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  4. Vahid Sandoghdar

Prof. Vahid Sandoghdar

  • Director
  • Head of Nano-Optics Division

The research of our group aims to advance experimental and theoretical mastery of light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale and to achieve the same degree of control and finesse that is known from the gas-phase quantum optics in the condensed phase. To do this, we combine concepts from quantum optics, laser spectroscopy, cryogenics, optical imaging, scanning probe technology and nanofluidics. In this endeavour, we have addressed a wide spectrum of scientific questions, ranging from quantum optics to biophysics. For more information, please consult our research website and our list of publications.

1995

Mapping whispering-gallery modes in microspheres with a near-field probe

J.C. Knight, N. Dubreuil, Vahid Sandoghdar, J. Hare, V. Lefèvre-Seguin, J.M. Raimond, S. Haroche

Optics Letters 20 1515-1517 (1995) | Journal

We demonstrate the use of a near-field probe to map the angular dependence of high-and whispering-gallery modes in fused-silica microspheres. The mapping is performed by placing a micrometer-sized tip formed on the end of a monomode fiber into the evanescent field at the microsphere surface, causing Light to be coupled from the microsphere resonance into the fiber guided mode. The light output of the fiber is then measured while the tip is moved to different points on the microsphere surface. We have used this method to investigate the lifting of spherical degeneracy in the system.

Eroded monomode optical fiber for whispering-gallery mode excitation in fused-silica microspheres

N. Dubreuil, J.C. Knight, D.K. Leventhal, Vahid Sandoghdar, J. Hare, V. Lefèvre

Optics Letters 20 813-815 (1995) | Journal

We demonstrate the efficient excitation of high-Q whispering-gallery modes in near-spherical fused-silica microparticles in the size range 60-450 mu m by the use of an eroded monomode optical fiber. When the sphere is placed in the evanescent field of the guided fiber mode, light is resonantly coupled from the fiber into the microparticle. We report a broadening of resonance modes and a shift of the resonance central frequency as the coupling strength is increased by reduction of the gap between the sphere and the fiber.

Splitting of high-Q Mie modes induced by light backscattering in silica microspheres

D.S. Weiss, Vahid Sandoghdar, J. Hare, V. Lefèvre-Seguin, J.M. Raimond, S. Haroche

Optics Letters 20 1835-1837 (1995) | Journal

We have observed that very high-and Mie resonances in silica microspheres are split into doublets. This splitting is attributed to internal backscattering that couples the two degenerate whispering-gallery modes propagating in opposite directions along the sphere equator. We have studied this doublet structure by high-resolution spectroscopy. Time-decay measurements have also been performed and show a beat note corresponding to the coupling rate between the clockwise and counterclockwise modes. A simple model of coupled oscillators describes our data well, and the backscattering efficiency that we measure is consistent with what is observed in optical fibers. (C) 1995 Optical Society of America

Born on April 29, 1966 in Tehran, Iran. Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of California in Davis (1987), Ph.D. in Physics (supervisors: E. A. Hinds and S. Haroche) from Yale University (1993), Postdoctoral Fellow at École Normale Supérieure (group of S. Haroche) in Paris. Head of the Nano-Optics group und habilitation in Physics at University of Konstanz (Chair of J. Mlynek). Professorship at Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule (ETH) Zurich (2001-2011). Recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant (2010). Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen since 2011. Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) and recepient of the 2023 Quantum Electronics and Optics Award for Fundamental Aspects from the European Physical Society. Founder of the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, a joint research center that aims to address questions in fundamental medical research with physical and mathematical methods.

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