For device applications disorder and scattering have long been considered annoying and detrimental features that were best avoided or minimized. In this talk, I will show that disorder and complexity can be harnessed for photonics application, in particular, to provide unique functionalities of photonic devices.

We recently developed an on-chip random spectrometer that combines high resolution with small footprint. In addition, we incorporated disorder to a laser to reduce the spatial coherence for free-speckle full-field imaging.

报告人简介: Hui Cao is a professor of Applied Physics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. She received her B. S. degree (1990) in Physics from Peking University. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 2008, Professor Cao was on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University. Her technical interests and activities are in the areas of complex photonic materials and devices, nanophotonics, and biophotonics. She has published more than 200 research papers. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, Packard Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship, Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award and Guggenheim Fellowship. She is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Optical Society of America, and a member of Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering.