Bjarne Tromborg (born 1940) is a
Danish physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...
, best known for his work in
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...
and
photonics
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...
.
[Henrik Skov, "Kernefysikeren der blev opslugt af optik", ''Ingeniøren'', Nov 27, 2005, http://ing.dk/artikel/67283-kernefysikeren-der-blev-opslugt-af-optik ]
Biography
Tromborg was born in
Give
Give may refer to: making someone get or receive something from someone
Places
* Give, Denmark, a small town
** Give Municipality, a former municipality
Music
* ''Give'' (Balkan Beat Box album), 2012 album by Balkan Beat Box
* ''Give'' (The Bad ...
,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establishe ...
. In 1968, he received the M.Sc. degree in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
and
mathematics from the
Niels Bohr Institute
The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, cele ...
, in
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ...
. He was a university researcher studying high-energy
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...
from 1968 to 1978. In 1979, he joined the research laboratory of the Danish Teleadministrations in Copenhagen. He was Head of Optical Communications Department at Tele Danmark Research,
Horsholm, Denmark from 1987 to 1995.
He was an adjunct professor at the
Niels Bohr Institute
The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, cele ...
from 1991 to 2001. In 1997, he took a leave of absence at the
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Until his retirement at the end June 2006, he was a research professor at Dept. of Communications,
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultra ...
and Materials (currently named
DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering),
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...
.
Research
Tromborg co-authored a research
monograph and approximately one hundred journal and conference publications, mostly on physics and
optoelectronics
Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radiati ...
.
At the Niels Bohr Institute, he carried out research in
elementary particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...
, particularly analytic
S-matrix theory and electromagnetic corrections to
hadron
In particle physics, a hadron (; grc, ἁδρός, hadrós; "stout, thick") is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong interaction. They are analogous to molecules that are held together by the ele ...
scattering. He coauthored a research monograph on
dispersion
Dispersion may refer to:
Economics and finance
* Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns
*Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item
* Wage dispersion, the amount of variat ...
theory.
In the early 1980s, he switched to
photonics
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...
. Tromborg was one of the first to develop advanced theoretical models for complex
semiconductor laser
file:Laser diode chip.jpg, The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale
A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD, or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a di ...
structures such as external
laser cavities and
distributed feedback laser
A distributed-feedback laser (DFB) is a type of laser diode, quantum-cascade laser or optical-fiber laser where the active region of the device contains a periodically structured element or diffraction grating. The structure builds a one-dimensio ...
s in the beginning of the 1980s. Computer simulations and measurements confirmed the validity of the theoretical models and their predictions. Several co-workers including Henning Olesen, Gunnar Jacobsen, Jens Henrik Osmundsen, Finn Mogensen, Kristian Stubkjær, Jesper Mørk, Xing Pan, Hans Erik Lassen and
Björn Jónsson
Björn Jónsson (8 October 1846 – 24 November 1912) was minister for Iceland from 31 March 1909 to 14 March 1911. He was the father of Sveinn Björnsson, the only regent of Iceland and first president of Iceland. Björn became Minister fo ...
contributed to this work over a period of almost 15 years until 1995.
At TeleDanmark Research in the late 1980s and early 1990s Tromborg and colleagues worked to study the dynamics of active
semiconductor materials
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. I ...
in order to understand the physical relaxation processes at play, their strength and characteristic time scales. A pump-probe set-up employing
femtosecond laser
Mode locking is a technique in optics by which a laser can be made to produce pulses of light of extremely short duration, on the order of picoseconds (10−12 s) or femtoseconds (10−15 s). A laser operated in this way is sometimes r ...
s was established and modeling efforts were initialized. Tromborg led the effort to identify this as a topic that would remain important for many years and argued that Denmark should work to lead in the field. He also proposed theoretical methods that could be used to estimate the size of these
ultrafast dynamical effects and their role in understanding the origin of nonlinear gain suppression in semiconductor lasers.
From 1999 to his retirement at the end of June 2006, Tromborg was with the Department of Communications, Optics and Materials (
COM*DTU
The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...
) at the Technical University of Denmark. In this period, he worked in both research and education, as well as in securing several
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
research projects for COM*DTU. Tromborg took up the field of
photonic crystal
A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the ato ...
s and initiated and contributed himself to activities within the theory of photonic crystals. He also applied general techniques within
stochastic
Stochastic (, ) refers to the property of being well described by a random probability distribution. Although stochasticity and randomness are distinct in that the former refers to a modeling approach and the latter refers to phenomena themselve ...
theory and
signal analysis
Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as sound, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniques are used to optimize transmissions, ...
to develop improved descriptions of noise spectra in nonlinear
semiconductor optical amplifier
An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback from ...
s.
Awards and recognition
Tromborg received the Electro-prize from the
Danish Society of Engineers
IDA, The Danish Society of Engineers, ( da, Ingeniørforeningen) is a Danish trade union and interest group for highly educated professionals with a background in technology, science or IT. It has the abbreviation IDA (''Ingeniørforeningen i D ...
in 1981.
He was Chairman of th
Danish Optical Societyfrom 1999 to 2002.
He has been Associate Editor of the
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics
The ''IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering optical, electrical, and electronics engineering, and some applied aspects of lasers, physical optics, and quantum electronics. It is published by the IE ...
since 2003.
At his retirement, a
symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
on
photonics
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...
was held in his honor on 22 June 2006 at the Technical University of Denmark.
References
External links
Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tromborg, Bjarne
Danish physicists
Particle physicists
1940 births
Living people
People from Vejle Municipality