Professional Experience

John leads the Ultrafast Optical and Electronics Systems Group, which is pioneering diagnostic techniques bridging the gap between ultrafast optics (subpicosecond) and high bandwidth electronics (>10 GHz). His doctoral work demonstrated light-by-light switching on a chip enhanced by microresonators, later published as a textbook. He invented the chipscale SLIDER deflector that set a world record for the fastest deflection of a light beam. He is the lead scientist for the front end of the NIF laser and designed the architecture for the high-contrast front end of the ARC Petawatt upgrade. He developed a system of 48 optically addressable, programmable spatial shapers that shape the NIF laser beams to safely optimize the extraction of energy from the main amplifiers. He has been awarded four R&D 100 awards, four patents, and authored over 30 technical articles.

Research Interests

Novel devices by which light fields manipulate other light fields, ultrafast diagnostics, high-power lasers, nonlinear optics, integrated and fiber optics, optically addressable light valves, laser beam and pulse shaping.

Ph.D., Optics, University of Rochester, 2003

M.S., Optical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1998

B.E., Engineering Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, 1996

T. Shih, C. H. Sarantos, S. M. Haynes, and J. E. Heebner, “Chipscale, single-shot gated ultrafast optical recorder,” Optics Express 20, p. 414, 2012.

J. E. Heebner et. al, “Programmable beam spatial shaping system for the National Ignition Facility,” SPIE Proc. 7916, 2011.

C. H. Sarantos and J. E. Heebner, “Solid-state ultrafast all-optical streak camera enabling high-dynamic-range picosecond recording,” Optics Letters 35, p. 1389, 2010.

J. E. Heebner, A. K. Sridharan, M. J. Messerly, J. W. Dawson, P. H. Pax, R. J. Beach, and C. P. J. Barty, “High Brightness, Quantum-Defect-Limited Conversion Efficiency in Cladding-Pumped Raman Fiber Laser Amplifiers and Oscillators,” Optics Express 18, p. 14705, 2010.

J. E. Heebner, R. Grover, and T. Ibrahim, Optical Microresonators: Theory, Fabrication, and Applications, Springer-Verlag, London, 2008.

J. E. Heebner, N. N. Lepeshkin, A. Schweinsberg, G. W. Wicks, R. W. Boyd, R. Grover, and P.-T. Ho, “Enhanced Linear & Nonlinear Optical Phase Response of AlGaAs Microring Resonators,” Optics Letters 29 p. 769, 2004.