Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Tim (TJ) LaFave Jr

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EDUCATION

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, 2006, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC

M.S. Applied Physics, 2001, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC

B.S. Physics, 1996, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Research Scientist, 2018 – 2023, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Research Professor, 2015 – 2018, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

Technical Consultant, patent development, 2015 – 2017, Self-Employed, Dallas, TX

Research Scientist, 2014 – 2015, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Research Associate, 2008 – 2013, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Postdoctoral Research Scholar, 2007 – 2008, Dept. of Physics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2006 – 2007, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Department of Physics, Research Scientist, 2018 – 2023

  • Developed a compact anisotropic THz microspectroscopy instrument using a THz quantum cascade laser and room temperature THz detector in collaboration with Longwave Photonics
  • Devised and implemented a robust calibration procedure for custom-built stationary sample anisotropic THz microspectroscopy (SSATM) instrument
  • Significantly simplified optics alignment procedure of a Si-prism based THz quarter waveplate to within 1 hour (previously, a weeks-long process) including instructional video
  • Created analysis tools (Maple and Igor) for far-field anisotropic THz microscopy (ATM)
  • Performed far-field ATM measurements using closed-cycle (He) and flow (LN) cryostats
  • Installed and used an Edinburgh far-IR CO2 molecular gas laser with a Bruker FTIR
  • Computational modelling of THz light through a subwavelength aperture using Ansys HFSS
  • Integrated/implemented breadboard-scale SSATM with discrete and continuous orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP) sources in collaboration with Microtech Instruments
  • THz spectroscopy of molecular crystals: proteins, sucrose, fructose, oxalic acid and glucose
  • Managed research group web pages (markelz.physics.buffalo.edu)
  • Created user manuals and instructional videos for primary measurement procedures

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

Department of Electrical Engineering, Research Professor, 2015 – 2018

  • Developed benchtop and chip-scale compatible architectures for photon qubit based Bell state oscillators as part of two awarded patents in quantum computing
  • Investigated the interaction of twisted light with chiral systems for biomedical applications
  • Investigated structured coherent light for telecommunication applications
  • Aided in development of holey THz dielectric waveguides for chip-to-chip communication
  • Aided in the development of holey THz dielectric vortex fiber for optical orbital angular momentum (OAM), or “twisted light,” applications

UT-Dallas, Department of Electrical Engineering

Research Scientist, 2014 – 2015

  • Aided in the development of an OAM-based GPON fiber testbed

Research Associate, 2008 – 2013

  • Invented a soft polymer optical fiber buds processing method for bundled fibers used in fNIRS research at UT-Southwestern
  • EO Polymers. (Intel) Improved processing and spectroscopy of synthesized polymer films.
  • Neurophotonics. (DARPA) Optimized processing of optical sensors and invented bio- and E-field-compatible packaging for WGM sensors used to study neuronal activity
  • PhASER. (DARPA) Implemented process travelers to manage fabrication of EO filters in multi quantum well InP, integrated nano- and microscale processes, and reduced process time by 75% with improved overall device quality

University of Iowa, Department of Physics

Postdoctoral Research Scholar, 2007 – 2008

  • SLEDS (US ARMY) I performed etch studies in GaSb-based materials for LED-based infrared scene simulation.

UNC-Charlotte, Department of Electrical Engineering

Graduate and Postdoctoral Research, [doctoral advisor: Raphael Tsu], 1997 – 2007

  • I discovered correlations between the 1904 classical plum-pudding model and natural atomic shell-filling.
  • Theoretical investigation of discrete charges in quantum dots.
  • I developed a comprehensive discrete charge electrostatics interactions model including a new definition of capacitance appropriate to nanoscale, few-electron capacitance.
  • I proposed a novel quantum mechanical framework applied to electrons in spherical quantum dots to include a finite barrier and other physical properties.
  • I demonstrated an epitaxial process to yield unique defect-density profiles in Si thin films as studied by FTIR of H-decorated stretching bonds in collaboration with a visiting scientist
  • I assembled UHV-MBEs for metals and Si/Ge, demonstrated an SOI technology with p-doped c-Si over SiO2, and conducted TEM, SEM, LEED, and RHEED studies.
  • I built a dark room to develop photographic plates from older generation TEMs using a nitrogen burst system.

Kent State University, Department of Physics

Graduate Research Assistant, 1996 – 1997

  • I developed LabView code for 2D infrared spectroscopy of liquid crystals.

Illinois Institute of Technology, Department of Physics

Undergraduate Researcher, 1995 – 1996

  • I fabricated and tested Schottky barrier diode solar cells (supported by SPS and Motorola).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE

University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Substitute Lecturer, Physics

  • General Physics II, 2019

University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Guest Lecturer, Department of Electrical Engineering

Fields and Waves, 2008 – 2015, Example: youtube.com/watch?v=etpiHLa8YTE

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC

Department of Electrical Engineering, Teaching Assistant

  • Intro. Engineering Practices II, cleanroom-based microfabrication course, 2001 – 2003
  • Systems and Electronics Laboratory, 2000 – 2001

Department of Physics, Teaching Assistant

Introductory Physics Laboratory, Algebra- and Calculus-based, 1997 – 1999

Kent State University, Kent, OH

Department of Physics, Graduate Teaching Assistant, 1996 – 1997

  • General College Physics Laboratory II and Recitation
  • General College Physics Laboratory I and Recitation

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

  • Student office worker: Technical writing program development, 1992 – 1996
  • Writing tutor for international students, 1992 – 1993
THESIS COMMITTEES

MSEE, Sahil Sakpal, Spatial Division Multiplexing using IG Beams, SMU, Aug. 2017.

MSEE, Regan Klein, Z-Transform Techniques in the Design of MZ Modulators, SMU, Apr. 2017.

MSEE, Mehdi Nouri, Optical Orbital Angular Momentum Metrology, UT-Dallas, Dec. 2014.
PATENTS
  1.  #11,657,313 (US) Systems and Methods for Preservation of Qubits (cont. of 10,878,333 and 10,579,936)
  2. #11,080,614 (US) Systems and Methods for Quantum Coherence Preservation of Qubits
PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapters

  1. R. Tsu, T. LaFave Jr., “Role of symmetry in conductance, capacitance, and doping of quantum dots,” in The Wonder of Nanotechnology: Quantum Optoelectronic Devices and Applications, M. Razeghi, L. Esaki, and K. von Klitzing, eds., (SPIE Press, 2013) pp. 3-38. Book Link

Refereed Journal Articles

  1. K. N. Smith, T. P. LaFave Jr., D. L. MacFarlane, M. A. Thornton, “Higher-radix Chrestenson gates for photonic quantum computation,” Journal of Applied Logics: The IfCoLog Journal of Logics and Their Applications, 5(6) 1781-1798 (2018).
  2. S. Sakpal, G. Milione, M.-J. Li, M. Nouri, H. Shahoei, T. LaFave Jr., S. Ashrafi, D. MacFarlane, "Stability of Ince-Gaussian beams in elliptical core few-mode fibers" Opt. Lett. 43(11) 2657-2659 (2018). doi: 10.1364/OL.43.002656
  3. N. Aflakian, T. LaFave Jr., K. K. O, S. Ashrafi, D. MacFarlane, “Design, fabrication and demonstration of a dielectric vortex waveguide in the sub-terahertz region,” Appl. Opt. 56 7123 (2017). doi: 10.1364/AO.56.007123
  4. N. Aflakian, N. Yang, T. LaFave Jr., K. 0, D. MacFarlane, “Square dielectric THz waveguides,” Opt. Exp. 24 14951 (2016). doi: 10.1364/OE.24.014951
  5. T. LaFave Jr., “Discrete transformations in the Thomson problem,” J. Electrostat. 72 39 (2014). doi: 10.1016/j.elstat.2013.11.007
  6. T. LaFave Jr., “Correspondences between the classical electrostatic Thomson problem and atomic electronic structure,” J. Electrostat. 71 1029 (2013). doi: 10.1016/j.elstat.2013.10.001
  7. B. Cheek, M. Dabkowski, A. El Nagdi, L. R. Hunt, T. P. LaFave Jr., K. Liu, D. L. MacFarlane, V. Ramakrishna, "Analysis of a polynomial system arising in the design of an optical lattice filter useful in channelization," Acta Appl. Math. 118 107 (2012). doi: 10.1007/s10440-012-9680-8
  8. D. L. MacFarlane, M. P. Christensen, K. Liu, T. LaFave Jr., G.A. Evans, N. Sultana, T. W. Kim, J. Kim, J. B. Kirk, N. Huntoon, M. Dabkowski, L. R. Hunt, V. Ramakrishna, “Four-port nanophotonic frustrated total internal reflection coupler,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 24 58 (2012). doi: 10.1109/LPT.2011.2172204
  9. D. L. MacFarlane, M. P. Christensen, A. E. Nagdi, G. A. Evans, L. R. Hunt, N. Huntoon, J. Kim, T. W. Kim, J. Kirk, T. LaFave Jr., K. Liu, V. Ramakrishna, M. Dabkowski, N. Sultana, “Experiment and theory of an active optical filter,” J. Quant. Electron. 48 307 (2012). doi: 10.1109/JQE.2011.2174615
  10. T. LaFave Jr., “Discrete charge dielectric model of electrostatic energy,” J. Electrostat. 69 414 (2011). doi: 10.1016/j.elstat.2011.06.006
  11. A. El Nagdi, K. Liu, T. P. LaFave Jr., L. R. Hunt, V. Ramakrishna, M. Dabkowski, D. L. MacFarlane, M. P. Christensen, “Active integrated filters for RF-photonic channelizers,” Sensors 11 1297 (2011). doi: 10.3390/s110201297
  12. N. Sultana, W. Zhou, T. LaFave Jr., D. L. MacFarlane, “HBr based inductively coupled plasma etching of high aspect ratio nanoscale trenches in InP: Considerations for photonic applications,” J. Vac. Sci. B 27 2351 (2009). doi: 10.1116/1.3250263
  13. T. LaFave Jr., R. Tsu, “The value of monophasic capacitance of few-electron systems” Microelectron. J. 40 791 (2009). doi: 10.1016/j.mejo.2008.11.035
  14. T. LaFave Jr., R. Tsu, “Capacitance: A property of nanoscale materials based on spatial symmetry of discrete electrons,” Microelectron. J. 39 617 (2008). doi: 10.1016/j.mejo.2007.07.105
  15. J. Zhu, T. LaFave Jr., R. Tsu, "Capacitance of few electron dielectric spheres," Microelectron. J. 37 1293 (2006). doi: 10.1016/j.mejo.2006.07.013

Conference Proceedings

  1. D. K. George, T. J. LaFave, A. G. Markelz, I. McNee, P. Tekavec, V. Kozlov, and P. Schunemann, "Tunable compact narrow band THz sources for frequency domain THz anisotropic spectroscopy," Proc. SPIE 10983, Next-Generation Spectroscopic Technologies XII, 1098311 2019. DOI: 10.1117/12.2519878
  2. H. Kumar, H. Yao, T. Ei, N. Ashrafi, T. LaFave Jr., S. Ashrafi, D.L. MacFarlane, and R. Henderson, “Physical Phaseplate for the Generation of a Millimeter-Wave Hermite-Gaussian Beam” 2016 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS) 234-237 (2016).
  3. D. L. MacFarlane, M. P. Christensen, A. E. Nagdi, G. A. Evans, L. R. Hunt, N. Huntoon, J. Kim, T. W. Kim, J. Kirk, T. P. LaFave, K. Liu, V. Ramakrishna, M. Dabkowski, & N. Sultana “Two dimensional optical lattice filters with gain: Fabrication and experimental results” Quant. Electronics Conf. & Lasers and Electro-optic (CLEO/IQEC/PACIFIC RIM) 1018-1020 (2011).
  4. D. L. MacFarlane, M. P. Christensen, L. R. Hunt, J. Kim, T. W. Kim, T. P. LaFave, K. Liu, A. E. Nagdi, N. Sultana, V. Ramakrishna & M. Dabkowski “Active Optical Lattice Filters with Nanophotonics Four-Port Couplers” 15th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC2010) Technical Digest July 2010 7D3-4 (2010).
  5. M. P. Christensen, D. L. MacFarlane, L. R. Hunt, J. Kim, T. W. Kim, T. P. LaFave, K. Liu, A. El Nagdi, N. Sultana, V. Ramakrishna, N. Huntoon, & M. Dabkowski “Active lattice filter with nanophotonic FTIR-couplers for integrated photonic channelizer” Photonics Global Conference (PGC) 1-4 (2010).
  6. D. L. MacFarlane, L. R. Hunt, V. Ramakrishna, W. Zhou, N. Sultana, & A. Stark “Chip-Scale Analog Optical Signal Processing” Conf. Proc. - LEOS Ann. Meeting, 437-438 (2008).
  7. “A New Definition of Capacitance of Few Electron Systems” PIERS Proceedings, Hanzhou, China, March 24-28, 1269-1274 (2008) with R. Tsu.

Pending Publications

  1. T. LaFave Jr, "Modernizing Electrostatics” Series, in preparation
  2. I. Energy Stored in Nanoscale Systems of Discrete Charges
  3. II. Discrete Charges in a Dielectric Object
  4. III. Discrete Charge Capacitance
  5. IV. Electron Shell-Filling in Quantum Dots
  6. V. Geometric Symmetry and Quantum Numbers
  7. VI. Thomson Problem Energies and the Periodic Table
INVITED TALKS
2013

“Interaction of Electrons in a Nanosphere” Superlattice Workshop, UNC, Charlotte, May 5-7
2006

“Capacitance of Dielectric Spheres in the Absence of Metal Contacts: A Classical Model of Discrete Electrons for Nanoscale Materials and Devices” NIST, Boulder, CO, Dec. 15

 
CONFERENCES
2016

“Orbital angular momentum multiplexing using low-cost VCSELs for datacenter applications” Frontiers in Optics / Laser Science (FiO/LS), Oct. 17-21, Rochester, NY.
2016

“Square holey cladding dielectric THz waveguides for chip-to-chip communication” Frontiers in Optics / Laser Science (FiO/LS) , Oct. 17-21, Rochester, NY.
2016

“Physical phaseplate for the generation of a millimeter-wave Hermite-Gaussian beam” IEEE Radio and Wireless Week Austin, TX, Jan. 24-27.
2013

“Interactions of Electrons in Nanospheres” Superlattice Workshop, May 5-7, Charlotte, NC.
2010

"Active Optical Lattice Filters with Nanophotonic Four-Port Couplers” 15th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference, July 5-9, Sapporo, Japan.
2008

“Chip-Scale Analog Optical Signal Processing” 21st Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, LEOS 2008, Nov. 9-13, Newport Beach, CA.
2001

"Lateral Epitaxial Overgrowth of Si and SiGe on SiO2 using Buried Low-Temperature (Ts < 500&deg;C) Solid Metal Mediated Epitaxy" MRS Fall 2001 Symp. A: Mat. Issues in Novel Si-Based Tech., Nov. 26-28, Boston.
2000

"Fabrication of Buried Oxide Structures at Low Temperature (Ts < 500°C) using Solid-Metal-Mediated Molecular Beam Epitaxy” Presentation, AVS 1st Intl. Conf. on Microelectronics and Interfaces, Feb. 7-11, Santa Clara, CA.
2000

"Integrated Shallow-Junction p-Type Doping and Epitaxial Metallization of Si at Low-Temperatures (Ts < 500°C) using Solid-Metal Mediated Molecular Beam Epitaxy (SMM-MBE)" AVS 2nd International Conference on Advanced Materials and Proc. for Microelectronics, Feb. 7-11, Santa Clara, CA.
2000

"Buried Low-Temperature (Ts < 500°C) Lateral Epitaxial Overgrowth of Si on SiO2 using Solid Metal Mediated Epitaxy" AVS 47th International Symposium, Oct. 2-6, 2000, Boston.

 
DEPARTMENTAL TALKS
2015

“Classical atoms and quantum dots: when size doesn’t matter” Southern Methodist University, Oct, 22-23.
2008

“A New Classical Electrostatic Approach to Ground State Energy, Capacitance and Atomic Structure” University of Texas at Dallas, EE Seminar Series, Nov. 7.

 
SERVICE TO PROFESSION

Peer Review for: American Journal of Physics (2019-), Applied Optics (2011-), Journal of Computational Science (2014-), Optics Express (2012-), Optics Letters (2012-), Optical Materials Express (2013-), Physics Letters A (2014-)

Adopt-A-Physicist, sponsored by AIP/SPS, APS, AAPT, 2009-2015
AWARDS & HONORS
2001

Research Award Finalist, superior performance in conduct of applied research, UNC-Charlotte
1995

Clinton E. Stryker Distinguished Services Award for Leadership, Illinois Institute of Technology

 
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)

American Physical Society (APS), Society of Physics Students (SPS)

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Optical Society of America (OSA)

Planetary Society

Sigma Pi Sigma, National Physics Honor Society, Apr. 23, 1999