Speaker: Mack Kira (Univ of Michigan)

Title: Quantum-information optoelectronics 

Abstract: Although optoelectronics is the driving force for classical information technology, its quantum applications have not yet materialized. I will overview the fundamental challenges and status quo of semiconductor-based quantum science and technology. I will then focus on recent developments in lightwave electronics – the use of extremely strong lightwaves to transport semiconductor quasiparticles much faster than scattering occurs, and to pave the way for perfect transport of electronic quantum information. These insights will enable ultrafast access and control of electronic quantum information in solids, possibly at petahertz rates. In this context, I will demonstrate how a first-principles quantum dynamic cluster-expansion theory predicts nonperturbative quantum-kinetic and many-body possibilities beyond semiclassical models, often used to motivate lightwave electronics. As examples, I will present several quantitative theory–experiment comparisons, paving the way to attosecond clocking of electron–electron correlations, ultrafast flipping of valleytronic qubit in less than 5fs, and crystal-momentum combs for enabling super-resolution imaging of quantum-material properties.

Short Bio: Mackillo (Mack) Kira received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), was postdoc at the University of Marburg (Germany), research associate at the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), and Professor at the University of Marburg. Since 2016, he has been a professor at the University of Michigan (ECE & Physics) where his group develops systematic quantum theory for semiconductor quantum optics, terahertz spectroscopy, and lightwave electronics. This work includes predicting and explaining quantum-entanglement effects in semiconductor microcavities, introducing semiconductor quantum spectroscopy, discovering the dropleton, the highly entangled quasiparticle, and introducing new concepts to lightwave electronics such as a quasiparticle collider, super-resolution crystal-momentum combs, attosecond clocking of electronic correlations, and petahertz-rate qubit flip in two-dimensional quantum materials. Prof. Kira is an APS, OSA, and Marie-Curie fellow. He is a co-author of more than 180 papers and one of the first text books on Semiconductor Quantum Optics.