Discipline

With the development of modern science and technology, the study of optics has achieved unprecedented precision in the space and time dimensions. In terms of time scale, optics has been extended into the femtosecond to attosecondregions. As the light pulse shortens in time domain, the peak power reaches the level of terawatt - petawatt. The ultrashort optical pulse excitation and ultrastrong field of optical pulses have greatly enriched and deepened the interaction between light and matters, giving rise to a new and promising discipline - ultrafast optics. Since its generation in the 1990s, the research content and scope of ultrafast optics have been constantly expanded and deepened, which is of great significance to the development of laser technology, spectroscopy and material structure analysis. At present, ultrafast nonlinear optics has become a cutting-edge subject and hot spot in the field of optics.

Research on ultrafast nonlinear optics mainly includes the generation and application of femtosecond-attosecond pulses, THz - visible light – XUV ultrafast laser technology, ultrafast and ultrastrong laser physics, ultrafast spectroscopy, sensitive detection based on ultrafast laser, as well as the interdisciplinary application of ultrafast laser technology, information science, material science, and life science etc. The 13th Five-Year Plan for Innovation of Science and Technology in Shanghai released in 2016 has included the research on laser device and related physical research as a vital part for consolidating the foundation of science and technology.

Infrastructure

The Research Center for Optical Instrument and System Engineering of the Ministry of Education is equipped with public experimental platforms and equipment, including atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope, corrosion electrochemical system, multi-function vacuum coating machine, magnetron sputtering machine, plasma-etching machine, E-beam evaporation system and so on. Having been engaged in ultrafast nonlinear optics and ultrastrong laser field physics for a long time, the team has owned super clean laboratories and 20 precision optical platforms. It has purchased the high-power fiber laser, femtosecond lasers, polarization maintaining optical fiber fusion splicer, optical fiber spectrometer, high-precision spectrum analyzer, autocorrelation, kilowatt power meter, instrument and equipment such as high-precision stepper motor. Such products as fiber lasers, single-photon detectors and quantum cryptographic device, developed by the team have been commercialized.

Professor Liu Yi received his bachelor's degree in Physics from the Department of Physics of Lanzhou University in 2001. And he received his Ph.D. in Optics from Peking University in 2006. After that, he went to École Polytechnique for post-doctoral research. In 2015, he began his work in the School of Optical-Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, USST.

In the past ten years, he has been engaged in the research of ultra-fast nonlinear optics. He has published 52 SCI papers, 10 of them were published in Physical Review Letters. His papers have been cited more than 1,350 times, and other-citing column more than 1,200 times completely, 3 of his papers have been cited more than 100 times, and the H factor being 21. Three of his research work were respectively reported by Physics Review Focus, and Laser Focus World. He has been invited to deliver speeches at 16 international academic conferences, including the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2105) held in the United States in 2015 as a session speaker. He was awarded the Third Prize of Excellent Researcher of CNRS.

The team consists of 21 members, including several experts of the national, provincial and ministerial Talents Programs. Their research covers the development of ultrafast light source technology, ultrafast laser and material interactions, and ultrafast sensitive measurements. As one of the core teams of the Future Optics International Laboratory of USST, the team members are determined to make their contributions to building the Future Optics International Laboratory into a first-class international innovation platform, and building Optical Engineering into an international first-class discipline with representative achievements of global influence.

Contact Information:

yi.liu@usst.edu.cn

The team has been focusing its research on key scientific issues and addressing major challenges in the field of optics. The research includes: ultra-fast laser technology, ultra-fast and ultra-strong laser physics, and ultrafast sensitive detection. They are independent research directions. But at the same time, they support each other and are closely related.

Ultrafast Laser Technology

High-power femtosecond laser and precision control in time-frequency domain is the core technology that leads such state-of-the-art scientific research as laser physics and precision measurement, and promotes the development of precision manufacturing equipment. Many developed countries like the United States have been competing each other in developing this core technology. Fiber laser is widely used in the fields of industry, medical treatment, scientific research, and military because of its high quality of beam, small size, high efficiency, good heat dissipation, compact structure and flexible operation. The research focus of ultrafast laser technology covers high-power fiber laser amplification, phase control, optical frequency comb etc., to provide technical support for high-power new-band coherent source, ultrafast and ultrastrong laser physics, ultrafast spectrum and precision measurement.

Ultrafast and Ultrastrong Laser Physics

It focuses on the major scientific cutting-edge issues in the process of the nonlinear interaction of ultrastrong femtosecond laser and matters, trying to find a new concept of light source and scheme for optical remote sensing, and explores the potential application of ultrastrong ultrafast laser in air pollution analysis, remote electromagnetic field measurement, and trace biologics detection.

Ultra-fast Sensitive Detection

Ultra-fast sensitive detection is an important research direction of ultrafast nonlinear optics. It is widely used not only in the fields of free space communication, missile imaging tracking and positioning, infrared early-warning, infrared remote sensing etc., but also in civil industries such as air pollution monitoring, material processing and disease detection. Focusing on such key cutting-edge technical issues as optical trace detection and micro-nano sensitive detection, the team aims to explore new principles and new methods, to develop new instruments and new equipment, and to lead the interdisciplinary research on ultrafast sensitive detection technology with innovative achievements.

Over the years, the team has made a series of innovative achievements in the high-power fiber laser, optical fiber comb, mid-infrared irradiation, mid-infrared comb, interaction between ultrastrong femtosecond laser and atom/molecules, nonlinear propagation of ultrastrong femtosecond pulse, air laser, surface enhanced Raman ultrafast spectra. They have published more than 60 high-quality papers, including over 10 papers published in such top-tier journals as Physical Review Letters(4), Nature Photonics(1), and Nature Communication(1) etc. The team has established close cooperation with famous universities at home and abroad, like Ecole Polytechnique (France), Lund University (Sweden), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan), Peking University, Southeast University, etc. At present, the team is co-training doctoral students with Ecole Polytechnique.