Alchemy as an optical problem: Theory and Experiments
 
Denys Bondar, Tulane University
 
Using tracking quantum control, we theoretically unveiled an unexplored flexibility of nonlinear optics that a shaped laser pulse can drive a quantum system to emit light as if it were an arbitrary different system. This realizes an aspect of the alchemist’s dream to make different elements look alike, albeit for the duration of a laser pulse. This finding has received broad public coverage in such scientific outlets as Physics, PhysicsWorld, Nature Materials, Quanta Magazine, Wired, etc  We will show how this unexplored flexibility of nonlinear optics opens new venues of investigation that include ultrafast artificial intelligence, chemical mixture characterization, and broadband ENZ materials with infinite phase velocity of light. Based on these theoretical insights, recent experimental results will be presented, showing how water can be transformed into alcohol and how ENZ materials can be dynamically created.

Bio
 
Prof. Denys Bondar, Associate Professor, joined the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at Tulane University in 2018. Previously, he was an Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer at Princeton University, where he had been since 2014 after being promoted from a postdoctoral appointment. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 2011. Dr. Bondar has received several prestigious awards, including the W. M. Keck Foundation Award (2021), the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2019), the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2017), the U.S. Air Force Young Investigator Research Program award (2016), and the Los Alamos Director’s Fellowship (2013, declined). Driven by a vision of realizing practical quantum technologies, Dr. Bondar conducts theoretical and computational research at the intersection of quantum technology and ultrafast nonlinear optics.