The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites all to a colloquium featuring Dr. Timothy Atherton, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Tufts University. Dr. Atherton will present his talk, “Optimizing the hyperpolarizabilities of 1D quantum mechanical systems”, Tuesday, October 25, at 4:10 p.m. in Webster 17.
Meet for refreshments before the lecture at 3:45 – 4:10 p.m. in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall.
Abstract: Nonlinear optical materials are the active constituent for many applications such as light modulators, contrast agents for medical imaging and therapy, optical solitons, phase conjugation mirrors and optical self-modulation. In each of these, the performance of the system is improved by using a material with a stronger nonlinear response, quantified by various nonlinear susceptibilities defined by expanding the induced polarization in a power series in the applied electric field. These quantities depend on the electronic structure of the constituent molecules, their symmetry, ordering and the material in which they are embedded. Quantum mechanics places fundamental limit on their magnitude, but designing molecules that approach these limits has proved challenging. Here, I present recent work that uses simple, 1D potentials to gain insight into what features are important for molecular design for large hyperpolarizability.
