Symposia

ICONO Symposium on Femtosecond Laser Pulse Filamentation

Co-Chairs: Sea Leang Chin (Laval Univ., Canada), Olga Kosareva (Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia)

Members
Arnaud Couairon, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Alexander Gaeta, Cornell Univ., USA
Miroslav Kolesik, Univ. of Arizona, USA
Ruxin Li, Shanghai Inst. of Optics and Fine Mechanics, P.R.China
Stelios Tzortzakis, Inst. of Electronic Structure and Laser, Greece

Topics include, but are not limited to, filamentation in solids and gases; nonlinear optics of filaments; pulse self-compression in filaments; modulation instability in filaments; long-range filamentation in atmosphere; filament-induced spectroscopy; white-light-fs-LIDAR. Filament diagnostics of pollution; filament discharge control.

KEYNOTE: “Lasing in air filaments: looking ahead”, See Leang Chin, Univ. Laval, Canada

Abstract: Femtosecond laser filamentation is a new branch of nonlinear optics that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years since its beginning in the mid-1990’s. The temporally self-compressing pulse propagates inside the filament core as a plane wave with a constant high field because of intensity clamping. Using the femtosecond Ti-sapphire laser pulse, the extended filament zone in air could be as long as meters with a diameter of about 100 microns. The filament represents a unique interaction zone with a constant high peak intensity not found in any other optical focusing geometry. Many nonlinear optical processes could be excited in this ultrafast high intensity environment. This includes the excitation of high lying electronic states of a molecule including super-excited states. The fluorescence from either the parent molecule or the fragments exhibits gain along the filament in the form of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). So far, this ASE type of lasing has been observed in nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor and some hydrocarbons. The universality of this phenomenon is proposed.

Bio: Professor See Leang Chin is a pioneer in ultrafast intense laser science. He was the first to confirm experimentally the existence of laser tunnel ionization of atoms and molecules with a CO2 laser. This breakthrough constitutes the gateway physical process that precedes all ultrafast intense laser processes in atoms and molecules. In the past 15 years, he turned his attention to study the physics and applications of femtosecond laser filamentation in all optical materials, in particular, in air and is one of the leading scientists in this field. In addition, Professor Chin was instrumental in the creation of the National Optics Institute in Quebec City, Canada. Professor Chin counts among his awards the 2007 Gold Medal of Merit from the International Ultrafast Intense Laser community. He is the recipient of the Humboldt Research Award in Germany. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, and in 2000, became the holder of a Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

INVITED: “Laser filamentation in solids: From nanosecond to femtosecond propagation regimes”, Luc Berge, CEA-DAM, Arpajon, France

INVITED: “Development of a 10-petawatt femtosecond laser system at SIOM”, Ruxin Li, Shanghai Inst. of Optics and Fine Mechanics, P.R.China

INVITED: “Light bullets and supercontinuum spectra in femtosecond filament”, Sergey Chekalin, Inst. of Spectroscopy, Russia

INVITED: “Femtosecond ultraviolet filamentation in water”, Arnaud Couairon, Ecole Polytechnique, France

INVITED: “Strong THz fields from filaments: new physics and applications”, Stelios Tzortzakis, Inst. of Electronic Structure and Laser, FORTH & Univ. of Crete, Greece

INVITED: “Rogue waves in the beam profiles of femtosecond multifilaments”, Guenter Steinmeyer, Max-Born-Inst. for Nonlinear Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Germany

INVITED: “Non-linear optics merely using filament from a collimated femtosecond beam”, Andrei Savel’ev, Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia

INVITED: “Controlling plasma channels through ultrashort laser pulse filamentation”, Andrey Ionin, Lebedev Physical Inst., Russia

INVITED: “Logarithmic scaling in the catastrophic self-focusing (collapse) of laser beam in Kerr media”, Pavel Lushnikov, Univ. of New Mexico, USA

INVITED: “Spatio-temporal evolution of the refractive index variations induced by femtosecond filament in fused silica”, Victor Kadan, Inst. of Physics, Ukraine

INVITED: “Shock front instabilities and resonant radiation dynamics in nonlinear media”, Daniel Faccio, Heriot-Watt Univ., UK

INVITED: “Filamentation of high-angle nondiffracting beams and applications to ultrafast laser processing”, Francois Courvoisier, Femto-ST, France

INVITED: “Filamentation dynamics probed by strong field processes”, Milutin Kovacev, Leibniz Univ. Hannover, Germany

INVITED: “Mid-infrared femtosecond filaments in tansparent media”, Daniil Kartashov, Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria

INVITED: “Quantum mechanical interpretation of higher-order optical Kerr effect in the strong field regime”, Eric Cormier, Bordeaux Univ., France

ICONO Symposium on Organic Photovoltaics

Co-Chairs: Dmitry Paraschuk (Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia), Maxim Pshenichnikov (Univ. of Groningen, the Netherlands)

Members
Paul Berger, The Ohio State Univ., USA
Vladimir Dyakonov, Univ. of Würzburg, Germany
Guglielmo Lanzani, Politechnico di Milano, Italy
Abderrahim Yassar, Ecole Polytechnique, France

The Symposium will present and discuss the most recent developments, perspectives, and advanced concepts in organic and hybrid photovoltaics. The Symposium strongly encourages presentation of oral as well as poster contributions from scientists from all over the world.

Sponsored by

Renishaw

KEYNOTE: “Theoretical pathways towards high efficiency organic photovoltaics”, Kees Hummelen, Univ. of Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract: Abstract: We present three different theoretical approaches to identify pathways to organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies in excess of 20%. First, a radiation limit for organic solar cells is introduced that elucidates the role of charge-transfer (CT) state absorption. Provided this CT action is either sufficiently weak or present in its maximized form throughout the active layer material, organic solar cells can be as efficient as their inorganic counterparts. Next, a model based on Marcus theory of electronic transfer -that considers exciton generation by both the electron donor and the electron acceptor- is used to show how reduction of the reorganization energies can lead to substantial power conversion efficiency gains.

Third, and most important, we introduce the dielectric constant as a central parameter for efficient solar cells. We analyze how the dielectric constant influences every fundamental step in OPV. We analyze and model the case of the 2009 world record PTB7:[70]PCBM cell of 7.4%, using a drift-diffusion model. Based on the model and based on the fact that the exciton binding energy diminishes with increasing dielectric constant of the medium, we find that efficiencies of more than 20% are within reach upon increasing the dielectric constant εr of the material to 10.

Bio: Kees Hummelen is professor of Chemistry of Molecular Organic and Bio-organic Materials at the University of Groningen. Together with his staff he is involved in the creation of plastic solar panels. Plastic is significantly cheaper than the resources that are normally used for the production of solar cells. However, the returns are not yet high enough for plastic to be able to compete. The reducing agent Hummelen is using is a special type of polymer, a so-called conjugated polymer, which is coloured and can therefore absorb more light and conduct better. Polymers are long molecules with complex structures. The other substance used, the electron acceptor, is a buckyball, a molecule shaped like a football which consists of sixty carbon atoms. Hummelen is also scientific director of Solenne BV in Groningen.

Hummelen is among the top of his field internationally. He is ranked 7th in the Times Higher Education’s 2011 international ranking list of researchers who have published in the field of materials science over the past ten years. In the same year, he received a EUR 5 million FOM grant to further improve the solar cells.

INVITED: “Star-shaped oligothiphene-based small molecules for organic photovoltaic applications”, Sergei Ponomarenko, Enikolopov Inst. of Synthetic Polymer Materials, Russia

INVITED: “Photoinduced charge separation processes: From natural photosynthesis to organic photovoltaic cells”, Oleg Poluektov, Argonne National Lab., USA

INVITED: “Optoelectronic processes at hybrid interfaces”, Annamaria Petrozza, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy

INVITED: “Ultrafast dynamics in organic donor-acceptor interfaces”, Guglielmo Lanzani, Politechnico di Milano, Italy

INVITED: “Dynaimcs of trapped charge carriers in organic and hybrid photovoltaic devices”, Artem Bakulin, FOM Inst. AMOLF, the Netherlands

INVITED: “Recombination pathways in high-efficiency OPV materials and devices”, Vladimir Dyakonov, Julius-Maximilians Univ. of Würzburg and Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research e.V., Germany

INVITED: “OPVs: Spin, coherence and delocalization”, Simon Gélinas, Univ. of Cambridge, UK

INVITED: “New approaches to the material design for organic bulk heterojunction solar cells”, Pavel Troshin, Semenov Inst. of chemical Physics, Russia

INVITED: “Making most of the absorbed photon: New insights into carrier multiplication in semiconductor nanostructures”, Victor Klimov, Los Alamos Natl Lab, USA

INVITED: “Charge generation and separation in novel push-pull polymers”, Maxim Pshenichnikov, Univ. of Groningen, The Netherlands

Joint ICONO/LAT Symposium on THz Optics and Technologies

Co-Chairs: Alexander Shkurinov (Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia), Xi-Сheng Zhang (Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, China/Univ. of Rochester, USA)

Members
János Hebling, Univ. of Pécs, Hungary
Frank Hegmann, Univ. Alberta, Canada
Dan Grischkowsky, Oklahoma State Univ., USA
Boris Knyazev, NPI, Russia
Petr Obraztsov, Prokhorov General Physics Inst., Russia
Andrey Stepanov, Inst. of Applied Physics, Russia
Koichiro Tanaka, Koyto Univ., Japan
Cunlin Zhang, Capital Normal Univ., China

Topics include, but are not limited to, sources, detector, components, and systems working in the far-infrared region of the spectrum (in the range of 300 GHz to 10 THz), including ultrafast time-domain systems, direct generation using pulsed lasers, and cw generation based on nonlinear optical mixing; applications using THz radiation for spectroscopy, sensing, and imaging, including the physical and life sciences application; advances in THz communications concepts and systems; new THz measurement techniques and instrumentation, including advances in imaging configurations, detector technologies, and THz optical components and waveguides; nonlinear THz phenomena, and THz optical measurements using surface plasmons, near-field effects, photonic crystals and metamaterials, and nonlinear optics.

KEYNOTE: “New directions in THz spectroscopy of condensed matter”, Peter Jepsen, Technical Univ. of Denmark, Denmark

Abstract: The THz spectral range plays a key role in exploring physical phenomena in condensed matter. With state-of-the-art femtosecond laser technology it is possible to generate and detect extremely stable, ultrabroadband THz signals which can be used for the investigation of linear as well as extremely nonlinear phenomena in the THz range on the femtosecond time scale. In this presentation I will discuss linear, ultrafast photoconductive dynamics in disordered conductive systems and phenomena in metals where nonlinear optics is taken to the extreme electrostatic limit.

Bio: Professor Peter Uhd Jepsen received the MSc. Degree in physics from Odense University, Denmark, in 1994, and the PhD Degree in Natural Sciences (Physics and Chemistry) from Aarhus University, Denmark, in 1996. His PhD work was focused on fundamental properties of terahertz-frequency wave generation and detection.

In the period 1996-2004 Peter Uhd Jepsen was at Freiburg University, Germany, where he built up a small research unit focused on terahertz spectroscopy of condensed matter systems. During this period he was among the first to document fingerprint THz vibrational modes in a wide range of solid-state materials including drugs, explosives and pharmaceutical compounds. This work lead to the award of the Habilitation and Venia Legendi Degrees from Freiburg University in 2002.

In 2005 Peter Uhd Jepsen moved to the Technical University of Denmark, and started a THz research team at Research Center COM, now DTU Fotonik – Department of Photonics Engineering. Since 2008 he has been Head of the Terahertz Technologies & Biophotonics research group which focuses on advanced, time-resolved THz spectroscopy, high-intensity THz fields, nonlinear THz spectroscopy, and THz imaging/sensing.

Peter Uhd Jepsens experiment-based research papers have attracted >2450 citations (H-index 24). He was awarded Elektrofondets Elektropris in 2007, he was guest professor at Osaka University in 2008/2009. He is currently Associate Editor for Optics Express, Topic Editor for IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, and on the Editorial Board of Journal of Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves.

INVITED: “Sensitive detectors of terahertz radiation”, Dmitry Khokhlov, Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia

INVITED: “Monochromatic terahertz surface plasmon polaritons: prospects for surface study and optical communications”, Boris Knyazev, Budker Inst. of Nuclear Physics, Russia

INVITED: “Ultrafast high THz-field driven charge transport in semiconductors: transition from ballistic to diffusive transport regime”, Christos Flytzanis, Ecole Normale Superieure, France

INVITED: “Sensitive detectors of terahertz radiation”, Vladimir Gavrilenko, Inst. for Physics of Microstructures, Russia

INVITED: “Detection and quantification of atmospheric pollutants by means of THz instruments”, Robin Bocquet, Univ. du Littoral Cote d’Opale, France

INVITED: “Title to be announced”, Gun-Sik Park, Seoul Natl Univ., South Korea

INVITED: “Tunable continuous-wave terahertz generation using photonic technologies”, Kyung Hyun Park, THz Photonics Creative Research Ctr., ETRI, South Korea

INVITED: “Coherent optical control of Rydberg states in silicon”, Vinh Nguyen, Virginia Tech, USA

INVITED: “Terahertz wave generation via optical rectification of femtosecond transform-limited and nanosecond non-transform-limited laser pulses”, Galiya Kitaeva, Lomonosov Moscow State Univ., Russia

INVITED: “Efficient THz generation by optical rectification of femtosecond laser pulses and application of THz radiation for plasma investigation”, Andrey Stepanov, Inst. of Applied Physics, Russia