PHY594 - Lasers, optique quantique, plasmas (2023-2024)

Superivisors:

Serena Bastiani-Ceccotti  serena.bastiani@polytechnique.edu   T. 01 69 33 54 04
Laboratoire d’Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI)

Marie-Claire Schanne-Klein marie-claire.schanne-klein@polytechnique.edu  T. 01 69 33 50 60
Laboratoire d'Optique et Biosciences (LOB)

The PHY594 option gathers together research topics about interaction between matter in all its forms (condensed or diluted, neutral or charged) and electromagnetic field, both static and radiation, from the Hertzian field to X ray. This field is highly impacted by lasers - that has revolutionized optics - and by the use of synchrotron radiation which provided a new youth to electron accelerators, or by the gerat hope generated by the research on controlled thermonuclear fusion.

The interships suggested cover mostly laser applications, except those that have been fully integrated into the world of industrial production and where laser is just a button press tool (they are outside the research area). These are therefore very varied subjects, but they have many mutual connections. In fact, the three theme centers mentioned in the option's title cover each other. For example, plasmas are often created by lasers and plasmas can be the source of laser emission.

Laser research remains an active field: optical telecommunications, optical information processing, laser cooling, laser particle acceleration, development of new laser (e.g. free-electron, X ray, ultrashort or high intensity pulse), initiation to thermonuclear inertial confinement fusion, study of turbulence or chaos, shot noise reduction thanks to compressed states (this is quantum optics in the strict sense), new techniques for biological object imaging... The option also cover research of plasmas without laser: initiation to magnetic confinement fusion (tokamaks), solar wind, magnetosphere... It is clear that this kind of research cover the full range, from applied to fundamental physics.

This activity is generally a field well represented in France. There are many internship opportunities in the Paris region, province and abroad.

PHY594 includes research internships completed by students following the first-year master classes (M1) “Joliot Curie”. This internship is carried out in an academic or industrial research laboratory. The topics covered are very varied, covering the whole field of optics and lasers and plasmas.

TOPICS

• Lasers (solid-state lasers, X-ray lasers, ultra-short pulses)
• Non-linear optics (optical bistability, soliton propagation,...)
• Transmitters, detectors, modulators, optical metrology
• Optical telecommunications (optical fibres, opto-electronic devices, etc.), and integrated optics
• Non-linear materials (quantum wells, organic materials,...)
• Holography (dynamic, conoscopic,...)
• Optical information processing (optical calculation, pattern recognition)
• Optical-biological interface (optical tweezers, functional imaging of cells and tissues...)
• Non-linear spectroscopy (remote diagnosis, lidar, 2D spectroscopy,...)
• Atomic and molecular physics (laser cooling, studies of collisions, reactive or not, aggregates,...)
• Quantum optics and quantum information (squeezed light,...)
• Laser plasmas
• Laser particle acceleration
• Thermonuclear fusion by inertial or magnetic confinement
• Laser-matter interaction
• New sources of light, particles

Course language: French and English