ABSTRACT
Armenia is a rapidly developing country with an emerging high-tech science and industrial base. In this talk, I will give a brief outlook on current trends in Armenian education and science. I will then overview my personal experience in pursuing a scientific career in Armenia and discuss opportunities and challenges. I will then discuss my research topic on Nanoscale Thermoelectric Photodetectors through the prism of Armenian science. High efficiency photodetectors are relevant to a broad range of science and technology fields, including biophysics, astrophysics, quantum and classical information and telecommunication systems. I will survey different methods of light detection and provide an overview of our ongoing work on thermoelectric photodetectors. I will overview our theoretical calculations and simulations. I will show that thermoelectric detectors may be used to register single photons. I will discuss the importance of managing heat transfer processes and outline single- and multi-layer designs for optimizing pixel detection. Finally, I will examine noise sources and effects on detection level. I will show calculations of Johnson and phonon noises, and study the detector design to maximize the
signal-to-noise ratio at temperatures up to those for liquid nitrogen.

BIOSKETCH
Astghik Kuzanyan is a UCLA Promise Armenian Institute Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2022), working in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department with Prof. Artur Davoyan. Astghik received her Ph.D. in Laser Physics from the Supreme Certificate Committee of the Republic of Armenia, her M.S. degree in Radioengineering and Telecommunication from the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, International Scientific-Educational Centre, and her B.S. degree in Radiophysics from Yerevan State University. Astghik’s research focuses on Single Photon Detection. She also holds an appointment as a researcher at the Institute for Physical Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

For more information, please contact Prof. Ann Karagozian at akaragozian@international.ucla.edu or visit the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute seminar page. All faculty, students, researchers, and guests are welcome to this event.