Prof. Abdulhakem Y. Elezzabi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta

As modern complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry rapidly approaches fundamental speed and bandwidth limitations, optical platforms have become promising candidates to circumvent these limits and facilitate massive increases in computational power. To compete with high density CMOS circuitry, optical technology within the plasmonic regime is desirable, because of the sub-diffraction limited confinement of electromagnetic energy, large optical bandwidth, and ultrafast processing capabilities. As such, nanoplasmonic waveguides act as nanoscale conduits for optical signals, thereby forming the backbone of such a platform. In recent years, significant research interest has developed to uncover the fundamental physics governing phenomena occurring within nanoplasmonic waveguides, and to implement unique optical devices. In doing so, a wide variety of material properties have been exploited. CMOS-compatible materials facilitate passive plasmonic routing devices for directing the confined radiation. Magnetic materials facilitate time-reversal symmetry breaking, aiding in the development of nonreciprocal isolators or modulators. Additionally, strong confinement and enhancement of electric fields within such waveguides require the use of materials with high nonlinear coefficients to achieve increased nonlinear optical phenomenon in a nanoscale footprint. Furthermore, this enhancement and confinement of the fields facilitate the study of strong-field effects within the solid-state environment of the waveguide.

In this talk, I will review current state-of-the-art physics and applications of nanoplasmonic waveguides pertaining to passive, active magnetoplasmonic, nonlinear, strong-field devices and present recent findings on ultrafast nonlinear and strong-field phenomena. Such components are essential elements in integrated optical circuitry, and each fulfills specific roles in truly developing a chip-scale plasmonic computing architecture.

Prof. Abdulhakem Y. Elezzabi received his B.Sc. in Physics from Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada in 1987. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in 1989 and 1995, respectively in Femtosecond Laser Physics.  Between 1996-1997, he was IBM, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada & Issak Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, at the University of Alberta.  Since 1997 he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta. In 2003 he was appointed as a Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Photonics and Nano-Optics at the University of Alberta. Prof. Elezzabi has been involved in organizing numerous international conferences in Optics and Lasers. His research in laser light interaction with nanostructures has been frequently reported in many international publications and scientific organizations’ press releases. His current research interests are ultrafast phenomena, ultrafast physics, nanoplasmonics, high-speed photonic devices, femtosecond electron pulse generation, terahertz radiation, non-linear optics, nano-optics, laser-matter interactions, and biophotonics.