Wednesday, October 1, 2025
12:00 - 14:30
12:30 - 12:50 - Mahdi Mozdoor Dashtabi , PhD Candidate, Biophotonics & Medical Imaging, VU Amsterdam
Coherent Detection of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
Abstract: Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), a nonlinear light–sound interaction, drives advances in biomechanics, optomechanics, and microwave photonics. Yet, conventional SBS techniques suffer from limited sensitivity and bandwidth, rely on high optical power, and degrade in lossy or scattering media. I present a coherent readout architecture that advances SBS spectroscopy by providing full-spectrum access with shot-noise-limited sensitivity at ultralow pump/probe powers. Compatible with both continuous and pulsed excitation, the approach mitigates the impact of loss on sensitivity, enabling robust performance in challenging environments. Validated on silicon waveguides and optical fibers, it surpasses existing methods in dynamic range and signal quality. I further demonstrate the first SBS detection in water at 1550 nm—despite strong absorption—highlighting the system’s unprecedented tolerance to optical loss. This work opens new opportunities in real-time, low-power Brillouin spectroscopy and imaging across integrated photonics, optomechanics, and biomechanics.
12:50 -13:45 - Juan Rojo, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU Amsterdam
Charting the Future of Particle Physics: from the LHC to CERN's next Flaghsip Collider
Abstract: Particle physics explores the fundamental laws of Nature at the highest energies and smallest distances accessible in a laboratory. In this colloquium, following a pedagogical introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics, I present some recent exciting results from CERN's flagship experiment, the Large Hadron Collider, from searches for new interactions of the Higgs boson to probes of quantum entanglement at TeV energies. He will also discuss possible options for a post-LHC collider flagship at the LHC, a once-in-a-generation decision which is likely to be taken in the coming months, and motivate the physics case of such machines.
VU
Colloquium
astrophysics