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[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Andrei Afanasev
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Andrei Afanasev, The George Washington University Title of talk: Peculiar Quantum Features of Optical Vortices
“Optical vortex” is a term describing photon beams with helical wavefronts, which quantized version is known as “twisted photons”. They are known for their ability to carry large values of angular momentum along the direction of propagation. In this presentation, history of optical vortices will be reviewed and their interactions with a variety of quantum systems will be discussed. We will demonstrate new quantum selection rules for absorption of these photons (that were recently confirmed experimentally with cold trapped ions); quantum ``superkick” effects; optical activity in chiral and non-chiral matter; and novel optical polarization phenomena with atoms and quantum dots. The talk is aimed at a broad audience of researchers and graduate students that do not specialize in this field.
About the speaker:
Andrei Afanasev is an Endowed Professor of Theoretical Physics with George Washington University in Washington, DC, USA. He received his PhD (1990) in Nuclear and Particle Physics in Kharkiv, Ukraine in Theory Division of Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology headed by A.Akhiezer (formerly by Lev Landau). His research in quantum electrodynamics of electron scattering brought him to Jefferson Lab (USA) in 1993, where he worked till 2011, until he accepted a faculty position with GWU. He has over 150 published papers in quantum electrodynamics, nuclear physics, quantum optics, accelerator physics, dark-matter searches, and condensed matter physics.