Recent Submissions

Spectral phase control of nanoscale nonlinear optical responses 

Remesh, Vikas (Date of defense: 2020-06-08)

The study of light-driven physical processes generated in nanomaterials require shorter (in time, or broader in frequency) laser pulses with techniques to tailor its phase and temporal/spectral characteristics at the ...

Charge carrier dynamics and interfaces in perovskite solar cells 

Rueda Delgado, Diana Paola (Date of defense: 2019-07-30)

Organometal halide perovskites for solar cells are hybrid semiconductors that recently have caught the attention of the scientific community due to its excellent performance and attractive optical properties. Since then, ...

Nonlinear behaviour of ultracold atoms in optical dipole traps : large atomic light shifts, a quantum phase transition, and interaction-dependent dynamics 

Coop, Simon (Date of defense: 2018-09-06)

This thesis reports on theory and results from two experiments related to nonlinear behaviour in ensembles of optically-trapped ultracold atoms. The first experiment, performed at ICFO in Barcelona, regards the prediction ...

Single quantum emitter manipulation with 2D materials 

Schädler, Kevin Gerd (Date of defense: 2018-05-22)

Photonics aims to manipulate light by controlling its interactions with matter to enable novel optical technologies for communication, information processing and sensing. Current efforts strive to enter the regime of quantum ...

Light management in non-Hermitian systems 

Ahmed, Waqas Waseem (Date of defense: 2018-04-17)

The quest for new artificial structures and materials uncovers novel new light-matter interactions, and intriguing physical phenomena. Since the late 80’s purely dielectric materials have been structured, at the wavelength-scale, ...

Double resonant character in an optical cavity for high performance and stable polymer solar cells 

Liu, Quan (Date of defense: 2018-03-23)

Solution-processed thin film solar cells emerged as very promising photovoltaic technologies suitable for a low cost roll-to-roll upscale production. Such thin film character also ensures lightweight and flexibility for ...

Nanophotonic antennas for enhanced single-molecule fluorescence detection and nanospectroscopy in living cells membranes 

Regmi, Raju (Date of defense: 2017-11-10)

Single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy has revolutionized the field of biophysical sciences by enabling visualization of dynamic molecular interactions and nanoscopic features with high spatiotemporal resolution. ...

Superresolution fluorescence microscopy with structured illumination 

Negash, Awoke (Date of defense: 2017-11-29)

The resolution of a conventional fluorescence microscope image is diffraction limited which achieves a spatial resolution of 200nm lateral and 500nm axial. Recently, many superresolution fluorescence microscopy techniques ...

Second harmonic generation in disordered nonlinear crystals : application to ultra-short laser pulse characterization 

Wang, Bingxia (Date of defense: 2017-10-10)

The PhD project, entitled "Second harmonic generation in disordered nonlinear crystals: application to ultra-short laser pulse characterization", is devoted to the study of second harmonic generation in nonlinear ferroelectric ...

Insights on the spatiotemporal organization of integrins and their ligands using quantitative biophysical tools 

Sosa Costa, Alberto (Date of defense: 2017-03-02)

The migration of leukocytes from the blood stream to sites of injury and infection in the extravascular tissues is fundamental for the immune response. Two of the main receptors mediating this process are the integrins ...

Liquid crystals in woodpile photonic crystals : fabrication, numerical calculation and measurement 

Ho, Chih-Hua (Date of defense: 2016-03-14)

Both experimental and numerical studies on Liquid Crystal (LC) infiltrated woodpile Photonic Crystal (PhC) are implemented in this thesis. The most well-known optical phenomenon of PhC is photonic bandgap (PBG). It is ...

Continuous wave frequency modulated optical feedback (CWFM-OF) : theory and applications 

Jha, Ajit (Date of defense: 2016-11-25)

Diese Arbeit soll einen Beitrag leisten zur Entwicklung neuer Sensorstrategien, basierend auf Phänomenen der optischer Rückkopplung, in Kombination mit die Intensitätsmodulation des Lasers. Optische Rückkopplung, ein ...

Elliptically polarized light for depth resolved diffuse reflectance imaging in biological tissues 

Sridhar, Susmita (Date of defense: 2016-10-05)

Polarization gating imaging is a popular and widely used imaging technique in biomedical optics to sense tissues, deeper volumes, and also selectively probe sub-superficial volumes. Due to the "polarization memory" effect ...

Multimodal eye's optical quality (MEOQ) 

García Guerra, Carlos Enrique (Date of defense: 2016-07-29)

Within the visual system, the optics of the eye is responsible for forming images of external objects on the ocular fundus for its photo-reception and neural interpretation. However, the eye is not perfect and its capabilities ...

New laser speckle methods for in vivo blood flow imaging and monitoring 

Valdés Escobar, Claudia Patricia (Date of defense: 2014-12-15)

Blood flow and its regulation, as well as hemodynamics in general, are important for the health of tissues and hence the measurement of these quantities has many applications in research and clinical environments. Various ...

Plasmon-soliton waves in metal-nonlinear dielectric planar structures 

Walasik, Wiktor (Date of defense: 2014-10-13)

In this PhD thesis, we study properties of stationary transverse magnetic polarized waves in structures built of a Kerr-type nonlinear dielectric layer, metal and linear dielectric layers. Although these waves, called here ...

Light enhancements in nano-structured solar cells 

Pastorelli, Francesco (Date of defense: 2013-12-09)

In this century some of our main issues are energy shortage and pollution. This work will briefly describe these problems, proposing a plan of action combining energy saving and different sustainable energy sources. Within ...