Paper submitted by Prof. C.T. Shu was accepted by Top Class OFC Conference postdeadline.

Paper submitted by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in Opto-electronic Research Lab., was accepted postdeadline in the world class OFC Conference in San Diego.

As quoted from Prof H.K. TSANG, a renowned researcher in the area :

"I wish to extend my congratulations to Chester for getting his postdeadline paper accepted at OFC here in San Diego. There were 117 postdeadline submissions and only 35 accepted. As OFC is the top optical communications conference in the world (thousands of attendees), it is an extremely difficult and rare achievement to get a postdeadline paper accepted at OFC particularly as only the most significant results are submitted for the postdeadline session - Chester deserves our congratulations for his success in bringing international recognition to CUHK for his work in optical signal processing."

The paper is entitled "Delay-asymmetric nonlinear loop mirror" authored by Dr. Mable P. Fok and Prof. Chester Shu. They demonstrate a new class of nonlinear optical fiber device that provides a unique solution to address the challenge of demodulating differential phase-shifted keying signals at variable bit-rates. The work will have a significant impact in ultrafast processing of optical communication signals.

Biophotonics--Femtosecond fusion

Prof. KT Chan and his student, Mr. He Hao, published a recent paper on Biophotonics in Applied Physics Letters Vol.93, 163901 (2008). This paper has been highlighted in the 2008 Dec. issue of a very prestigious journal, Nature Photonics. The quotes from Nature Photonics read:

Researchers in Hong Kong have come up with a way of efficiently fusing human cells together using femtosecond light pulses from a fibre laser. Cell fusion happens naturally, but the ability to do it artificially provides cell biologists with a better understanding of the process. This in turn could lead to developments in genetic techniques and cancer treatments. Previous optics-based fusion techniques, such as the use of nanosecond-long pulses of UV light, have suffered from poor fusion success rates, about 10%, and surrounding cells were damaged by scattered light. Polyethylene glycol was found to improve the efficiency for fusing yeast cells, but it is toxic. The challenge is to improve the efficiency, but at the same time keep the cells alive. Hao He and co-workers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong take an all-optical approach that does not require any chemicals. Optical tweezers moved two human heptocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) into contact. Pulses of light 200 fs long, at a wavelength of 1,550 nm were focused onto the contact area for about 10 s. The cells were then incubated for 90 minutes at 37 °C. The fusion was successful in 37.5% of the tests. Thermal effects were limited to the focal volume, reducing disruption to surrounding cells. The technique was also used to join two different types of cell, HepG2 and human cervical cancer cells, although this was achieved at a much lower efficiency of 10%.

http://www.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/wlink/ktNature_photon.2008.233.pdf

Prof. H.K Tsang was awarded the Research Excellence Award 2006-2007. The award comes with a plaque and a grant of HK$200K to support research activities.

A significant citation of a pioneering paper by an EE team
One of early Applied Physics Letter papers by an EE team on semiconductor surface morphology by AFM (C. C. Hsu, Y. C. Lu, J. B. Xu, I. Wilson, Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 1959 (1994).) has been cited by a Science paper (2006) from an IBM research group on silicon. The journal is very prestigious in science and technology community. The EE's team work has drawn global attention after its publication. Since then AFM has been widely used for surface quality test in various sectors of information technology industry.