DEPARTMENT OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS
LABORATORY OF LASER TECHNIQUE

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Quantum Electronics was established in 1978. However, work in the field of Quantum Electronics in the Faculty of Physics started in 1966 when group of scientists in the Department of Radiophysics and Electronics built the first in Bulgaria Nd:glass laser. Presently, the Department of Quantum Electronics consists of one professor, two associated professors, five assistant professors and two physicists. As an average, in the last years 5 to 10 students per year graduate at Bachelor and M. Sc.-level in Quantum Electronics and Laser Technique, and in Laser Physics specialties.

The Department of Quantum Electronics is in close relations with the Laboratory of Laser Technique at the Sofia University, where Laboratory of Femtosecond Photonics is established.

SOME IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FIELD OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS AND LASER TECHNIQUE

  > The first Nd:glass laser in Bulgaria                      - 1966
  > The first picosecond laser in Bulgaria                    - 1972
  > Bulgaria's first nitrogen laser                           - 1975
  > The first generation of the 5-th and 7-th harmonic        
    of a Nd-laser in metal vapors                             - 1977
  > First polariton and parametric-scattering spectra of      
    light in non-centrosymmetric media recorded in Bulgaria   - 1975
  > First excimer laser in Bulgaria                           - 1980
  > First femtosecond laser operation in Bulgaria             - 1986
  > Proposal and practical realization of the first           
    dispersive cavity                                         - 1988
  > Proposal and practical realization of the                 
    first nonlinear mirror for pulsed-laser mode-locking      - 1988
  > First successful experiments in Bulgaria on singular      
    nonlinear optics (ring dark solitary waves)               - 1995
  > First experimental observation and theoretical model      
    of dark beams with mixed type spatial phase dislocations  - 1999
  > Proposal and practical realization  of femtosecond pulse  
    cleaning technique                                        - 2002
  > First generation of phase dislocations (optical vortices)  
    in femtosecond laser fields                               - 2004
  > First sub-30-fs laser oscillator developed in Bulgaria    - 2006

2024-04-12