Cryptography
26 Jun 15
(link)
‘Twisted light’ gives quantum cryptography a boost
27 Mar 15
The efficiency of quantum-cryptographic systems could be improved thanks to a new technique that uses “twisted light” to increase the amount of information carried per photon. (link)
Generating Mobius strips of light
29 Jan 15
A collaboration of researchers from Canada, Europe and the USA have experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light’s electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape. (link)
Möbius strips of light made for the first time
29 Jan 15
Banzer’s team scattered two polarised green laser beams off a gold bead that was smaller than the wavelength of the light. The resulting inference introduced a polarisation pattern with either three or five twists, giving it a Möbius-like structure. (link)
How to twist light into a Möbius strip
29 Jan 15
The team used a green laser beam that was a superposition of two waves with opposing spin. The result was a beam with a polarization that varied across its width. It was circularly polarized at its centre, but linearly polarized – and with varying orientations of the polarization vector –
Marie-Claude Dicaire wins the 2014 IEEE Ottawa Photonics Student Best Paper Award
13 Nov 14
Marie-Claude Dicaire, member of Robert Boyd’s research team at the University of Ottawa, won the 2014 IEEE Ottawa Photonics Student Best Paper Award
Prof. Robert Boyd wins the 2014 IEEE Quantum Electronics award for his contributions to nonlinear optics
13 Oct 14
Prof. Robert Boyd won the 2014 IEEE Quantum Electronics award for his contributions to nonlinear optics, including room temperature slow light and the nonlinear optics of composite materials (link)
New analysis rescues quantum wave-particle duality
15 Sep 14
A 2012 experiment in which it seemed you could detect interference and also get information about the photon’s path seemed to contradict mutual exclusiveness of wave and particle properties. A new paper by Eliot Bolduc of the University of Ottawa in Canada, with Robert Boyd of Ottawa and the University
Duality principle is “safe and sound”: Researchers clear up apparent violation of quantum mechanics’ wave-particle duality
25 Aug 14
(link)
Physicists see 27th dimension of photons
29 Jan 14
In a study detailed in the Jan. 20 issue of the journal Nature Communications,researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Glasgow took a direct measurement of a photon’s 27-dimensional quantum state. (link)
Physicists scoop information from Schrödinger’s cat box
21 Jan 14
In a paper published in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Communications and titled “Direct measurement of a 27-dimensional orbital-angular-momentum state vector,” a team of physicists describe how they circumvented a basic principle of uncertainty that requires that some states of a quantum system must be understood poorly
Mohammad Mirhosseini, member of Robert Boyd’s research team at University of Rochester, won the Emil Wolf prize
21 Oct 13
(link)
Research Breakthrough: uOttawa Physicist Makes First Direct Measurements Of Quantum States Of Light
5 Mar 13
(link)
Canadian researchers take a sneak peek at Schrödinger’s Cat and a step toward a quantum computer
14 Mar 12
(link)
University recruits American expert to help establish world-class photonics research centre
10 May 10
(link)