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2011-12 Student of the year: Nazanin Hoghooghi

Nazanin Hoghooghi
Nazanin Hoghooghi

Linear modulation, direct demodulation and channel filtering using injection-locked semiconductor lasers

A novel linear interferometric intensity modulator based on an injection-locked laser as an arcsine phase modulator, is described. Spur-free dynamic range of ~130 dB.Hz2/3 is achieved in an analog link employing this modulator. Also, direct demodulation and channel filtering of phase-modulated optical signals using and injection-locked semiconductor laser is presented.

Nazanin Hoghooghi was born in Iran. She received her B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2005 and M.S. degree in Optical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre-Haute, Indiana in 2007. She joined CREOL in August 2007.Currently she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Optics as a member of Ultrafast Photonics group under Professor Peter Delfyett. She is the author or coauthor of 9 journal papers, 17 conference presentations and 1 patent. 

Runners-up

Mohammad Umar Piracha
Mohammad Umar Piracha

Unambiguous, Long range, sub-millimeter resolution laser radar for ranging and velocimetry

A lidar system based on the coherent detection of oppositely chirped pulses at target distances > 10km (in fiber) is presented. Unambiguous, sub-millimeter resolution ranging is performed with > 25dB signal to noise ratio. Simultaneous range and velocity measurements are demonstrated using a target moving at > 330km/h.

Mohammad Umar Piracha was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and is pursuing a PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Peter Delfyett in the Ultrafast Photonics Group. He has an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Southern California and an MS degree in Optical Science from CREOL. Prior to joining CREOL, Umar worked at Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA), where he was involved in the development of the world’s first continuous wave silicon Raman laser and was awarded a plaque for his contributions in Silicon Photonics. Umar is the recipient of the Outstanding Engineering Graduate Student Award by IEEE (Orlando section, 2011). He is the author or coauthor of 9 refereed journal publications (3 in preparation) and 14 conference publications. His research on long range high resolution laser radar was recently highlighted in Nature Photonics (Aug’11).

Linghui Rao
Linghui Rao

Next-Generation Displays With Blue-Phase Liquid Crystals”

What would be the next-generation LCD after its dominance in flat panel display technologies? The Kerr-effect-induced isotropic-to-anisotropic transition of blue-phase liquid crystal offers several attractive features such as submillisecond response time, no need for alignment layer, isotropic dark state and cell gap insensitivity. However, some major obstacles including high driving voltage, low transmittance and hysteresis still exist. In this talk, I will present methods for overcoming these problems. The dawn of blue-phase LCD is arriving.
 

Linghui Rao was born in Jiangxi, China. She received her B.S. degree in Optics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2007 and her M. S. in Optics from CREOL, University of Central Florida in 2010. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in CREOL supervised by Prof. Shin-Tson Wu. Her research interests include novel LC materials for advanced LCD applications, and blue phase liquid crystal displays. She is an author and coauthor of 17 peer-reviewed journal papers, 10 conference proceedings, 2 invited media articles and 1 patent. She is the recipient of the 2011 IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship, 2011 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Overseas Students, and 2010 SPIE Educational Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering.