Peter D. Dragic

Biography

Modern fibers have reached something of an apex in their performance, thus spawning a plethora of approaches and specialty fiber designs meant to enhance their capabilities. These approaches are largely rooted in wave propagation methodologies. My research instead lies at the confluence of waveguide engineering and materials science, imbued with the goal of enabling the next generation of optical fibers. As the coupling of more traditional waveguide engineering with less conventional fiber materials enters the mainstream in the next decade, there will be a renaissance in the capabilities afforded by optical fiber systems. This is enabled by the highly interdisciplinary approach required in the design of next generation fibers. My work is inspired not only by the possibility of greatly improved fiber performance, but also by the goal of enhancing systems technologies. Many highly desirable fiber laser and sensor systems are still severely limited or even forbidden by a number of parasitic processes (generally in the form of a maximum allowable power). It is largely an enhancement in system power, enabled by next generation optical fibers, which will finally bring many of these systems into our modern world. Palpably, I also have a keen interest in optical fiber based systems, especially in spectroscopic and coherent lidar, optical fiber sensing systems, high power fiber laser technologies, and communications.

Research Interest

Coherent optics/imaging