Frédéric Grillot is a French physicist and professor whose academic work is in the fields of optoelectronics and photonics, with a focus on semiconductor lasers and quantum optical technologies. As of 2025, he holds a professorship at

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

in Quebec, Canada and serves as a Research Affiliate at the

University of California Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

. His work includes studies on

quantum dot laser A quantum dot laser is a semiconductor laser that uses quantum dots as the active laser medium in its light emitting region. Due to the tight confinement of charge carriers in quantum dots, they exhibit an electronic structure similar to atoms. Las ...

, nonlinear optics, photonic chaos encryption, and optical communications including mid-infrared free-space transmission using quantum cascade technology (lasers, modulators, and detectors) near room temperature.

Education

Grillot earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the

Université de Franche-Comté The Marie and Louis Pasteur University (UMLP), formerly known as University of Franche-Comté, is a pluridisciplinary public French university located in Besançon, Franche-Comté, with decentralized campuses in Belfort, Montbéliard, Vesoul and ...

in France. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at INSA Rennes (2004–2012), then joined

Télécom Paris Télécom Paris (also known as ENST or Télécom or École nationale supérieure des télécommunications ; also Télécom ParisTech until 2019) is a French public institution for higher education (''grande école'') and engineering research. Loc ...

where he served as Associate Professor and later as Full Professor. Between 2015 and 2024, he was also a Research Professor at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

Research

Grillot’s research has contributed to developments in mid-infrared (MIR) optoelectronics, particularly high-speed laser sources operating at room temperature within the 4–12 μm atmospheric transmission window. These devices are used in free-space optical communication, defense, aerospace, and environmental sensing. Recent developments from his group have enabled data transmission at multi-gigabit-per-second rates, supported by interband cascade lasers technology. His research group has also demonstrated physical-layer encryption in the MIR region using chaotic quantum cascade lasers, enabling secure data transmission without conventional encryption protocols. Grillot has also made notable contributions to the development of quantum dot lasers, including work on low-noise, narrow-linewidth sources for coherent optical communications, and the generation of broadband optical frequency combs through nonlinear effects in quantum dot gain media . He has also contributed to the integration of quantum dot lasers on silicon photonic platforms, and has been involved in recent studies reporting photon number squeezing from QD lasers operating at room temperature. In 2023, Grillot received the Ampère Medal from the Société de l'Électricité, de l'Électronique et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (SEE). In 2022, he was named

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer. In 2021, he received the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Best Paper Award for a publication on reflection-insensitive quantum dot lasers grown on silicon. He was elected Fellow of

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

in 2019 for contributions to optoelectronics and quantum dot laser development. Since May 2021, he has served as Deputy Editor of Optics Express, an open-access journal published by Optica, following seven years as Associate Editor. In 2025, he was elected to the Board of Governors of the

Photonics Society.

References

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External links

Université Laval Faculty Page

Google Scholar

Personal Academic Website
French physicists Living people