Dr. Petra Solano

Biography

Petra Solano joined Veyra Institute in 2018 after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harwick Institute for Quantum Optics, where she developed dispersion-engineered silicon nitride microresonators for broadband frequency comb generation. She received her PhD in photonics from the University of Lorreval in 2015, with a dissertation on parametric amplification and squeezing in periodically poled waveguides. Her undergraduate studies in physics were completed at the Caelmoor College of Natural Sciences, graduating with highest distinction in 2010. Before her postdoc she spent a year as a visiting researcher at the Tolani Ultrafast Optics Laboratory, where she gained expertise in pump-probe spectroscopy and few-cycle pulse characterisation.

At Veyra, Solano founded the Nonlinear Optics Lab to pursue a unified programme spanning the generation, manipulation, and measurement of quantum and classical light on integrated photonic chips. The lab's core platform is a low-loss silicon nitride waveguide foundry process — developed in partnership with the Veyra Nanofabrication Cleanroom — which enables on-chip optical parametric oscillation with threshold powers below 1 mW. One research thread exploits this platform for deterministic entangled-photon pair sources whose spectral and temporal modes are controlled by pump-pulse shaping, with applications in quantum key distribution and boson sampling. A second thread targets mode-locked microresonator combs for dual-comb spectroscopy and optical clock applications, where the lab has demonstrated comb stability records in the mid-infrared. Solano holds two patents on dispersion-trimming techniques for integrated resonators and has active collaborations with groups in quantum sensing and integrated photonics across the Institute.

Solano is a member of the Veyra Graduate School Admissions Panel and serves on the programme committee of the Arenfield Conference on Quantum Photonics. She has been principal investigator on three externally funded programmes totalling 5.7 million cr in direct costs, and currently supervises four doctoral students and two postdoctoral researchers. She teaches the graduate module Nonlinear and Quantum Optics each spring and contributes to the Institute's short course on photonic integration.

Research interests

Selected publications

1. Solano P, Ithakis G, Brandt-Morel E. "Deterministic time-frequency entanglement from a dispersion-trimmed microresonator source." Optica Quantum, 3(1): 22–35, 2025. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2503
2. Solano P, Yun L, Falcomer R. "Mid-infrared dual-comb spectroscopy with a single silicon nitride resonator pumped at 1550 nm." Nature Photonics Research, 7(4): 301–314, 2024. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2418
3. Brandt-Morel E, Solano P. "Pump-pulse shaping for spectrally pure photon-pair generation in integrated χ⁽²⁾ waveguides." Proceedings of the Arenfield Conference on Quantum Photonics (ACQP), pp. 130–141, 2023. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2311
4. Solano P, Ithakis G. "Sub-milliwatt-threshold optical parametric oscillation in ultra-low-loss Si₃N₄ microring resonators." Laser & Photonics Reviews, 17(9): 2200–2213, 2022. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2226
5. Yun L, Falcomer R, Solano P. "Ultrafast all-optical switching via cross-phase modulation in dispersion-engineered rib waveguides." Journal of Lightwave Technology & Photonics, 40(12): 4110–4122, 2022. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2214
6. Solano P. "Broadband squeezing and mode selectivity in periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides." Physical Review — Photonics & Quantum Optics, 4(3): 034501, 2021. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2107

Current group members

Postdoctoral researchers

• Dr. Giorgos Ithakis — microresonator frequency combs, optical clock applications
• Dr. Eliane Brandt-Morel — entangled-photon pair sources, quantum communication protocols

Doctoral students

• Lin Yun — dual-comb spectroscopy and mid-infrared sensing (Year 4)
• Rafael Falcomer — ultrafast all-optical switching in nonlinear waveguides (Year 3)
• Amara Diouf — mode-locked microresonator lasers for precision metrology (Year 2)
• Selin Çetin — photon-pair correlation measurements for boson sampling (Year 1)