Seminar: “Light, Sound, and Circuits: Brillouin Photonics in Integrated Platforms”

Professor who invites: Jose Azana

Abstract: Modern photonic circuits are revolutionizing how we control light on a chip, enabling applications ranging from high-speed communications and information processing to quantum computing. A particularly powerful approach exploits the interaction between light and sound—Gigahertz acoustic phonons—through Brillouin scattering, which can be harnessed to realize on-chip functionalities such as lasers, signal processors, and sensors. In this seminar, I will present our recent advances in Brillouin-active heterogeneous photonic circuits that combine Brillouin functionalities with electro-optic components such as modulators and photodetectors. I will highlight our demonstration of surface acoustic wave (SAW) excitation in integrated waveguides, opening new sensing modalities that leverage waveguide surface interactions. I will also discuss our work on post-fabrication grating inscription in chalcogenide microrings, enabling precise control of Brillouin lasing through engineered bandgaps. Together, these results illustrate how integrating Brillouin interactions with planar photonic circuits provides a versatile platform for next-generation on-chip photonics.

Biography: Benjamin Eggleton is a Professor of Physics at the University of Sydney and currently serves as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research). He is co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN). Eggleton was Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano) from 2018-222. He was founding Director of CUDOS, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (2003-2017) and was Director of Photonic Devices Research at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies from 2000-2002. Eggleton published > 500 journal publications (30,000 citations, h-index 89 Webofscience). He is a Fellow of Optical Society of America (OSA), IEEE Photonics, SPIE, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and Australian Academy of Science (AAS). Eggleton is Editor-in-Chief of APL Photonics.