Andrey Markov, Anna Mazhorova and Fabio Grazioso post-docs fellows at the Nonlinear Photonics group have been awarded with the Mitacs Elevate Grant Support. Mitacs is a non-profit Canadian funding organization that works in partnership with Universities, Industry and the National Government.

Andrey Markov received the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship for his proposition to use terahertz waveguide-based platforms to determine the quality of electric insulation materials. The method described in the project “Terahertz metamaterial sensors for monitoring of the insulation material quality” will reduce the risk of electric discharges which present a risk of electrocution, explosion, or fire. 

Anna Mazhorova has been awarded with the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship for his study on pollution control of gas mixtures: gas monitoring and detection of contaminants using novel THz technology.  Electric power plants are the number one toxic air polluters in North America. The emitted pollutants are proven to cause serious health and environmental issues. The emission of Carbon dioxide and of other pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide – major drivers of the human-accelerated global climate change- must be monitored in situ. The goal of the present project is to explore the properties of Terahertz radiation for atmospheric pollution control. In particular, we intend to develop a new waveguide-integrated gas monitor, based on Bragg grating sensors. Sensitivity in such devices will be increased through modulation via an external magnetic field and will be based on probing induced anisotropy. The integration of the proposed sensor into the existing line of products of our industrial partner, QPS Photronics, can potentially result in a versatile tool for industrial applications, which could give the company a leading edge over the competition.

Fabio Grazioso has been awarded with the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project aimed at the development of a compact and energy-efficient process for the generation of non-classical (squeezed) light, as a building block for sensors with ultra-high sensitivity and accuracy, beyond the quantum limit. Indeed, one of the fundamental principles of Quantum Mechanics is the Uncertainty Principle, which puts a lower limit to the error with which it is in principle possible to measure a given couple of physical parameters. Squeezed states significantly lower the error for one of those two parameters (at the expenses of the other, unimportant one). Extremely low error means extremely accurate measurements. The goal of the project is to exploit this feature in order to devise industry grade sensors of unprecedented accuracy. The generation process will be based on a nonlinear optical cavity, recently developed by the Ultrafast Optical Processing Research Group at INRS-EMT, which has a very small form factor, is compatible with the CMOS integrated electronics standards, has very low energy consumption, and it is capable of generating light at telecom wavelengths, with unique characteristics in terms of both the high number of resonant spectral modes and the exceptional optical quantum coherence.