Peking University, March 31, 2022: On Mar.18, 2022, the first “Distinguished Colloquium” lecture of this semester, hosted by Peking University School of Physics was held at Siyuan Hall, Physics Building. Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) was invited to give an academic report titled “Quantum Optomechanics and Photonic Chip based Frequency Combs”. Researcher Yang Qifan from the Institute of Modern Optics, State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoeltronics, presided over the lecture.
 

Professor Kippenberg’s lecture consisted of a detailed introduction to the development of optical frequency combs, pointing out that frequency combs have enabled dramatic advances in timekeeping, metrology and spectroscopy. Kippenberg explained the trends, recent advancements and new dynamics of Quantum Optomechanics and photonic chip based frequency combs and provided explanations to why they provided a highly fruitful new playground for fundamental nonlinear science and applications alike.  
 

After the lecture, students and teachers raised various questions regarding the topic, ranging from the preparation of high quality microcavity to the application prospect of photonic chip based frequency combs, to which Professor Kippenberg responded with insightful insights.
 

Introduction to the Lecturer:

Tobias J. Kippenberg is a Full Professor in the Institute of Physics and Electrical Engineering at EPFL in Switzerland since 2013 and joined EPFL in 2008 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor. Prior to EPFL, he was Independent Max Planck Junior Research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. While at the MPQ he demonstrated radiation pressure cooling of optical micro-resonators, and developed techniques with which mechanical oscillators can be cooled, measured and manipulated in the quantum regime that are now part of the research field of Cavity Quantum Optomechanics. Moreover, his group discovered the generation of optical frequency combs using high Q micro-resonators, a principle known now as micro-combs or Kerr combs.
For his early contributions in these two research fields, he has been recipient of the EFTF Award for Young Scientists (2011), The Helmholtz Prize in Metrology (2009), the EPS Fresnel Prize (2009), ICO Award (2014), Swiss Latsis Prize (2015), as well as the WilhelmyKlung Research Prize in Physics (2015), the 2018 ZEISS Research Award and 2020 OSA R. Wood Award. Moreover, he is 1st prize recipient of the "8th European Union Contest for Young Scientists" in 1996 and is listed in the Highly Cited Researchers List of 1% most cited Physicists in 2014-2019. He is founder of the startup LIGENTEC SA, an integrated photonics foundry.

Written by: Zhao Yuexu
Edited by: June Tan Rui Min
Source: PKU News (Chinese)