Mahdieh Jabbari

Photonics Ph.D. candidate and optical test engineer with 5+ years of experience building, aligning, automating, and characterizing optical systems. Strong background in nonlinear optics, light–matter interactions, interferometry, and structured-light generation relevant to quantum-state encoding. Trained in silicon photonics design, simulation, and layout, with experience using Lumerical tools.

Proficient in Python and MATLAB for instrument control, automated data acquisition, and analysis. Skilled in experimental troubleshooting and technical documentation, with a strong interest in developing photonic hardware for quantum networking and communication at QTi.

Graduate Research Fellow - University of Ottawa - Ottawa, ON

(2021)

• Built an automated, programmable two-dimensional beam-shaping system using two orthogonal AOMs and RF drive waveforms; wrote MATLAB instrument-control and analysis code (off-axis digital holography), generating 24 Hermite–Gaussian modes with 81% average fidelity.
• Characterized silicon–ITO metasurfaces using linear transmission and femtosecond nonlinear optical measurements; validated results against COMSOL and Tidy3D models, demonstrating four-wave mixing efficiencies above 4.5% (approximately 1,500 times that of bare ITO).
• Evaluated how geometry, substrate, and illumination affect the optical performance of gold cross nanoantennas on glass and ITO, combining Tidy3D simulations with polarization-resolved measurements.
• Operated and troubleshot complex measurement setups, including ultrafast pump-probe holography with an SLM, transient grating spectroscopy with heterodyne detection, cryogenic measurements down to 80 K, and nonlinear optical microscopy of biological tissue.

Research Assistant - Shahid Beheshti University - Tehran, Iran

(2017 - 2019)

• Developed, aligned, and optimized a structured illumination microscopy (SIM) system for enhanced spatial resolution; automated acquisition and analysis in LabVIEW and MATLAB, and characterized the point spread function (PSF) with Zemax modelling.

Ph.D. - Physics (Photonics) - University of Ottawa (2021)

M.Sc. - Atomic and Molecular Physics - Shahid Beheshti University (2016 - 2019)

B.Sc. - Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics - University of Tabriz (2011 - 2015)