The Photonics Research Lab, lead by Thomas E. Murphy at the University of Maryland, conducts research related to integrated optics, nanophotonic devices, nonlinear dynamics, terahertz photonics, nonlinear optics, ultrafast optics, microwave photonics, and optical communication systems. Our central goal is to explore new devices and techniques that improve the speed, sensitivity, resolution, and efficiency of optical communication and sensor systems.

Some recent and ongoing projects include: optical systems for high-speed random number generation, ultrafast optical sampling using two-photon absorption, nonlinear dynamics and chaos in optical and microwave systems, polarization dependence in nonlinear optics, nonlinear optical processes in integrated waveguides, high dynamic range radio-over-fiber communication systems, terahertz materials and devices, and nanoporous optical waveguides for biological and chemical sensing. Please visit our publications page to learn more about our research.

Our research is supported by the National Science FoundationOffice of Naval Research, the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS), and DARPA.