Professor Ewan M.Wright

COLLEGE OF OPTICAL SCIENCES

Professor at the College of Optical Sciences (weather), joint appointment with the Department of Physics, at the University of Arizona, Honorary Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews; B. Sc., Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, 1980; Ph. D. Heriot-Watt University, 1983; Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Munich 1983-1985; College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, 1985-date.

Last updated:  7/1/09

Research Interests

•  Optical binding of particles, optically bound matter, nonlinear optics in soft condensed media.
•  Theory of quantum degenerate gases, Tonks-Girardeau gases
  

This work is carried out in collaboration with many colleagues including Professors Marvin Girardeau at the College of Optical Sciences, and Professor Kishan Dholakia's Optical Trapping Group at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Teaching & Advising

Current classes

• Opti 310      Physical Optics I, Fall 2009
• Opti 492      Directed Research - Studies in Beam Propagation, Fall 2009
• Opti 553      Elements of Nonlinear Optics, Spring 2010
• Opti 447      Optical Physics, Spring 2010

      Login to the Opti 310 Class website    http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Wright/opti310login.htm

      Login to the Opti 546 Class website    :http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Wright/opti546login.htm

      Login to the Opti 553 Class website    :http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Wright/opti553login.htm

 

Previous classes

• Opti 501       Electromagnetic Waves
• Opti 511R    Optical Physics and Lasers
• Opti 541       Introduction to Lasers
• Opti 542X    Optical Beams and Resonators
• Opti 544       Advanced Linear Optics
• Opti 545       Nonlinear Optics
• Opti 546       Physical Optics
• Opti 547X    Optical Physics

Current group members

 

• Steve Lee, Ph. D student (St. Andrews)

Ph. D and Masters students supervised

Selected & recent papers

• Nonlinear atom optics, with G. Lenz and P. Meystre, Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 382 (1993).
• Collapses and revivals of Bose-Einstein condensates formed in small atomic samples, with D. F. Walls and J. C. Garrison, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2158 (1996).
• Quantum dynamics of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential, with G. J. Milburn, J. Corney, and D. F. Walls, Phys. Rev. A. 55, 4318 (1997).
• Dynamic spatial replenishment of femtosecond pulses propagating in air, with M. Mlejnek and J. V. Moloney, Opt. Lett. 23, 382 (1998).
• Optically turbulent femtosecond light guide in air, with M. Mlejnek, M. Kolesik, and J. V. Moloney, Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 382 (1999).
• Ground state properties of a one-dimensional condensate of hard core bosons on a ring, with M. D. Girardeau and J. Triscari, Phys. Rev. A 63, 033601 (2001).
• Dynamic nonlinear X-waves for femtosecond pulse propagation in water, with M. Kolesik and J. V. Moloney, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253901 (2004).

• Bistability and hysteresis for optical binding of dielectric spheres in one dimension, with N. K. Metzger and K. Dholakia, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 068102 (2006).

• Experimental observation of modulational instability and optical spatial soliton arrays in soft condensed matter, with P. J. Reece and K. Dholakia, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 203902 (2007).

• The dark spots of Arago, with P Fischer, S. E. Skelton, C. G. Leburn, C. T. Streuber, and K. Dholakia, Optics Express 15, 11860 (2007).

• Rotating ground states of a 1D spin-polarized gas of fermionic atoms with attractive p-wave interactions on a mesoscopic ring, with M. Girardeau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 200403 (2008).

• Nonlinear optical response of colloidal suspensions, with W. M. Lee, R. El-Ganainy, D. N. Christodoulides, and K. Dholakia, Optics Express 17, 10277 (2009).

List of refereed papers

Web of Science

Ewan's Researcher ID:

General Information

Other AMO Related Work at the College of Optics  

Prof. H. M. Gibbs	Fundamental physics of semiconductor quantum-confined structures
Prof. R. Binder	Theoretical Investigations of optical properties of semiconductors
Prof. G. Khitrova	Fundamental physics of semiconductor quantum-confined structures
Prof. P. Jessen	Experimental AMO physics, laser cooling, optical lattices
Prof. P. Meystre	Theoretical AMO physics, BEC, nonlinear atom optics,
Prof. M. D. Girardeau	Many-body theory and Bose-Einstein condensation.
Prof. B. P. Anderson	Experimental Bose-Einstein condensation.
Prof. R. J. Jones	Ultrashort lasers, precision metrology

Other interests

• Tucson guitar society
• Arizona Opera

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