The Institute of Optics will help you gain the tools you need to solve real-world problems. Our program will help you to develop a new level of technical competency and leadership instincts. The institute prides itself on providing a personalized program, with thoughtful attention to the success of individual students. Optics graduates leave Rochester with the clarity to find opportunities in problems and then create positive change.
Optics is all about light: how it's generated, propagated, and detected. It is a multidisciplinary endeavor with its roots in physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, and materials science.
Optical applications can be found in every aspect of our lives, from contact lenses to fiber-optics communication. The study of optics has led scientists to produce ground breaking inventions like the laser and the holograph. The doctoral program is designed to prepare its graduates to carry out independent, creative research in an industrial, academic, or government setting. Admission to the PhD program is very competitive, with approximately 12 to 15 students admitted each year.
The Institute's PhD program is a combination of research, coursework, teaching assistantships, and thesis work that students complete over four or more years.
Nonlinear optical processes have attracted long-lasting interest ever since the first observation of second-harmonic generation, which founded a broad range of applications including photonic signal processing, tunable coherent radiation, frequency metrology, optical microscopy, and quantum information processing. In general, nonlinear optical effects are fairly weak and have to rely on substantial optical power to support nonlinear wave interaction. However, high-quality nanophotonic devices are able to confine strongly the optical waves into a tiny volume/area with significant optical field inside, resulting in dramatically enhanced nonlinear optical effects to an extent inaccessible in conventional bulk media. On the other hand, operating in the micro-/nano-scopic scale offers unprecedented freedom of versatile device design that enables flexible engineering of device characteristics (such as geometry, dispersion, quality factor, optical/mechanical resonance, etc) for various application purposes. We currently explore new material platforms and innovative device designs for novel nonlinear photonic functionalities with high efficiency, long coherence, broad bandwidth, and/or large tunability.
