Professor Kelvin Wagner's Research Interests
Research in Dr. Wagner's group at CU concerns
optical information processing and focuses on utilizing
the unique computational properties of optical systems to produce
special purpose signal processing systems with significant computational
advantages over conventional microelectronic digital approaches.
We are attempting to harness the massive parallelism,
spectral domain representations, ultrafast optical phenomena,
and volume holographic storage and processing,
in combination with the capabilities of state-of-the-art
laser, modulator, and detector technology to produce the
highest performance optical information processing systems.
Currently, the group is pursuing 6 avenues of research towards this goal.
RF photonics investigates
imaging, target recognition, and adaptive beamforming using
optical processing of advanced radar systems.
Adaptive optical neural networks use dynamic volume holograms
and smart pixel devices to emulate the learning function of the brain.
Device
development includes photorefractive and organic holographic materials and
VLSI-smart pixel devices (both liquid crystal and SEED based) for
incorporation in these systems.
Photon echoes are under investigation for multidimensional signal processing
and adaptive array processing,
and spectral hole burning is being studied for optical storage.
Acoustooptic crossbars and routing systems have been developed
for ultra-wideband optical
interconnection networks using both bulk and surface wave devices.
Ultrafast nonlinear interactions between multidimensional optical solitons
have been studied theoretically and numerically
for high-speed and massively parallel digital optical computing,
and a new experimental program to demonstrate these interactions is underway.
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