Thomas W. Mossberg

Last updated

Thomas W. Mossberg
Born
Thomas William Mossberg

1951 (age 71–72)
Awards1993 Optical Society of America (Optica) Fellow
1995 American Physical Society Fellow
Academic background
Education1973 B.S., University of Chicago
1981 Ph.D. Columbia University
Thesis Excited-state, tri-level, and two-photon echoes in atomic sodium vapor  (1981)
Doctoral advisorSven R. Hartmann

Thomas W. Mossberg (born 1951) is an American physicist, formerly of Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Oregon. He was also the founding President and CEO at LightSmyth Technologies, a nanotechnology company in Eugene, Oregon.

Contents

Early life and education

The son of William and Rosemary (née Kotilinek) Mossberg, Thomas William Mossberg was born in 1951 in Hennepin, Minnesota. [1] He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago in 1973. He earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University 1978, with a dissertation titled, Excited-state, tri-level, and two-photon echoes in atomic sodium vapor, [2] advised by Sven R. Hartmann. [3]

Career

After faculty positions at Columbia University and Harvard University, Mossberg joined the physics faculty at the University of Oregon from 1986–1999. [4] Colleague Michael Raymer wrote, "Thomas Mossberg (Ph.D. Columbia Univ., 1978) in 1987 established a group to study experimental quantum optics. His group was first to demonstrate narrowing below the natural line width of an atomic emission line by the modification of the density of optical states within an optical cavity. In 1999 Mossberg went on to found successful optical technology companies in the Eugene area." [5]

In 1996, the American Physical Society reported on "recent advances in spectral holographic optical data storage" of Mossberg's research, leading to "high capacity, high speed, optical RAM, and content-controlled optical switching devices". [6] Mossberg's research between 1995–1997 was supported by NSF grants valued at $492,530. [7]

At the urging of the University Technology Transfer Office, Mossberg started Templex Technology, Inc.:

In 1995, technologies developed by University of Oregon physicist Thomas Mossberg became the basis of a new company, Templex Technology, Inc. Since that time the company, which develops innovative, high-bandwidth optical communications, has grown to about thirteen employees. It recently re-located to the Riverfront Research Park adjacent to the UO. The new facility will allow Templex staffing to nearly double in the next year or two. On September 27, 1999, Templex announced that Intel Corporation has invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Templex intends to use the investment to further its product development, develop strategic partnerships, build company infrastructure, and create market awareness. [5]

Mossberg's research produced hardware with record-breaking information density and speed:

Thomas Mossberg is developing a new kind of optical computer memory that far surpasses the capabilities of today's magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard drives). His experimental hardware handles vast amounts of digital information, storing it in a small crystal that can be accessed at lightning speeds. The hardware already holds a world's record for information density and access speed, storing the equivalent of 700 floppy disks of information in one square inch of memory material... A high-tech start-up company, Templex, has recently formed in Eugene to turn Mossberg's basic research into products for market. Only a year old, Templex already employs four Ph.D. physicists and additional staff members. [8]

Mossberg also founded LightSmyth Technologies, serving as its president and CEO from 2000 until his retirement in 2018. [9] The firm had three NASA research awards between 2005–2007, at a total value of $769,744. [10] LightSmyth Technologies produced high performance transmission gratings and other diffractive devices for the optical communications industry. In 2014, LightSmyth Technologies was acquired by Finisar Corporation [11] which was in turn acquired by II-VI Corporation. [12]

Selected publications

Selected patents

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

Refractive index contrast, in an optical waveguide, such as an optical fiber, is a measure of the relative difference in refractive index of the core and cladding. The refractive index contrast, Δ, is often given by , where n1 is the maximum refractive index in the core and n2 is the refractive index of the cladding. The criterion n2 < n1 must be satisfied in order to sustain a guided mode by total internal reflection. Alternative formulations include and . Normal optical fibers, constructed of different glasses, have very low refractive index contrast (Δ<<1) and hence are weakly-guiding. The weak guiding will cause a greater portion of the cross-sectional Electric field profile to reside within the cladding as compared to strongly-guided waveguides. Integrated optics can make use of higher core index to obtain Δ>1 allowing light to be efficiently guided around corners on the micro-scale, where popular high-Δ material platform is silicon-on-insulator. High-Δ allows sub-wavelength core dimensions and so greater control over the size of the evanescent tails. The most efficient low-loss optical fibers require low Δ to minimise losses to light scattered outwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonic crystal</span> Periodic optical nanostructure that affects the motion of photons

A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomic lattices of semiconductors affect their conductivity of electrons. Photonic crystals occur in nature in the form of structural coloration and animal reflectors, and, as artificially produced, promise to be useful in a range of applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical ring resonators</span>

An optical ring resonator is a set of waveguides in which at least one is a closed loop coupled to some sort of light input and output. The concepts behind optical ring resonators are the same as those behind whispering galleries except that they use light and obey the properties behind constructive interference and total internal reflection. When light of the resonant wavelength is passed through the loop from the input waveguide, the light builds up in intensity over multiple round-trips owing to constructive interference and is output to the output bus waveguide which serves as a detector waveguide. Because only a select few wavelengths will be at resonance within the loop, the optical ring resonator functions as a filter. Additionally, as implied earlier, two or more ring waveguides can be coupled to each other to form an add/drop optical filter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiber Bragg grating</span> Type of distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a short segment of optical fiber

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a short segment of optical fiber that reflects particular wavelengths of light and transmits all others. This is achieved by creating a periodic variation in the refractive index of the fiber core, which generates a wavelength-specific dielectric mirror. Hence a fiber Bragg grating can be used as an inline optical filter to block certain wavelengths, can be used for sensing applications, or it can be used as wavelength-specific reflector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical fiber</span> Light-conducting fiber

An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths than electrical cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss; in addition, fibers are immune to electromagnetic interference, unlike metal wires. Fibers are also used for illumination and imaging, and are often wrapped in bundles so they may be used to carry light into, or images out of confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are also used for a variety of other applications, such as fiber optic sensors and fiber lasers.

An optical waveguide is a physical structure that guides electromagnetic waves in the optical spectrum. Common types of optical waveguides include optical fiber waveguides, transparent dielectric waveguides made of plastic and glass, liquid light guides, and liquid waveguides.

Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. It often involves dielectric structures such as nanoantennas, or metallic components, which can transport and focus light via surface plasmon polaritons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical add-drop multiplexer</span> Device used to route channels in optical communication systems

An optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) is a device used in wavelength-division multiplexing systems for multiplexing and routing different channels of light into or out of a single-mode fiber (SMF). This is a type of optical node, which is generally used for the formation and the construction of optical telecommunications networks. "Add" and "drop" here refer to the capability of the device to add one or more new wavelength channels to an existing multi-wavelength WDM signal, and/or to drop (remove) one or more channels, passing those signals to another network path. An OADM may be considered to be a specific type of optical cross-connect.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a microchip containing two or more photonic components which form a functioning circuit. This technology detects, generates, transports, and processes light. Photonic integrated circuits utilize photons as opposed to electrons that are utilized by electronic integrated circuits. The major difference between the two is that a photonic integrated circuit provides functions for information signals imposed on optical wavelengths typically in the visible spectrum or near infrared (850–1650 nm).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon photonics</span> Photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium

Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commonly at the 1.55 micrometre wavelength used by most fiber optic telecommunication systems. The silicon typically lies on top of a layer of silica in what is known as silicon on insulator (SOI).

An interferometer is an optical measuring device using the principle of light waves canceling and reinforcing each other. Interferometers are typically used to accurately measure distances. Planar lightwave circuits are either optical integrated circuits (ICs) or optical circuit boards made using the same manufacturing techniques as their electronic counterparts, using optical waveguides to route photons the same way that metal traces are used to route electrons in electronic ICs and circuit boards. A planar lightwave circuit interferometer (PLCI) is a planar lightwave circuit configured as an interferometer. PLCIs can take on any form which is rigidly printable, e.g. Mach-Zehnder, Michelson, Young's interferometer, etc. PLCIs are often found in products that are mass-produced, such as multiplexers/demultiplexers used in communications technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slot-waveguide</span>

A slot-waveguide is an optical waveguide that guides strongly confined light in a subwavelength-scale low refractive index region by total internal reflection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subwavelength-diameter optical fibre</span>

A subwavelength-diameter optical fibre is an optical fibre whose diameter is less than the wavelength of the light being propagated through it. An SDF usually consists of long thick parts at both ends, transition regions (tapers) where the fibre diameter gradually decreases down to the subwavelength value, and a subwavelength-diameter waist, which is the main acting part. Due to such a strong geometrical confinement, the guided electromagnetic field in an SDF is restricted to a single mode called fundamental.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nematicon</span>

In optics, a nematicon is a spatial soliton in nematic liquid crystals (NLC). The name was invented in 2003 by G. Assanto. and used thereafter Nematicons are generated by a special type of optical nonlinearity present in NLC: the light induced reorientation of the molecular director. This nonlinearity arises from the fact that the molecular director tends to align along the electric field of light. Nematicons are easy to generate because the NLC dielectric medium exhibits the following properties:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plasmonics</span>

Plasmonics or nanoplasmonics refers to the generation, detection, and manipulation of signals at optical frequencies along metal-dielectric interfaces in the nanometer scale. Inspired by photonics, plasmonics follows the trend of miniaturizing optical devices, and finds applications in sensing, microscopy, optical communications, and bio-photonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electromagnetic metasurface</span>

An electromagnetic metasurface refers to a kind of artificial sheet material with sub-wavelength thickness. Metasurfaces can be either structured or unstructured with subwavelength-scaled patterns in the horizontal dimensions.

Integrated quantum photonics, uses photonic integrated circuits to control photonic quantum states for applications in quantum technologies. As such, integrated quantum photonics provides a promising approach to the miniaturisation and scaling up of optical quantum circuits. The major application of integrated quantum photonics is Quantum technology:, for example quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum simulation, quantum walks and quantum metrology.

An erbium-doped waveguide amplifier is a type of an optical amplifier enhanced with erbium. It is a close relative of an EDFA, erbium-doped fiber amplifier, and in fact EDWA's basic operating principles are identical to those of the EDFA. Both of them can be used to amplify infrared light at wavelengths in optical communication bands between 1500 and 1600 nm. However, whereas an EDFA is made using a free-standing fiber, an EDWA is typically produced on a planar substrate, sometimes in ways that are very similar to the methods used in electronic integrated circuit manufacturing. Therefore, the main advantage of EDWAs over EDFAs lies in their potential to be intimately integrated with other optical components on the same planar substrate and thus making EDFAs unnecessary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ravindra Kumar Sinha (physicist)</span> Indian physicist and administrator

Prof. R K Sinha is the Vice Chancellor of Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar Under UP Government. He was the director of the CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO) Sector-30C, Chandigarh-160 030, India. He has been a Professor - Applied Physics, Dean-Academic [UG] & Chief Coordinator: TIFAC-Center of Relevance and Excellence in Fiber Optics and Optical Communication, Mission REACH Program, Technology Vision-2020, Govt. of India Delhi Technological University Bawana Road, Delhi-110042, India.

Natalia M. Litchinitser is an Electrical Engineer and Professor at Duke University. She works on optical metamaterials and their application in photonic devices. Litchinitser is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, The Optical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

References

  1. ↑ "Minnesota Birth Index" . www.ancestry.com. 1951. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  2. ↑ Mossberg, Thomas William (1978). Excited-state, tri-level, and two-photon echoes in atomic sodium vapor. NASA, Office of Scientific and Technical Information. p. 115.
  3. ↑ "Physics Tree - Thomas William Mossberg Family Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Former physics professor sues UO". Corvallis Gazette-Times. September 21, 2005. p. 9. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Raymer, Michael (March 20, 2016). Csonka, Paul (ed.). "Short historical summary of the UO Physics department, Optical Sciences" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Data Storage, New Laser Advances Featured at ILS-XII Meeting". www.aps.org. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  7. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award # 9421069 - Experimental Quantum Optics". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Smaller, Faster, Better". INQUIRY - UO Research Journal, A Magazine Highlighting Research. III (1). Spring 1997 – via scholarsbank.uoregon.edu.
  9. ↑ "dun & bradstreet". dnb.com. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  10. ↑ "SBIR/STTR Firm Details - LightSmyth Technologies | NASA SBIR & STTR Program Homepage". sbir.nasa.gov. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  11. ↑ Hardy, Stephen (September 5, 2014). "Finisar buys gratings provider LightSmyth Technologies". lightwaveonline.com. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  12. ↑ "II-VI Completes Finisar Acquisition". www.photonics.com. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  13. ↑ US 4459682,Mossberg, Thomas W.,"Time domain data storage",published 1984-07-10
  14. ↑ US 6678429,Mossberg, Thomas W.&Greiner, Christoph M.,"Amplitude and phase control in distributed optical structures",published 2004-01-13, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  15. ↑ US 6985656,Iazikov, Dmitri; Mossberg, Thomas W.& Greiner, Christoph M.,"Temperature-compensated planar waveguide optical apparatus",published 2006-01-10, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  16. ↑ US 6987911,Mossberg, Thomas W.; Greiner, Christoph M.& Iazikov, Dmitri,"Multimode planar waveguide spectral filter",published 2006-01-17, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  17. ↑ US 6990276,Brice, Lawrence D.; Greiner, Christoph M.& Mossberg, Thomas W.et al.,"Optical waveform recognition and/or generation and optical switching",published 2006-01-24, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  18. ↑ US 6993223,Greiner, Christoph M.; Iazikov, Dmitri& Mossberg, Thomas W.,"Multiple distributed optical structures in a single optical element",published 2006-01-31, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  19. ↑ US 7054517,Mossberg, Thomas W.; Iazikov, Dmitri& Greiner, Christoph M.,"Multiple-wavelength optical source",published 2006-05-30, assigned to LightSmyth Technologies Inc.
  20. ↑ USapplication 2010149073,Chaum, David; Mossberg, Thomas W.& Rogers, John R.,"Near to eye display system and appliance",published 2010-06-17, since abandoned.
  21. ↑ "Optica Fellows". Optica (formerly Optical Society of America). 2022.
  22. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". aps.org. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
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