In this edition, I would, first of all, like to welcome Amol Delmade, who is taking over the “Photonics Worldwide – This is my Lab” column from now onwards. I would like to thank all the researchers who have contributed to this column so far. I had an amazing time getting to know all of the participants in the past editions. If you are a Ph.D. student or an early career researcher and would like the opportunity to be featured in this column, please reach out to Amol.

In this edition, we would like to introduce you to Cindy Valencia Caicedo from Mexico, who works on nonlinear nano-optics, Guoqiang Li from China who is focusing on optical communications, and Xing Ouyang from Ireland, who has recently secured funding to start their own business for communication networks.

Senta Jantzen and Amol Delmade (amoldelmade@ieee.org)

My name is Cindy Valencia Caicedo. I am a Ph.D. student in Optical Sciences at the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE) in Mexico. I am from Cali, Colombia. I received a B.Sc. in Physics at Universidad del Valle, Colombia. During my B.Sc. I found optics a new challenge and perspective on my scientific career. For this reason, I started an MSc. in Optical Sciences at CICESE.

Currently, I am working towards a Ph.D. in the area of nonlinear nanophotonics at CICESE, under the supervision of Prof. Anatoly Khomenko at the laboratory of nonlinear devices. My research involves the experimental and numerical study of second-harmonic generation from relief subwavelength grating III-V semiconductor crystals and plasmonic nanostructures. Recently we numerically demonstrated that hybrid subwavelength gratings have a high second harmonic generation efficiency associated with different types of resonant behaviors on the gratings.

My name is Guoqiang Li and I am a Ph.D. student at the School of Information Science and Technology of Fudan University in China, in the group of Prof. Nan Chi. I received my B.Sc degree from the School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, China in 2019. My research at Fudan has concentrated on optical communications and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) technology.

Originally, I studied the transmission performance of visible light communication based on the light-emitting diode, GaN laser, and commercial headlight, by using advanced modulation formats and DSP algorithms. Currently, I am working on high-speed optical fiber communications for access networks under the guidance of Prof. Junwen Zhang. The optical access network has attracted increasing interest among academia and industry driven by advanced services and applications, such as 5G/6G networks and cloud computing. The passive optical network (PON) architecture is a cost-effective point-to-multipoint solution to satisfy the bandwidth requirements for access networks. My research focuses on high-speed PON transmission, including effective pre/post-equalization schemes, upstream burst-mode DSP algorithms, etc.

I am Xing Ouyang, a researcher at the Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork in Ireland. I earned my Ph.D. from the Photonic Systems Group of the SFI Irish Photonic Integration Centre led by Prof. Paul Townsend. My research interests include information theory, advanced modulation and digital signal processing for communication and radar, and high-speed wireless and optical systems — which means I work with light waves vibrating from megahertz to terahertz. 

While working on the optical phenomenon called Fresnel diffraction during my Ph.D., sparkled by the unique spatial-frequency diffraction pattern after a slit, I invented the so-called orthogonal chirp-division multiplexing (OCDM) technology. This waveform uniquely modulates the information in both time-frequency domains of radio or light waves. The unique OCDM waveform enables a higher data rate for next-generation communications and offers attractive features, such as localization and sensing for integrated radar and communication. These new features are indispensable for future 6G networks connecting the physical, digital, and human worlds. Based on the infrastructure of the Photonic System Lab at Tyndall, I have demonstrated the high-speed optical-wireless access systems for integrated radar and communication using our OCDM technology. Moreover, with these promising advantages, I recently secured the funding for a start-up initiative, named ChirpComm, aimed at the wireless baseband market. We are developing air-interface technologies for 6G radio access systems, building a connected world with our unique waveforms.