LPHYS'26

34th Annual International Laser Physics Conference

Tutorial Course: Quantum Biophotonics

Instructor:

• 

  Alexei Sokolov

  
  Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
  sokol@physics.tamu.edu

Biography:

Dr. Alexei Sokolov is Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Stephen E. Harris Professor of Quantum Optics at the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University. His pioneering work on molecular coherence has enabled ultrasensitive detection of biomolecules and has been recognised with the Lomb Medal (OSA), the Hyer Award (APS), and the Lamb Prize (PQE). His research interests include ultrafast molecular dynamics, laser field shaping, plasmonic nanostructures, and quantum sensing.

Description

Light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagating in space-time, and it comes in packets of energy called photons. Photons exhibit many properties of quantum-mechanical particles; they can be quantum-mechanically entangled, and they can come in a stream where their arrival is ordered, not random. One kind of an ordered stream of photons is a beam of squeezed light. Photon entanglement and squeezing often result in drastic differences in light-matter interactions, which can be explored in novel types of spectroscopic sensing. One of the several goals of this short course will be to explore this quantum nature of light-matter interactions and the resultant enhancements in sensitivity and resolution of spectroscopic measurements.

Biophotonics is a vibrant interdisciplinary field exploring the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and biological materials such as sub-cellular structures and molecules in living organisms. This course focuses on laser spectroscopy aided by plasmonic surfaces and nanoantennas, including tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), quantum molecular coherence, femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic technique (FAST), coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), squeezed light, and entangled photons. Basic molecular biology relevant to biomolecular sensing will also be covered.

Schedule