Boubacar Kante

Research Bio

Boubacar Kante is the inaugural Chenming Hu endowed Chaired Professor at UC Berkeley, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS). His multidisciplinary research interests are in the areas of wave-matter interaction and classical and quantum optoelectronics. His interests spans from microwaves to optics and related fields such as antennas, nanophotonics, novel materials, and nonlinear optics.

Boubacar Kanté is best known for his discovery of scale-invariant lasers, also known as Berkeley Surface Emitting Lasers (BerkSELs), that overcome a more than six-decade long challenge in wave-physics on how to increase the size of a lasing cavity while maintaining it single mode. He proposed and demonstrated the world first topological laser (an intrinsically non-reciprocal laser) based on the quantum Hall effect for light, a demonstration selected as one of the top 10 discoveries by Physics World in 2017. He demonstrated the world first bound state in continuum (BIC) laser, where he highlighted the unique scaling of BIC cavities for enabling compact and efficient light sources. He also demonstrated the first on-demand quantum light source in silicon emitting telecom photons. His group hold the world record for plasmonic nano bio sensing (immuno-assay nanosensing) using a scheme he proposed for the subwavelength-scale implementation of singularities of open systems known as exceptional-points. He also holds the world record for the bandwidth and efficiency of planar structured lenses, a structure he named “the Fishnet-Achromatic-Metalens (FAM)”. Prof. Kanté demonstrated the first non-magnetic metamaterial invisibility cloak. He introduced the notion of symmetry/parity of ring resonators, an idea used to prove that closed rings, previously believed incapable of producing artificial magnetism, can make ultra-broadband negative index in metamaterials.

Research Expertise and Interest

optoelectronics, quantum optics, optimization, Antennas, Biophysics and Sensing

In the News

New Single-Mode Semiconductor Laser Delivers Power With Scalability

Berkeley engineers have created a new type of semiconductor laser that accomplishes an elusive goal in the field of optics: the ability to emit a single mode of light while maintaining the ability to scale up in size and power. It is an achievement that means size does not have to come at the expense of coherence, enabling lasers to be more powerful and to cover longer distances for many applications.

Making lasers more efficient, versatile and compact

Their inner workings reside in the realm of physics, but lasers make everyday life possible. With support from the Bakar Fellows Program, Boubacar Kante is preparing to fabricate a prototype and demonstrate the potential of the Bound State in Continuum Surface Emitting Laser (BICSEL) for a range of applications.

Light unbound: Data limits could vanish with new optical antennas

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a new way to harness properties of light waves that can radically increase the amount of data they carry. They demonstrated the emission of discrete twisting laser beams from antennas made up of concentric rings roughly equal to the diameter of a human hair, small enough to be placed on computer chips.

Record-breaking metalens could revolutionize optical technologies

Traditional lenses — like the ones found in eyeglasses — are bulky, heavy and only focus light across a limited number of wavelengths. A new, ultrathin metalens developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, uses an array of tiny, connected waveguides that resembles a fishnet to focus light at wavelengths spanning from the visible to the infrared with record-breaking efficiencies.
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