Photonic and Quantum Research at Te Whai Ao — Dodd-Walls Centre Gets a Boost from Five Substantial Marsden Fund Grants

The Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry panel has selected a project by Research Fellow Nicholas Lambert and Associate Professors Jevon Longdell and Harald Schwefel, from the University of Otago for $941k over three years. The team will use non-Hermitian physics - the study of systems that have competing gain and loss - to demonstrate novel approaches to control of coherent states, allowing magnonic systems to be fully exploited for quantum devices. The project aims to resolve the tension between protecting a fragile quantum state from the environment while enabling it to be manipulated at will.  

Further success for University of Otago researchers comes in the form of a second $941k grant over three years awarded to Professor Niels Kjærgaard, Dr Matthew Chilcott and Dr Susi Otto to study modifying the transmission of light through quantum-controlled light scattering.  This project will investigate how light particles interact with two differing camps of atoms. It will also study interactions between the two differing light particles, producing the quantum analogue of electronic transistors.

The project draws on the team’s expertise in the manipulation of ultracold atoms in optical tweezers (in this case microscopic atomic ensembles of rubidium and potassium) to force an interaction between photons. This two-colour optical transistor reaps the benefits of the rubidium-potassium unicorn resonance and the fermionic anti-bunched nature of the potassium transistor-gate. This work is expected to help unlock quantum technologies using photons as a carrier of information and atomic matter for storage and processing.

Another University of Otago researcher, Florian Sedlmeir has been awarded $360k over three years by the Engineering and Interdisciplinary Sciences (EIS) panel for his project exploring classical and quantum spectroscopy: visible/UV frequency combs at work. A significant part of the planned project is to maximize the comb width which requires either improving the microwave to optical interaction or engineer the optical dispersion of the used resonator. Both approaches are of great interest to the research community on their own.  The research will explore whether these electro-optic frequency combs have interesting quantum properties and whether they can be applied to improve spectroscopy further.

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Two other Centre projects have received funding. University of Auckland Research Fellow Ray Xu and Associate Professor Miro Erkintalo have been awarded $936k over three years by the EIS panel to explore nonlinear phase-locking for ultrashort light generation. Ultrashort pulses of light underpin numerous applications, ranging from micromachining and eye surgery to precision metrology and spectroscopy. Because of their many applications, there is a continuous drive to identify new, improved operating regimes.

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This project is founded upon the pair’s recent groundbreaking discovery of a nonlinear phase-locking phenomenon, allowing generation of pulses of light with record-breaking durations well below 100 femtoseconds (100 millionths of a billionth of a second) in systems made of commercially available telecommunications optical fibre. The pair aim to establish the universality of the phase-locking phenomenon across a multitude of contemporary ultrashort pulse platforms to bring about substantial performance gains to a host of applications.

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In Wellington, Dr Joe Schuyt of Victoria University’s Paihau - Robinson Research Institute’s optical sensing team has received a Fast Start grant of $360k to continue his work in developing an efficient photonic analogue of an electronic memory resistor that will allow ultra-fast, energy-efficient optical computing.  

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The Marsden Fund Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden invests in excellent research, enabling New Zealand researchers to pursue cutting - edge ideas. Now in its 30th year the Marsden Fund, has awarded 113 grants for potentially groundbreaking ideas in the sciences, mathematics, engineering, social sciences, and humanities. The Marsden Fund is awarding 69 Standard grants to established research leaders and their teams. Just over a third of the grants conferred this year are Fast-Start awards, designed to support exceptional early- career researchers to develop independence and advance their careers.

Competition for grants from the Marsden Fund is intense and follows a rigorous assessment process.

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