Quantum eavesdropping strategies

Hi everyone,

The last talk of the year will be given by Kieran Flatt from the Quantum Theory group, on quantum eavesdropping strategies.

Abstract:
Quantum key distribution is a method for sharing cryptographic keys and which uses the active nature of quantum measurements to flag eavesdropping to the legitimate users. I'll present two schemes, the well-known BB84 and lesser explored PCB00, and explain what the best eavesdropping strategies are in each case.

The talk will be on Thursday 6th December at the usual time of 4pm in 257.

Join us afterwards in the common room for some mulled wine and suitably festive treats! 

Frances 

Compressive light-sheet microscopy by Chiara Garbellotto

Hello everyone,

Chiara will be our next presenter at the optical sciences seminars. She will talk about her work on light-sheet microscopy: "I'll summarise what I've done so far during my PhD and talk about what I'm working on at the moment (tiling light-sheet, z-compressed light-sheet), hoping to get some inspiration/suggestions/advice."

Check out a 3 minute thesis winning video by Chiara for a very cartoon-y intro to light-sheet microscopy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WM8D_A4leY

Please note that there is a change in venue and time.

Date: Thursday 22nd November
Time: 16:30
Venue:  Room 255A SUPA VC room

We will be having some mulled wine and mince pies after the talk in the common room. See you all there! :)


Cheers,
Pavi.

Computational imaging in infrared domain using multiple cameras and more..

Hello everyone!


It's Imaging concepts group's turn to present this week. Dr. Miguel Preciado will be presenting his research on building low-cost infrared camera arrays for enhanced capabilities such as Integral (light-field) imaging, Pixel super-resolution, and multi-spectral imaging. Click here for more details on the topic.


Date: Thursday 8th November
Time: 16:00
Venue:  Room 257

Snacks will be provided in the common room after the seminar.

Cheers,
Pavi.

Orbital Angular Momentum Reversal due to Extreme Doppler Shifts - Graham Gibson

Hello everyone!

Continuing the Optics Group's turn at hosting seminars will be Graham Gibson. The talk, titled Orbital Angular Momentum Reversal due to Extreme Doppler Shifts, will take place on Thursday 25th October at 16:00 in Room 257. The abstract is as follows:

The linear Doppler shift is familiar to everyone as the change in the observed frequency of an ambulance siren as it passes by. A less well known form is the rotational Doppler shift which is proportional to the relative rotation rate between source and observer, multiplied by the angular momentum carried by the beam. Using an acoustic source of orbital angular momentum we can demonstrate an extreme Doppler shift that is larger than the rest-frame frequency, resulting in the observed frequency becoming negative in the case of a red shift. The emergence of negative frequencies in physical systems is often accompanied by intriguing consequences. For the linear case this is associated with a time reversal of the received signal. For the rotational case it is associated with a handedness reversal of the detected orbital angular momentum.

Snacks will be provided in the common room after the seminar and once again Curler's Rest has been nominated as a pub where discussion can continue after work.

Kyle

The applications of single-pixel imaging - Steven Johnson & Yiwei Zhang

Hello everyone!

This weeks Seminar will be given by Steven Johnson & Yiwei Zhang on The applications of single-pixel imaging. The talk will take place on Thursday 11th October at 16:00 in Room 257. The abstract is as follows:

Single-pixel imaging enables the photography of phenomena that would be impossible with a traditional camera. Most images are captured with pixelated-arrays such as a CCD or CMOS sensors; whereas single-element detectors can be manufactured to be sensitive to unusual wavelengths, outside the visible spectrum, or have very fast response times. By using a detector with high temporal resolution, events occurring on the order of nanoseconds can be imaged. Using a digital micro-mirror device and a pulsed laser we have applied single-pixel imaging methods to many applications, these include: 3D videos of a scene, imaging the light-in-flight, fluorescence lifetime imaging and duel-band astronomy.

Snacks will be provided in the common room after the seminar and once again Curler's Rest has been nominated as a pub where discussion can continue after work. Turnout was great two weeks ago so I look forward to seeing people there again!

Kyle.

Imaging with Quantum Entanglement - Christy Simpson

A little late updating the blog.... but the last seminar was given by Christy Simpson, one of the PhD students in the Extreme Light group.  He was talking about our recent work on imaging entangled photons pair using metasurfaces. The talk was based on our arXiv paper which can be found at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.01713.

Abstract:
Quantum entanglement is a key resource that can be exploited for a range of applications such
as quantum teleportation, quantum computation and quantum cryptography. However, efforts
to exploit entanglement in imaging systems have so far led to solutions such as ghost imaging,
that have since found classical implementations. Here we demonstrate an optical imaging protocol
that relies uniquely on entanglement: two polarising patterns imprinted and superimposed on a
metasurface are separately imaged only when using entangled photons. Classical light is not able to
distinguish between the two patterns. Entangled single photon imaging of functional metasurfaces
promises advances towards the use of nanostructured subwavelength thin devices in quantum information protocols and a route to efficient quantum state tomography.

What is the point of boson sampling? - Thomas Brougham

Hello everyone,

This week's presenter is Thomas from Quantum Theory group. Please find details of the talk below:

Title: What is the point of boson sampling?
Time: 3pm on 30th August 2018
Venue: 257 Kelvin Building

Abstract:

In principle, quantum computers could provide an exponential speed-up on certain problems.  This would mean that problems which are currently intractable could be solved efficiently.  For example, one could quickly find the prime factors of extremely large numbers and thus crack RSA cryptography.

While this should work in principle, we don’t have any evidence that such exponential speed-ups would ever be possible in practice.  Realistic experimental situations could render this quantum advantage negligible for interesting problems.  It is for this reason that there is a great interest to show that an exponential quantum advantage can be realized in an experiment.  However, building a full quantum computer is rather difficult.  A simpler approach is to build an optical experiment that efficiently solves one single problem.  This is the idea behind boson sampling, which uses light within a passive linear optical network.   A full experimental demonstration of boson sampling would prove that quantum systems really can efficiently solve seemingly intractable problems.

Realizing a demonstration of boson sampling would be a great technical achievement.  However, the boson sampling problem is not very interesting in of itself.  In this talk I will argue that boson sampling could be used for other tasks.  For example, it can be used within cryptography and to help simulate the dynamics of certain quantum systems.  This would mean that while a boson sampler is not a full quantum computer, it could still have some applications.

See you all there!

Pavi.

Stuart Wilson on Computational imaging techniques in Micro-endoscopy

Hi all,

This week's talk will be presented by Stuart Wilson, a PhD student from the imaging concepts group. Stuart will be talking about his research on exploiting computational imaging methods to extend the depth-of-field and field-of-view in GRIN based micro-endoscopes. Details below:

Title: Advanced and Computational Imaging Techniques in Microendoscopy

Time and Venue: 3pm, Thu 9th Aug, 257 Kelvin Building

Abstract: The developing field of microendoscopy has the potential to overcome many of the risks associated with current approaches in clinical tissue characterisation and histology. These miniature optical devices enable deep tissue imaging at penetration depths of tens of millimetres – a technique known as optical biopsy – and can reduce the need for invasive surgical procedures. However, the miniaturisation of optical elements provides its own set of unique challenges, effectively degrading imaging performance by imposing a characteristically short depth of field, narrow field of view and a high affinity to optical aberrations. Using computational imaging techniques, we have demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in the depth of field, as well as a wider field of view and reduction in the intrinsic aberrations, resulting in a more robust optical probe for tissue characterisation.

See you all there!

Cheers,
Pavi.

Research in the Imaging concepts group

Hello everyone,

This week it is the Imaging Concepts Group's turn to give a peek into the research conducted in their labs. Andy, leader of the group, will present an overview of the research conducted mainly in the areas of computational imaging, multi-spectral imaging, infrared imaging, retinal imaging and in vivo imaging of rodents. Jonny will then takeover to tell us about the exciting research under his supervision on light-sheet microscopy and 3D imaging of a beating Zebrafish heart.

Link to the group's webpage: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/research/groups/imagingconcepts/

See you all there!

Pavi.

Summary of weeks 2-4

Hi all,

It has been very interesting past few weeks with Vincenzo presenting his work on near zero refractive index materials on week 2 and Matt, Neal, Euan presenting the overview of the research conducted in the Optics group on weeks 3 and 4. Matt covered primary research interests of Miles, which included single pixel cameras, quantum gyroscope, imaging using entangled photon pairs for increased resolution and sub-shot noise imaging, optical trapping etc. Neal presented Sonia's research projects on Fresnel cones, talbot effect, vector beam shaping for STED type of microscopy and, trapping atoms and cooling them down to upto micro-Kelvin temperatures. Euan gave an overview of Johannes's research which focused primarily on building telescopic windows using lenslet-array pairs to build low-vision aids.

We had a steady attendance of over 40 in every talk and we hope to see similar attendance in future and looking forward to see many more interesting talks in the coming weeks.

Also, we have started sharing the presentations from our colloquia at:  https://www.slideshare.net/UOGOptics. The presentations on research groups' overview talks are currently being uploaded. Uploading presentations will be optional for the presenters so not all the presentations will be available, but we will try to make as many available as possible.

For now, some snapshots from the past few week.. Ciao Adios!

Week 4: Overview of The Optics Group continued...

Hello everyone,

I hope that you enjoyed Dr Matt Edgar's talk last week. To continue bringing you all up to speed with the research topics of the Optics group Dr Neal Radwell and Dr Euan Cowie will be talking about research areas which Matt only touched on last week.

Dr Neal Radwell

I'm a post-doctoral research associate in the Optics Group. I did my PhD at Strathclyde on the topic of 'Nonlinear Pattern Formation in Semi-conductor Lasers' and joined the Optics group in 2010. In those 8 years I have built the cold atom MOT and developed the dynamic SpOT and spatial EIT experiments with Sonja. I have worked with Miles to develop a single-pixel microscope and hybrid LiDAR system. The highlight of my more independent work is the Fresnel Cone research, where we show that simple glass cones can generate useful polarisation structures and we are developing technologies in polarimetry and microscopy based on Fresnel Cones. 

I'm going to be discussing the research from the 'Atoms Lab' lead by Sonja. The overarching research theme is 'Structured atom-light interactions' which covers topics from active and passive beam shaping, polarisation shaping, warm atomic vapour experiments, and culminating with out Cold Atom MOT in which we use structured light to spatially pattern atomic properties, which we hope will provide new understanding or methods for quantum memories.

Dr Euan Cowie

I’ve been a research associate in Optics since 2015.  I come from a background of nuclear and particle physics having attained my PhD in 2012 working in the Nuclear Physics Group here at Glasgow, before moving to the experimental Particle Physics group at the University of Bristol.  In both positions I worked on optical systems and sensors – specifically solid radiator Cherenkov detectors with ultra-fast Microchannel Plate PMTs. 

Upon joining the Optics group I dropped the sensors side of my work and focussed on the geometrical optics.  Here myself and Dr Johannes Courtial have been investigating novel structured optical systems, we call them pixelated optics, in which arrays of micro- or milli-metre sized telescopes are constructed into small Telescope Windows.  These can perform very general laws of refraction, allowing the construction of weird and wonderful purely-optical devices.  However my primary focus has been on using them as Low Vision Aids (LVAs), and it’s the development of this aspect I’ll go into detail on.

The talk will take place on Thursday 26th July at 3:00PM in Kelvin Room 257.

Snacks will be provided afterwards!
Kyle

Week 3: Overview of The Optics Group

Hello everyone!

This weeks talk will be given by Dr. Matt Edgar of the Optics group. Matt Edgar is a research associate in the Optics Group at the University of Glasgow. He received his BSc and PhD degrees in physics and astronomy in 2007 and 2011, respectively. He started his research career in the Institute for Gravitational Research at Glasgow, developing advanced interferometric techniques to enhance the sensitivity of long-baseline gravitational wave detectors. Since joining the Optics Group at Glasgow, he has been investigating the use of camera technology to perform fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and more recently has been developing computational imaging systems for applications in methane imaging and 3-D imaging.

In this talk Matt will provide a brief overview of the research activities within the Optics Group, highlighting a selection of recent experiments that cover a range of topics including Quantum Optics, Classical Optics, Computational Imaging, Atom Optics, Geometrical Optics as well as a selection of exciting outreach activities that he has been involved in over the years.

The talk will take place in Kelvin 257 on Thursday 19th July at 3:00PM.

See you there!
Kyle

Week 2: Vincenzo Bruno on ENZ materials

Hi all,

This week's talk will be given by Vincenzo Bruno, one of the PhD students in our group.

Epsilon-near-zero material as a platform for strong light-matter interaction.

Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, both artificial and engineered, have attracted an increasing interest due to the peculiar way how light interacts with such materials. The ENZ range, where the real part of the permittivity (ε) approaches or crosses the zero, can be obtained in different systems, including metal dielectric composite or highly doped semiconductor. A particular family of natural ENZ materials is the Transparent conductive oxide (TCO), as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) and Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide (AZO). Due to the low optical losses in the ENZ region, these materials present a near zero index of refraction in the same spectral range. As the effective wavelength in such material tend to infinity as n → 0 in the ENZ region, a thick film of TCO could behave essentially as the deeply subwavelength thin film. Was recently proved that, in an AZO film, this near-zero response leads to an enhancement of the non-linear response in terms of optical Kerr effect with a relative change of Δn over 400% in a ultrafast temporal window. These features, together, make the AZO a suitable platform for the study of fundamental physical problems in time dependent materials, overcoming the usually weak light-matter interaction.

Same time, different room (hopefully it will be a little less cramped): 3pm Thurs 12th July, Kelvin 257.

Cheers,
Ash

First talk of the series

Hello everyone,

We had a successful opening talk of our series by  Prof. Daniele Faccio, head of the Extreme Light group, with around 40 attendees. Daniele gave an overview of the research conducted in their group which included generating black hole models using light to verify Hawkin's radiation, studying superfluids in the lab, imaging through scattering media, imaging around corners and imaging through fibers using speckle. There was a healthy discussion with several interesting questions from the audience. We will hope to learn more about these topics in future presentations by the group.

Hope to see similar enthusiasm and attendance in future talks.. For now, some pictures from the talk:

Ciao!

Pavi.

Extreme Light at UoG

Hi all,

The first talk in our Optical Sciences Colloquia will be given by Prof. Daniele Faccio, head of the Extreme Light group. In our group we tackle everything from black holes to single photons. We have experiments that let us look around corners, see through walls, and image down multimode fibers. We investigate optics with metamaterials and materials with really high optical nonlinearities. We perform fundamental measurements of entanglement between photon pairs with imaging and create schemes for incredibly precise quantum metrology. There's something for pretty much everyone in our labs!

The talk will be at 3pm in the SUPA room, Kelvin 255a, on Thursday 5th July.

Hope to see you there!
Ash

Info and details coming soon!

Hi everybody!
I'm setting up this new blog, which will be used to advertise/keep track/talk and discuss about the new U.o.G. Optical Sciences Colloquia (goodbye ICG Journal Club !)
More details about what it is exactly...coming soon!
Ciao for now,
Chiara.