About me

Hi! My name is Sai Kanth, I am a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Quantum and Nonlinear Photonics Group at Columbia University. In July 2022, I defended my Ph.D. thesis in Physics at the University of Maryland. I was previously (May-Dec 2021) a Research Intern at Nokia Bell Labs. In 2016, I received my Bachelor of Technology degree in Engineering Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

My research interests lie in the broad area of photonics. Nonlinear optics, classical and quantum optical communication, orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light and multimode fibers are of specific interest to me. The intersection of fundamental optical science and modern day practical and scientific applications is one that I find fascinating.

(Email: saikanth.dacha [at] columbia [dot] edu)


Recent News

  • 06/2023: I delivered a talk on work from my Ph.D., on intermodal nonlinear effects involving OAM fiber modes, at the Nonlinear Optics Topical Meeting in Waikiki Beach, HI. (Talk ID: Th3A.6)
  • 05/2023: I will be presenting some exciting new research that I’ve been working on at Columbia at CLEO 2023! (Talk ID: SW4L.4)
  • 02/2023: I had the honor of visiting Capitol Hill to advocate for strong Federal support for optics and photonics R&D and meaningful workforce and immigration policy reforms. Please see the Science Policy page for more.
  • 09/2022: I am excited to be joining Alexander Gaeta’s group at Columbia as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist!

  • 07/2022: I defended my Ph.D. thesis (Physics) on ‘Spatiotemporal nonlinear optical effects in multimode fibers’! A pre-recorded version of my thesis defense talk is available here.
  • 05/2022: Our recent work on nonlinear interactions between OAM fiber modes has been published in Optics Express!
  • 03/2021: Represented the University of Maryland at the Emory Global Health Case Competition. Watch my team’s case presentation here!

Current Research

At Columbia, I am a postdoc at Prof. Alexander Gaeta’s research group. My current research interests lie in the realm of microresonators, optical frequency combs and integrated photonics. Previously, at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP), I worked with Prof. Thomas E. Murphy on experimental investigation of nonlinear optical effects in multimode fibers. At Bell Labs, I worked with Dr. René-Jean Essiambre on experimental quantum optical communication. Please see my Research page for further information.

Other Interests

I am an avid photographer and biker. I enjoy spending my free time reading, writing, cooking, painting, and playing Chess.

I consider myself a “philomath” in that I enjoy letting myself get lost in learning things that are new and interesting to me, be it the nitty gritty of commercial aviation, ancient Roman history and its implications for the modern Western world, human psychology and mental health, or the simple yet deeply complex game of chess. Stumbling upon deep connections between things that might initially seem unrelated is a feeling that I relish.

This “cross-disciplinary” (for the lack of a better term) view of the world extends into how I think about scientific research. I am a big believer and advocate in the idea of the edge effect, and I strongly believe that the best and most creative science is done when scientists from a diverse set of backgrounds working in vastly different topics are talking and interacting with one another.