Event Details

Advances in atomic and quantum sciences have enabled new fundamental measurements, communications and computation that existed only in theory just decades ago. Today, these experiments and their applications are undergoing transformations that require a scaling up in complexity, greatly improved reliability, and reduction in size, weight and cost. Yet the underlying lasers and optical infrastructure still occupies laboratory tables and racks, are power consuming and not reliable. Photonic integration has the potential to move the laser systems and other photonics on chip. In this talk we cover moving high performance quantum and atom visible to SWIR light infrastructure and precision optics to the chip-scale and early experiments with this technology, including ultra-narrow linewidth and frequency stabilized lasers, reference cavities, ultra-low loss waveguides, and other optics to deliver precision laser light to atomic transitions and perform quantum experiments including strontium neutral and trapped ion and neutral rubidium species. Future prospects will be described for quantum sensing, computation, and communication.

December 19, 2026

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Host: Steve Crago
POC: Amy Kasmir

Speaker Bio

Dr. Daniel Blumenthal is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of ECE at UCSB, Director of the Terabit Optical Ethernet Center and heads the Optical Communications and Atomic Quantum Photonic Integration Group (OCAQ). He is Co-Founder of Packet Photonics Inc., Calient Networks, and SiNoptiq, Inc. which was recently acquired by Inflection. He holds 23 patents and has published over 560 papers in the areas of optical communications and optical packet switching, ultra-narrow linewidth integrated lasers, optical gyro sensors, photonic integration integrated circuits, integrated atom cooling photonics, nano-photonics and microwave photonics. He is co-author of Tunable Laser Diodes and Related Optical Sources (New York: IEEE–Wiley, 2005). Dr. Blumenthal is recipient of the 2020 OSA C. E. K. Mees Medal, a 2017 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Fellow of the IEEE and Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He is recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award. Blumenthal received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder (1993), the M.S.E.E. from Columbia University (1988) and the B.S.E.E from the University of Rochester (1981).