2020-2021 Colloquium Lecture Series Archive

Research in nanophotonics, the science of light-matter interactions below the optical wavelength scale, is yielding advances that are opening paths for conceptually new “grand challenge” photonic technologies that have not previously been achievable.  I will discuss three...

The global challenges of the  COVID 19 pandemic and the longer term effects of climate change require coordinated efforts by the scientific and engineering communities to provide accurate information to government officials to guide them as they put in place evidenced-based governmental...

Optical techniques have become central to research at the forefront of brain science and are still rapidly increasing in their breadth and importance to the field. For instance, the U.S. BRAIN Initiative has as one of its priorities the aim of fostering continued innovation in this domain. I...

To enable the understanding and repair of complex biological systems, such as the brain, we are creating novel optical tools that enable molecular-resolution maps of such systems, as well as technologies for observing and controlling high-speed physiological dynamics in such systems.  First...

I will present our group’s recent research into soft nanophotonic systems: the interaction of light with systems of nanometer-scale components in soft materials like liquids, colloids, or polymers. We have developed an optical positioning and linking (OPAL) approach for assembling 3D...

Photonic structures naturally compute. In particular, any linear photonic structure performs matrix-vector multiplications. This capability is becoming increasingly important in recent years, due in particular to the interests in implementing neural network algorithms, where the cost of matrix-...

Optical frequency combs have emerged as an important tool for numerous applications in time-frequency metrology, spectroscopy, microwave generation, and data communications.  Recent work has shown that such combs can be generated on a photonic chip using lasers with milliwatt power levels....

Imaging the living retina at the microscopic scale presents a number of interesting optical design and wavefront correction challenges. High resolution retinal imaging requires considering not only the performance of ophthalmoscopes, but also that of the eye, which is a complex optical system in...

Few technologies have had the far-reaching global impact of rare-earth-doped fibers, especially in the context of fiber lasers, which are now critical to many scientific disciplines and industries ranging from communication systems to high-precision sensing and chip manufacturing. A persistent...

Lithium niobate (LN) is an “old” material with many applications in optical and microwave technologies, owing to its unique properties that include large second order nonlinear susceptibility, large piezoelectric response, and wide optical transparency window. Conventional discrete...

The last decade has seen tremendous advances in THz science and technology across a wide range of substrates from solid-state and photonic devices to 2D and nano-materials. In spite of the progress, the field can greatly benefit from low-cost, integrated, room-temperature technology that can...

Differential phase contrast imaging can provide direct access to electron density, and dark field (or small angle scatter) contrast enables access to surface and texture details significantly below the detector resolution. These new imaging capabilities...