Research

1. Nonlinear Optics in Multimode & Few-mode Fibers

January 2017 - present; Graduate Research (Photonics Research Laboratory)

PI: Prof. Thomas E. Murphy, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP), University of Maryland

• Experimentally investigating complex nonlinear interactions between spatial modes of multimode and few-mode fibers arising from Kerr and Raman optical nonlinearities.

2. Phase Sensitive Amplification (PSA) in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

September 2015 - June2016; Bachelor’s Thesis Project

PI: Dr. Deepa Venkitesh, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras

• Worked on Four Wave Mixing-based Phase Sensitive Amplification and Phase Squeezing in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA).
• Demonstrated, via numerical simulation, the phase sensitivity of gain seen by a signal.
• Also demonstrated the regeneration of BPSK signals by squeezing phase noise below the standard quantum limit.
• Developed a systematic method for fixing the operating point of the PSA device.

3. Ultra-precise Sensing and Control of Suspended Optics Breadboard in the Crackle Experiment

May-August 2015, as part of LIGO SURF 2015 at Caltech

PI’s: Dr. Gabriele Vajente, Prof. Rana Adhikari, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

• Worked on the Crackling Noise detection experiment, which aims at detecting crackling noise arising in Maraging Steel blade springs used in the Advanced LIGO suspension systems.
• Successfully designed, developed and implemented a feedback damping system for a suspended optics breadboard that was part of the ultra-sensitive Crackling Noise detection setup.
• The damping system that I developed helped improve sensitivity of the setup by a factor of 10 in the region of interest.

4. Experimental Investigation of Photon Statistics in Pseudo-Thermal Laser Sources

December 2014 - April 2015

PI: Prof. CV Krishnamurthy, Department of Physics, IIT Madras

• Built an experimental setup to study the statistics of photons emerging from a pseudo-thermal light source. Using low cost equipment such as APD as opposed to conventionally used and costly PMT’s.
• The aim is to extract photon statistics without single photon counting as is done in traditional experiments.

5. Simulation and Analysis of Pentacene-based Organic Field Effect Transistors

May-August 2014, as part of a research internship at Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Govt. of India

PI: Dr. E Varadarjan, Scientist E, DRDO

• Used Silvaco TCAD tools to simulate Pentacene-based organic field effect transistors to study device characteristics and mobility performance.
• Successfully obtained transfer and drain characteristics of the transistor that matched with the expected results and experimental data reported in literature.
• Performed a literature study on techniques for improving carrier mobility in organic semiconductor devices.

6. Design and Development of Semi-Autonomous Transwheel Robot for ABU Robocon 2014

Aug 2013 - March 2014

As a member of IIT Madras’ team for ABU Robocon 2014; worked at the Centre for Innovation (CFI), the student laboratory of IIT Madras

• Responsible for the electronics and control systems of the robot that represented IIT Madras at the ABU Robocon 2014 contest.
• Built an embedded system consisting of microcontrollers, advanced DC motor controllers, pneumatic pistons, vacuum valves etc.
• Devised algorithms for solving the contest problem statement in the minimum possible time.

7. Autonomous Navigation and Control System for 3-transwheel Omnidirectional Locomotion System

April-September 2013

Student-led project; worked at the Centre for Innovation (CFI)

• Used omnidirectional wheels to develop a robot locomotion system capable of moving in any direction without changing its orientation.
• Developed algorithms and programmed the robot to track its own position on the arena, and autonomously trace any predefined path ith precision, without changing its orientation at all.
• Designed the electronic circuitry for the robot: worked with microcontrollers, rotary encoders, motor controllers and drivers, power electronics of the robot, etc.
• Developed a novel technique to accurately estimate physical parameters of the robot (lengths of arms, distances of wheels from centre of mass, and such) using sensor data of individual wheel motion. Used these parameter estimates for improving precision of complicated motions (such as curve tracing) of the robot.