Topics of study include: the properties of light; fundamentals of quantum mechanics; the interaction of light with photonic crystals, semiconductors, quantum wells and superlattices; ultrafast and nonlinear optical phenomena in condensed matter systems; Bose-Einstein condensation and neutral Fermi gases; trapped ions; plasma physics; and studies of biological systems using optical probes. Such a wide variety of interests are drawn together by a common focus on lasers as primary experimental tools, and on quantum mechanics as the primary theoretical paradigm.
Research Areas
Nonlinear Optics and Ultrafast Lasers
Experiment: Robin Marjoribanks, Dwayne Miller, Aephraim Steinberg
Theory: Daniel James, Sajeev John, John Sipe
Photonic Materials and Resonant Optical Structures
Theory: Sajeev John, John Sipe
Precision Spectroscopy
Experiment: Boris Braverman, Amar Vutha
Quantum Information
Experiment: Boris Braverman, Aephraim Steinberg, Hoi-Kwong Lo
Theory: Daniel James, Hoi-Kwong Lo, John Sipe
Ultra-intense Laser-matter Interaction
Experiment: Robin Marjoribanks
Ultracold Atoms
Experiment: Boris Braverman, Aephraim Steinberg, Joseph Thywissen, Amar Vutha
Theory: Sajeev John, Daniel James, Hae-Young Kee, Yong Baek Kim, Arun Paramekanti, John Sipe
See also the research topics listed on the condensed matter and biological physics pages, which include QO faculty.
Seminars
The QO/AMO (quantum optics and atomic, molecular, and optical physics) seminar is held regularly during the academic year, usually on Fridays at 11:10 am.
Our Quantum Information seminar is held on Friday mornings at 11:10 am, often in the Fields Institute (222 College St), and is affiliated with the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control. The QuInf seminar ongoing work and ideas about quantum computation, cryptography, teleportation, et cetera. We hope to bring together interested parties from a variety of different backgrounds, including math, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering, to share ideas as well as open questions.
You also might also see the photos from our internal research symposium, sometimes held at the end of the summer.
Affiliations
Our activities are quite interdisciplinary, overlapping with other clusters in the department — condensed matter and biophysics — and bridging to other departments, including chemistry, mathematics, and electrical engineering. Our members participate in two different programs of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research: Quantum Materials and Quantum Information Processing. Many of the group are founding members of the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control.