The Optoelectronic Computing Laboratory

The Optoelectronic Computing Laboratory at the Department of Applied Physics of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem imports concepts and phenomena from the realm of fundamental physics, to the arena of optoelectronic engineering.
The laboratory research effort is aimed primarily at providing the generic concepts for integrating digital computers, communication networks, and advanced sensing capabilities which will be the fundamental building blocks of the future cyberspace.
The research activities pursued at the laboratory are spanned over a wide spectrum of research topics in the areas of nonlinear optics and holography, optoelectronics, soft condensed matter physics, material science, sensors and parallel computing.
The laboratory was founded in 1991 by Prof. Aharon Agranat.
The main accomplishments of the laboratory are: the invention of Electroholography - a wavelength selective optical switching method based on governing the reconstruction of volume holograms by electric fields, the discovery of the Dielectric Electrooptic Effect which enables the construction of nonvolatile electroholographic devices, the invention of the KLTN crystal which is the electro-optic substrate of these devices, and the concept of Refractive Index Engineering by the implantation of fast ions in electrooptical substrates which is a generic integration methodology of complex optoelectronic circuits.
An updated overview of the ongoing research in the laboratory can be found in Ongoing Projects.