Seminar Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM PT
Location: 67-3111 & Zoom
Talk Title: Semiconductor Quantum Systems
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Abstract:
Quantum technologies need photonics for scaling. This is true even for “non-photonic” quantum systems based on superconductors, or trapped atoms and ions in vacuum. For example, new types of spatial light modulators and switches are needed to trap and control atoms and ions, microwave to optical quantum transducers are needed for networking superconducting processors, chip-scale laser systems are required for controlling atoms or spin qubits in solids, and very high efficiency integrated photonics is needed for quantum networks, sensors, and chip-based semiconductor quantum systems. Unfortunately, these photonics functionalities and performances are not available even in today’s best integrated photonic systems. We show how inverse design (which combines AI hardware with new types of physics solvers) can lead to much better photonics designs, and how new photonic materials combined with new nanofabrication and heterogenous integration can lead to desired performances. Specific examples include development of miniaturized titanium:sapphire lasers on chip, strontium titanate cryogenic optical switches and transducers, quantum network nodes in diamond, and a quantum simulator and computer with silicon carbide color centers.
Bio:
Jelena Vuckovic is the Jensen Huang Professor of Global Leadership, Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Applied Physics at Stanford, where she leads the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab in the Ginzton Laboratory. She joined the Stanford Faculty in 2003, upon receiving her PhD degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2002. At Stanford, she also served as the Fortinet Founders Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, and was the inaugural director of QFARM, the Stanford-SLAC Quantum Initiative.
Vuckovic is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Her awards include the R. W. Wood Prize from Optica, Zeiss Research Award, the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, Geoffrey Frew Fellowship from the Australian Academy of Sciences, the IET A. F. Harvey Engineering Research Prize, Distinguished Scholarship of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich, Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies at TU Munich, Marko V. Jaric Award for outstanding achievements in physics, Humboldt Prize, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. She was the Mildred Dresselhaus Lecturer at MIT, and the James Gordon Memorial Speaker at Optica. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), of the Optica, and of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE).
Vuckovic is the lead editor of Physical Review Applied, member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Advances in Optics in Photonics, NPJ Quantum Information, and APL Photonics.
Jelena Vuckovic’s research interests are broadly in the areas of photonics, quantum science and engineering, quantum optics, photonics inverse design, nonlinear optics, and cavity QED. Her current projects include semiconductor quantum systems, heterogeneously integrated, inverse designed photonics, and on-chip integrated laser systems, including Ti:sapphire lasers.
