ECE Colloquium Series: Andrew Weiner

Abstract: Entanglement and encoding in discrete frequency bins – essentially a quantum analogue of wavelength-division multiplexing – represents a relatively new degree of freedom for quantum information with photons. Potential advantages include generation of high dimensional units of quantum information (qudits), which can carry multiple qubits per photon, robust transmission over fiber, frequency parallelism and routing, and compatibility with on-chip implementations, as well as hyperentanglement with other photonic degrees, e.g., time-frequency hyperentanglement. In this talk I first give an overview of manipulation and measurement of quantum states encoded and entangled in the photonic frequency degree of freedom. I will then discuss selected recent experiments, including those that focus on high dimensional entanglement and mixing of multiple frequency bins in a single operation, going well beyond nearest neighbor “interactions.” As one example, we exploit high-dimensional frequency bin entanglement for measurement of photon pair delays at the few picosecond level, ~30× faster than the single photon detectors employed.

Bio: Andrew Weiner is the Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. After Prof. Weiner earned his Sc.D. in electrical engineering in 1984 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined Bellcore, at that time a premier telecommunications industry research organization, first as Member of Technical Staff and later as Manager of Ultrafast Optics and Optical Signal Processing Research. He joined Purdue as Professor in 1992, and has since graduated 45 Ph.D. students. Prof. Weiner’s research focuses on ultrafast optics, with an emphasis on processing of extremely high speed lightwave signals and ultrabroadband radio-frequency signals. He is especially well known for his pioneering work on programmable generation of arbitrary ultrashort pulse waveforms, which has found application both in fiber optic networks and in ultrafast optical science laboratories around the world. His recent research focuses on frequency comb generation from microresonators and manipulation of broadband entangled photons. Prof. Weiner is author of the textbook Ultrafast Optics, has published over 350 journal articles and 600 conference papers, and served a six year term as Editor-in-Chief of Optics Express. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Inventors, a past Department of Defense National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow, and recipient of numerous awards, including the OSA Wood Prize, the IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award, and Purdue University’s Herbert Newby McCoy Award for outstanding contributions to the natural sciences.

Zoom link:http://bit.ly/37nLrQo

When 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on Thursday, March 4, 2021