Optics and Photonics
Jacob Barnhart receives DoD NDSEG Fellowship to investigate strong light-matter interactions
Barnhart and PhD advisor Alex Burgers will develop a platform for entangling multiple atoms on a single chip, or across longer distances.Alex Burgers receives NSF CAREER Award to advance quantum communications
Prof. Burgers will use atom-photon entanglement and nanophotonic structures to transmit quantum information over fiber optic cables.Herbert Winful part of MURI team investigating AI-guided self-organization in nonlinear systems
Prof. Winful adds his unique expertise on the behavior of coupled semiconductor laser systems to a collaborative $9M project led by researchers at Yale University.Boosting AI model size and training speed with lightwave-connected chips
AI growth is capped by data transfer rates between computing chips, but transferring data with light could remove the ceiling.Alex Burgers receives AFOSR support for research on atom-photon interactions
Prof. Burgers will use optical tweezers to create quantum mirrors from 2D arrays of atoms in a first-of-its-kind experimental demonstration.ECE Spinout company NS Nanotech releases first solid-state semiconductor to produce human-safe disinfecting UV light
NS Nanotech’s new product, enabled by ECE Prof. Zetian Mi’s research, can safely disinfect high-risk spaces like ambulances and school buses.Zetian Mi awarded $7.5M MURI for research on ferroelectric nitrides
Prof. Mi is the lead PI on a collaborative project that aims to advance ferroelectric nitrides for applications in next-generation microelectronics and quantum-photonic devices.Arthur Xiao wins SID Detroit Metro Chapter Academic Award for work on red micro-LEDs
Xiao’s PhD work has focused on developing tiny, efficient, and stable red LEDs for use in virtual and augmented reality displays.An OLED for compact, lightweight night vision
Thinner than a human hair, the device amplifies and converts near infrared light into visible light with the potential for low power consumption and long battery life.In step toward solar fuels, durable artificial photosynthesis setup chains two carbons together
The system produces ethylene, an important ingredient of many plastics, with much higher efficiency, yield and longevity than competing systems.OptoGPT for improving solar cells, smart windows, telescopes and more
Taking advantage of the transformer neural networks that power large language models, engineers can get recipes for materials with the optical properties they need.Updating the textbook on polarization in gallium nitride to optimize wide bandgap semiconductors
Understanding the phenomenon underpinning the material’s electronic performance will inform the design of smaller, faster and more efficient electronic and quantum devices.Auto industry deadlines loom for impaired-driver detection tech, U-M offers a low-cost solution
As the comment period closes on the new federal requirement, a U-M team led by Prof. Mohammed Islam demonstrates that upgrades to current technologies could do the jobNextgen computing: Hard-to-move quasiparticles glide up pyramid edges
Computing with a combination of light and chargeless excitons could beat heat losses and more, but excitons need new modes of transportShaping the quantum future with lightwave electronics
The semiconductor-compatible technology is a million times faster than existing electronics and could give us access to an entire new world of quantum phenomena.Gregory Robinson details the journey of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for Gilleo Lectureship
Under Robinson’s leadership, the James Webb Space Telescope project went from being years behind schedule and billions over-budget to one of NASA’s greatest achievements of the 21st century.Parag Deotare awarded DURIP grant to probe exciton energy transport at nanoscale
The tool is expected to advance the study of exciton dynamics, which could help identify new research directions for clean energy and information technology.New non-invasive optical imaging approach for monitoring brain health could improve outcomes for traumatic brain injury patients
The SCISCCO system could better monitor brain and organ metabolism, helping to diagnose concussions, monitor cerebral metabolism in traumatic brain injury patients, and gauge the response of organs to treatments in an operating or emergency room scenario.Lauren Cooper awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE
Cooper, an ECE PhD student, works to advance fiber lasers, which could help provide the bursts for next-generation particle accelerators and advance attosecond science.Louise Willingale named Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences
Willingale was a featured speaker at the 2022 Kavli Frontiers of Science U.S. Symposium, where she presented on high intensity lasers, including ZEUS.Lauren Cooper awarded Department of Energy Fellowship for her work on ultra-short pulse fiber lasers
Cooper’s research is focused on nonlinear coherent pulse stacking, a method of generating pulses with energies and pulse durations suitable for particle accelerators and attosecond science.Herbert Winful receives University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship
$1.8M to develop room temperature, controllable quantum nanomaterials
The project could pave the way for compact quantum computing and communications as well as efficient UV lamps for sterilization and air purification.Solar cells with 30-year lifetimes for power-generating windows
High-efficiency but fragile molecules for converting light to electricity thrive with a little protection.Most powerful laser in the U.S. to begin operations soon, supported by $18.5M from the NSF
With first light anticipated in 2022, the NSF will provide five years of operations funding, ramping up as the ZEUS user facility progresses to full capacity.Herbert Winful awarded the 2021 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award
3D motion tracking system could streamline vision for autonomous tech
DYNAMO achieves first observation of the “charge separation effect”
Mapping quantum structures with light to unlock their capabilities
Burn after reading
Mirror-like photovoltaics get more electricity out of heat
The Future of Lasers
A research profile of Prof. Gérard Mourou and other ECE scientists talks about the future of lasers, from transmuting nuclear waste to shooting space junk.Improved neural probe can pose precise questions without losing parts of the answers
Herbert Winful named Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering
Russel Lecture: Fighting climate change with organic electronics
Toward a portable concussion detector that relies on an infrared laser
A 3D camera for safer autonomy and advanced biomedical imaging
Nobel Prize winners talk research, Nobel ceremony, and are remembered by U-M colleagues
U-M to become Mount Olympus with ZEUS, the most powerful laser to be built in the U.S.
Two members of ECE will represent U-M at the 2019 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
Most powerful laser in the US to be built at Michigan
Using extreme light to explore quantum dynamics, advance medicine and more.Beyond Apollo 11: U-M ECE’s role in advancing space exploration
Kim Winick retires, leaving a legacy that empowers students to seek life and learning outside of the lab
Kirigami can spin terahertz rays in real time to peer into biological tissue
Louise Willingale creates extreme plasma conditions using high-intensity laser pulses
Stephen Forrest named Henry Russel Lecturer for 2020
Two U-M students receive scholarships from the International Society for Optics and Photonics
Nooshin M. Estakhri receives the Helen Wu Award
A Spotlight on Optics
Laura Andre brings the engineering community together
2018 Nobel Prize Laureate Gérard Mourou talks high-intensity optics
Extreme light: Nobel laureate discusses the past & future of lasers
A new $1.6M energy project to develop low cost manufacturing of white organic lighting
ECE student Brandon Russell explores space phenomena in a lab
Pallab Bhattacharya to receive 2019 IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal
$6.8M initiative to enable American laser renaissance
Mackillo Kira Elected OSA Fellow for contributions to quantum optics
Nobel Prize for ‘the most powerful laser pulses known to humanity’
It takes two photonic qubits to make quantum computing possible
How to color-code nearly invisible nanoparticles
Light could make semiconductor computers a million times faster or even go quantum
A shoe-box-sized chemical detector
Laser cooling with Laura Andre
Precise pulses explore light’s magnetism
A new laser will investigate an unusual magnetic effect that may lead to efficient solar energy harvesting.Doubling the power of the world’s most intense laser
Ultrashort light pulses for fast “lightwave” computers
Zetian Mi elected SPIE Fellow for contributions to photonic devices and artificial photosynthesis
Parag Deotare receives AFOSR Award for research in Nanoscale Exciton-Mechanical Systems (NEXMS)
Steve Rand: expanding technical education in India
A better 3D camera with clear, graphene light detectors
Next generation laser plasma accelerator
Stephen Forrest named Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor
Cheng Zhang awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for research on nanophotonic materials and devices
The future of solar: $1.3M to advance organic photovoltaics
Ted Norris receives Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award
Celebrating Gérard Mourou: From ultrafast to extreme light
New research program to investigate optical energy conversion
A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power
Student Spotlight: Elizabeth Dreyer – Ambassador for Optics
New tech could lead to night vision contact lenses
What are quantum computers going to do for us?
Anatoly Maksimchuk elected Fellow of APS
New algorithms and theory for shining light through non-transparent media
Kyu Hyun Kim receives Emil Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Award at Frontiers in Optics Meeting
New laser shows what substances are made of; could be new eyes for military
A new laser paradigm: An electrically injected polariton laser
Using HERCULES to probe the interior of dense plasmas
Super-fine sound beam could one day be an invisible scalpel
Ted Norris named Gérard A. Mourou Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
A new way to cool materials with light
A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams
Celebrating the birth of a new science
Heather Ferguson awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
New NSF Center for Photonic and Multiscale Nanomaterials
New laser could treat acne with telecom technology
Nonlinear Optics at 50: A Symposium
Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible
HERCULES laser rivals a synchrotron for short pulse x-ray beams
New work resolves long-standing questions about short pulses in quantum cascade lasers
WIMS and CUOS among 60 Years of Sensational Research by NSF
Tal Carmon receives Young Investigator Award for research in lasers and optics
Duncan Steel will advance quantum information processes in new MURI
Ted Norris and CUOS: Reaching new frontiers in ultrafast optical science
In tunneling physics, a decades-old paradox is resolved
Eric Tkacyk receives Best Paper Award for research in biomedical optics
Gérard A. Mourou: In pursuit of new directions in science