We received a 150k$ grant for 2021-2022 from the Office of the Vice President for Research to jumpstart the development of a quantum simulator using semiconductor materials. Co-PIs on the project are Thomas Folland (Physics), Aditi Bhattacherjee (Chemistry), Joe Gomes(Chemical and Biochemical Engineering), and Xueyu Zhu (Mathematics).

Hank (Henry Hammer) receives a Charles A. Wert Summer Research Grant and will be setting up a NIR-SWIR (C+L telecom bands) wavefront shaping setup for studying multimode fibers during June-July 2021.

Crystals contain a forbidden gap, where photons of certain frequency can penetrate only a limited distance. We overcome this limitation through by spatially shaping waves to access the deep dark-regions of a tiny silicon photonic crystal. Other wave forms—including phonons, electrons, and spins—could be tuned using the new method opening a diverse array of applications in miniature light sources and on-chip lasers, qubits, and information processing via photons and phonons.

Optical Tables move into the lab (IATL 292) and are set up. Next phase: clean and organize the lab.

PI Uppu arrives in Iowa City and was greeted with a bit of snow and a wonderful sky, thus marking the start of QLiC Lab's journey! *For those wondering about the lab name: QLiC (pronounced 'click') tries to capture a few aspects at once: 1) 'clicking' (creation) of great ideas, 2) 'clicking' (working together) as a team and, 3) the image of the 'click switch' that we recall when we hear about quantum superposition (bits vs qubits).