Swinburne CQOS physicists awarded 'Spotlight on Optics'

In joint work with Kaled Dechoum of the Fluminense Federal University in Brazil, CQOS physicists Laura Rosales-Zarate and Peter Drummond were given the Spotlight on Optics recognition of the Journal of the Optical Society of America, in a highlighted article of May 2016.

Their research: 'Critical fluctuations in an optical parametric oscillator: when light behaves like magnetism' shows that when interacting with a nonlinear optical device, light can behave as an exotic type of magnetic material, displaying new types of phase transition.

Complex spatial patterns have been observed previously, but these new patterns and phase-transitions in optics are entirely generated from quantum noise. Additionally, they fall into a novel class of phase-transitions, which are not readily observed in fluids or solids.

These optical phase transitions are created and controlled through quantum non-equilibrium effects with an external laser, giving great tunability and potential for applications.

SEE: https://www.osapublishing.org/spotlight/summary.cfm?id=339008