Biography:

Professor Datuk Dr Harith Ahmad FASc obtained his in BSc in Physics with First Class Honours from the University of Malaya in 1979. Subsequently, he obtained his MSc from the University of Wales in 1980, followed by his PhD in 1983 from the same institution. Upon returning to Malaysia in 1983, he became a member of the academic staff of UM, and since then has led the university’s research into the area of photonics. He is currently a Distinguished Professor, and is also the director of the Photonics Research Centre of the University of Malaya, a Higher Education Centre of Excellence (HiCoE) under the purview of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (MOE). His substantial contributions in the area of photonics has been acknowledged with multiple awards and recognitions, including as a Fellow of Akademi Sains Malaysia and recipient of the Malaysia-Toray Science Foundation Award, Merdeka Award for Scholastic Achievement and ASEAN Outstanding Scientist and Technology Award. He is very active as both a researcher and an academician, with numerous ISI ranked research publications to his name, as well as supervising numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students in photonics.

Speech title: GENERATION OF ULTRASHORT PULSES USING CURRENT 2-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS

Abstract: There has been rapid development of 2-dimensional (2D) materials, especially their application as saturable absorbers (SA) in optical fiber gain materials such as erbium-, thulium-, and thulium/holmium-doped. In this presentation, the evolution of SA will be discussed such as colored glass, semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAM), graphene, graphene oxide, topological insulator (TI), transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD), MXene, and MAX Phase. The fabrication of these 2D materials will be presented. Different arrangements of incorporating these materials in different host materials, such as thin film, microfibers, and also arc-shaped fiber will be discussed. Optical cavities with different optical gain materials will be highlighted with typical results such as measurement of the ultrashort pulses. The application of ultrafast pulses in the industry will also be highlighted.