Biography
Dr. Yehuda Braiman is a Research Professor at CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, and for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida.
Research Interests
Dr. Braiman’s research interests cover multiple disciplines including lasers and optics, dynamics of Josephson junctions and Josephson junction arrays, nonlinear dynamics and chaos control, friction and fracture at the atomistic scale, and detection of weak signals in noisy environment. Specific applications include beam combining and phase-locking of high-power semiconductor diode arrays, studying the dynamics and formation of ultrafast pulses in semiconductor diodes, design of cryogenic memory based on small arrays of Josephson junctions, and studying effects of very weak perturbations on noisy extended nonlinear systems. He co-authored over 100 journal and conference papers, 8 book chapters, edited one book, and co-authored 5 patents. Some of Dr. Braiman’s major research accomplishments include (1) discovery of chaos in Josephson junctions (with E. Ben Jacob and Y. Imry); (2) devised a method to control chaos (with I. Goldhirsch, Physical Review Letters article cited more close to 625 times according to Google Scholar); (3) first author on pioneering papers suggested that spatial heterogeneities in system parameters can induce and promote synchronization in complex nonlinear systems. Article highlighted on cover page of Nature and in Nature News & Views, (“Taming Spatiotemporal Chaos with Disorder”, with W. L. Ditto and J. F. Lindner, article cited more than 275 times according to Google Scholar). Additional article “Disorder Induced Synchronization” in Physics Letters A was cited more than 100 times, and (4) Proposed design for ultrafast and energy efficient cryogenic memory cell. The article was published in Superconductor Science & Technology and was selected for the Superconductor Science and Technology 2016 Highlight Collection.
Honors & Awards
- 1995 Paper was selected for a cover page of Nature.
- 2000 Award for outstanding technical achievement, UT-Battelle, LLC
- 2009 Significant Event Award, UT-Battelle, LLC
- 2013 Significant Event Award, UT-Battelle, LLC
- 2013 R&D 100 Award
- 2016 Paper selected for a Superconductor Science and Technology 2016 Highlight Collection
- 2016 Significant Event Award, UT-Battelle, LLC
- 2019 APS Outstanding Referee Award
- 2021 Senior Member, OSA OPTICA
- 2022 DURIP Award
- 2023 DURIP Award
Professional Activities
Senior Member of OSA and Member of APS and IEEE. Refereed paper for Physical Review Letters and Physical Review, Nature Electronics and Scientific Reports, Optics Communications, Optics Express, Optics Letters, Applied Optics, Chaos, IEEE Journal of Photonics, Journal of Physics Condensed Matter Physics, Physics Letters A. Co-organized multiple major international conferences/workshops in the fields of nonlinear dynamics and tribology and chaired sessions in professional national and international meetings.
Research Group
Experimental, computational, and analytical studies of the dynamics and synchronization (phase-locking) of coupled semiconductor diode laser arrays. Group members come from different educational backgrounds, including: lasers and optics, engineering, physics, and applied mathematics.
Research Scientists
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Luis Maldonado-Castillo
Publications
O. Spitz, L.E. Maldonado-Castillo, M.A. Berrill, Y. Braiman "Optimization of Combined Coherent Gain-Switch Pulsing in a Large Array of Semiconductor Lasers" IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Article Number 1501614 (2025)
P. Nyaupane, O. Spitz, G. Scranton, S. Koyu, M. A. Berrill, P. LiKamWa, Y. Braiman "Coherence and Phase-Locking in High-Power, Broad-Area, Highly Heterogeneous Blue Diodes Laser Array" ACS Photonics, Volume: 12: Issue: 2 Page: 597-609 (2025)
P. Nyaupane, P. Likamwa, and Y. Braiman "Spectral Linewidth Narrowing of Broad-area Blue Diode Bar in V-shape External Talbot Cavity" Optics Letters, 47(11), pp. 2802-2805 (2022)
A. Miloshevsky, N. Nair, N. Imam and Y. Braiman "High-Tc Superconducting Memory Cell" Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, 35(2), pp. 373-382 (2021)
N. Nair, K. Hu, M. Berrill, K. Wiesenfeld and Y. Braiman "Using Disorder to Overcome Disorder: A Mechanism for Frequency and Phase Synchronization of Diode Laser Arrays" Physical Review Letters, 127(17), A. 173901 (2021)
P.R. Nyaupane, P.L. Likamwa and Y. Braiman "Spectral Linewidth Narrowing of Two Broad-Area Blue Laser Diodes (445 nm) with a Common External Cavity" Optics Letters, 46(11), pp. 2718-2721 (2021)
R. Glowinski, J. Lopez, H, Juarez, and Y. Braiman "On the Controllability of Transitions Between Equilibrium States in Small Inductively Coupled Arrays of Josephson Junctions: A Computational Approach" Journal of Computational Physics 403, 109023 (2020)
N. Nair, E. Bochove, and Y. Braiman "Almost Perfect In-phase and Anti-phase Chaotic and Periodic Phase Synchronization in Large Arrays of Diode Lasers" Optics Communications 430, pp.104 (2019)
N. Nair, A. Jafari-Salim, A.N. D’Addario, N. Imam, and Y. Braiman "Experimental Demonstration of a Josephson Cryogenic Memory Cell Based on Coupled Josephson Junction Arrays" Superconductor Science and Technology 32, 115012 (2019)
N. Nair and Y. Braiman "A Ternary Memory Cell Using Small Josephson Junction Arrays" Superconductor Science and Technology 31, 115012 (2018)
B. Liu and Y. Braiman "Coherent Addition of High-Power Broad-Area Laser Diodes with a Compact VBG V-shaped External Talbot Cavity" Optics Communications 414, 202 (2018)
N. Nair, E. Bochove, and Y. Braiman "Phase-Locking of Arrays of Weakly Coupled Semiconductor Lasers" Optics Express 26, 20040 (2018) (2018)
J. Rezac, N. Imam, and Y. Braiman "Parameter Optimization for Transitions between Memory States in Small Arrays of Josephson Junctions" Physica A 474, 267 (2017)
Y. Braiman, N. Nair, J. Rezac, and N. Imam "Memory Cell Operation Based on Small Josephson Junction Arrays" Superconductor Science and Technology 129, 124003 (2016)
Y. Braiman, N. Neschke, N. Nair, N. Imam, and R. Glowinski "Memory States in Small Arrays of Josephson Junctions" Physical Review E 94, 052223 (2016)
B. Liu, Y. Braiman, N. Nair, Y. Lu, Y. Guo, P. Colet, and M. Wardlaw "Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization of an Array of Single Mode Laser Diodes in External Cavity Subject to Current Modulation" Optics Communications 324, 301 (2014)
B. Liu and Y. Braiman "Coherent Beam Combining of High Power Broad-Area Laser Diode Array with Near Diffraction Limited Beam Quality and High Power Conversion Efficiency" Optics Express 21, 31218 (2013)
B. Liu and Y. Braiman "Spectral Linewidth Narrowing and Tunable Two-Color Laser Operation of Two Diode Laser Arrays" Applied Optics 51, 1816 (2012)
Y. Guo, Z. Wang, Z. Qu, and Y. Braiman "Atomic-Scale Friction Control Using Friction Force Microscope" Control Engineering Practice 19, 1387 (2011)
E.J. Bochove, A.B. Aceves, Y. Braiman, P. Colet, R. Deiterding, A. Jacobo, C.A. Miller, C. Rhodes, S.A. Shakir "Model of the Self-Q-Switching Instability of Passively Phased Fiber Arrays" IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics 47, 777 (2011)