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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.

John Bowers honored with 23rd William Gould Dow Distinguished Lectureship

Bowers gave an overview of historical and current research on integrating silicon photonics and lasers into circuits.

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.

Zetian Mi receives 2025 Nick Holonyak Jr. Award from Optica

Mi is recognized for his innovations on wide energy gap nanostructures for light emission and energy generation applications.

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.

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.

Laser-focused

Franklin Dollar, a pioneer in laser plasma research, is not only unraveling cosmic mysteries but also promoting equity and inclusivity in science education and research.

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.

Emulating impossible “unipolar” laser pulses paves the way for processing quantum information

Quantum materials emit light as though it were only a positive pulse, rather than a positive-negative oscillation.

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.

Dr. Donnell Walton honored with the 2021 ECE Willie Hobbs Moore Distinguished Lectureship

Walton spoke about his career path and his current role as the director of the Corning Technology Center Silicon Valley.

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

Winful is recognized for promoting the university’s goals around diversity, equity and inclusion.

Herbert Winful awarded the 2021 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award

Winful is recognized for his decades of outstanding leadership and commitment to developing a culturally and ethnically diverse University of Michigan community.

Anatoly Maksimchuk recognized for his achievements in high-intensity lasers and laser-plasma interaction

Building on decades of groundbreaking research, Maksimchuk is a key member of the team building the $20M laser facility known as ZEUS

DYNAMO achieves first observation of the “charge separation effect”

Research led by Prof. Stephen Rand, Director of the Center for Dynamic Magneto-optics (DYNAMO), has important potential for energy conversion, ultrafast switching, nanophotonics, and nonlinear optics.

Mapping quantum structures with light to unlock their capabilities

Rather than installing new “2D” semiconductors in devices to see what they can do, this new method puts them through their paces with lasers and light detectors.

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.

PhD student Laura Andre is awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE

Andre was chosen for her outstanding research and commitment to outreach activities.

Improved neural probe can pose precise questions without losing parts of the answers

It will now be possible to study brain activity when timing is important, such as the consolidation of memory.

Herbert Winful named Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering

Winful has made fundamental contributions to nonlinear optics and the physics of tunneling, while also championing an inclusive department.

Alum Adrienne Stiff-Roberts honored with the Willie Hobbs Moore Distinguished Lectureship

The Duke University Professor delivered a virtual talk on enabling hybrid thin films for optoelectronics and shared her memories of Michigan.

Optics Society wins Elaine Harden Award from College of Engineering

From outreach programs for local kids to events that bring the U-M Engineering community together, the Optics Society exemplifies leadership and service.

John Nees wins Research Scientist Award from the College of Engineering

Nees is honored for his excellence in research and scholarship, as well as his distinguished career as a key member of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.

Toward a portable concussion detector that relies on an infrared laser

By looking at tissue oxygen and cell metabolism at the same time, doctors could have a fast and noninvasive way to monitor the health of brain cells.

A 3D camera for safer autonomy and advanced biomedical imaging

Researchers demonstrated the use of stacked, transparent graphene photodetectors combined with image processing algorithms to produce 3D images and range detection.

Nobel Prize winners talk research, Nobel ceremony, and are remembered by U-M colleagues

From rubbing elbows with royalty to finding yourself a casual seatmate to a member of U2, Professor Emeritus Gérard Mourou, Prof. Donna Strickland, and their former U-M colleagues shared their experiences and reflections on the 2018 Nobel Prize ceremony.

U-M to become Mount Olympus with ZEUS, the most powerful laser to be built in the U.S.

The three-petawatt system could unlock secrets of the universe, advance cancer treatments, improve security screenings for nuclear threats, and much more.

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

For the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, U-M ECE takes a look back – and a look forward – to how our professors, students, and alums have made their mark on the field.

Kim Winick retires, leaving a legacy that empowers students to seek life and learning outside of the lab

For the past 31 years, Prof. Winick has helped define undergraduate courses and curriculum both at U-M and abroad while inspiring all to engineer their future by understanding the past.

Kirigami can spin terahertz rays in real time to peer into biological tissue

The rays used by airport scanners might have a future in medical imaging.

Louise Willingale creates extreme plasma conditions using high-intensity laser pulses

Prof. Willingale’s research in plasma physics advances many research areas from spectacular astrophysical phenomena to cancer treatment to fusion power.

2018 Nobel Prize Laureate Gérard Mourou talks high-intensity optics

Gérard Mourou, Professor Emeritus of EECS, returned to campus to discuss winning the Nobel Prize and his work in high-intensity optics.

Extreme light: Nobel laureate discusses the past & future of lasers

Lasers of tomorrow might neutralize nuclear waste, clean up space junk and advance proton therapy to treat cancer, says Gerard Mourou.

ECE student Brandon Russell explores space phenomena in a lab

PhD student Brandon Russell is awarded the Rackham International Student Fellowship for his research on magnetic fields in high-energy plasmas, which could help advance the development of clean energy and our understanding of energetic astrophysical phenomena.

Pallab Bhattacharya to receive 2019 IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal

Bhattacharya honored for the development and commercialization of quantum dot lasers.

$6.8M initiative to enable American laser renaissance

After Europe and Asia surpassed U.S. in high intensity laser research in the early 2000s, the Department of Energy is funding new collaborative research network to make the U.S. more competitive.

Mackillo Kira Elected OSA Fellow for contributions to quantum optics

Prof. Kira was recognized for his pioneering contributions to the theory of semiconductor quantum optics.

Nobel Prize for ‘the most powerful laser pulses known to humanity’

At U-M, Gérard Mourou advanced ‘chirped pulse amplification,’ leading to more precise LASIK eye surgery and pushing the limits of optical science.

Light could make semiconductor computers a million times faster or even go quantum

Electron states in a semiconductor, set and changed with pulses of light, could be the 0 and 1 of future “lightwave” electronics or room-temperature quantum computers.

A shoe-box-sized chemical detector

Laser cooling with Laura Andre

Laura Andre says she “ended up just falling in love with optics.”

Doubling the power of the world’s most intense laser

It could enable tabletop particle and X-ray sources as well as the investigation of astrophysics and quantum dynamics.

Seeing through materials

By developing a fast algorithm to map out the paths light takes through yogurt, researchers aim to someday see through skin.

U-M Optics researchers sponsor Optics and Photonics Industry Snapshot

The Optics and Photonics event showed a thriving industry in SE Michigan

Ultrashort light pulses for fast “lightwave” computers

Extremely short, configurable “femtosecond” pulses of light demonstrated by an international team could lead to future computers that run up to 100,000 times faster than today’s electronics.

Herb Winful – professor of optics, friend of the arts

Winful discusses life in education

Alum Michelle Stock elected SPIE Fellow for development of the photonics industry

SPIE chose Stock for her achievements in business development and science policy

Zetian Mi elected SPIE Fellow for contributions to photonic devices and artificial photosynthesis

Prof. Mi conducts research in the area of semiconductor optoelectronics, specifically in the areas of III-nitride semiconductors, low dimensional nanostructures, LEDs, lasers, Si photonics, artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels.

CUOS: Pushing the limits of optical science

This national center, established in 1990, confirmed Michigan’s leadership in the field.

Parag Deotare receives AFOSR Award for research in Nanoscale Exciton-Mechanical Systems (NEXMS)

Prof. Deotare’s work will deepen our understanding of the underlying physics of exciton-mechanics interactions and help engineer novel devices for energy harvesting and up-conversion.

A better 3D camera with clear, graphene light detectors

While 3D films are currently made using multiple cameras to reconstruct each frame, this new type of camera could record in 3D on its own.

Gift launches M. Alten Gilleo distinguished lecture series in optical sciences and optoelectronics

Somin Lee receives AFOSR Young Investigator Award for research in bioplasmonics

The award supports research that will help our understanding of how tissues form distinct shapes and structure to become organs, such as lungs, salivary glands, and mammary glands.

Anthony Grbic elected IEEE Fellow for contributions to the theory and design of electromagnetic metamaterials

Prof. Grbic specializes in the broad fields of electromagnetics and optics, with interests ranging from fundamental electromagnetic theory to microwave circuits.

Glucose Monitoring with Lasers

Professor Islam is leading the reconstruction of super continuum lasers he designed to aid the military into a non-invasive tool to measure glucose in the blood system.

Michigan Light Project: Shining a light on optics

The MLP seeks to provide outreach and education about the world of optics in general, and the optics industry in Michigan specifically.

Next generation laser plasma accelerator

One of the most promising avenues for achieving new target levels of high peak intensity and high average power in an ultrafast laser system is to turn to fiber lasers.

ECE’s ideas worth spreading – TEDxUofM

Profs. Shai Revzen and Herbert Winful spoke about their passion for their work at the sixth annual conference, themed “Constructive Interference”.

Stephen Forrest receives 2015 Distinguished University Innovator Award

Prof. Forrest is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful academic inventors and entrepreneurs today.

Cheng Zhang awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for research on nanophotonic materials and devices

Cheng works with Prof. L. Jay Guo on research projects in the field of micro/nano-scale optical device physics and fabrication.

New approaches to solar cell technology featured in Sustainability Hour

The professors addressed two very different problems the industry faces with current technology.

Raj Nadakuditi awarded DARPA Young Faculty Award for research that could help reveal the brain’s secrets

His research will impact the ability to investigate the structure of brain circuits through the use of optical imaging techniques.

Mapping the brain with lasers

Yoon is leading a team that will design new light sources with lasers capable of zooming in on individual neuron circuits within the brain.

Live long and phosphor: Blue LED breakthrough for efficient electronics

Researchers at the University have extended the lifetime of blue organic light emitting diodes by a factor of ten.

Pallab Bhattacharya to receive 2015 IEEE David Sarnoff Award

Since coming to the University in 1984, Prof. Bhattacharya has pioneered several important technological advances.

Cheng Zhang receives Optical Sciences Scholarship

Cheng is a 4th year PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering working in field of micro/nano-scale optical device physics and fabrication.

Ted Norris receives Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award

Prof. Norris is an internationally recognized expert in the field of ultrafast optics.

ECE welcomes four new faculty for 2014-15 academic year

These faculty deepen ECE’s areas of expertise in computer vision, communications and information theory, environmental remote sensing, and laser-plasma interactions.

Shrinking the size of optical systems, exponentially

The researchers believe that metasurfaces could one day be used to completely control the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light.

Thomas Frost receives Best Paper Award for achieving a HQ QD red laser

Lasers emitting in the 600nm wavelength range have applications in medicine, optical information processing, optical storage, and more.

Celebrating Gérard Mourou: From ultrafast to extreme light

Mourou put the University on the map in ultrafast optics when he established the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science in 1991.

New research program to investigate optical energy conversion

The fundamental objective of the research initiative is to uncover, explain, and exploit dynamic magneto-optical processes and materials for new technological capabilities.

A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power

With precarious particles called polaritons that straddle the worlds of light and matter, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a new, practical and potentially more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam.

T-ray converts light to sound for weapons detection, medical imaging

U-M researchers demonstrated a unique terahertz detector and imaging system that could bridge the terahertz gap.

Student Spotlight: Elizabeth Dreyer – Ambassador for Optics

Elizabeth’s research is to understand how a new interaction between light and matter can generate electricity.

What are quantum computers going to do for us?

Michigan Engineering professor Duncan Steel explains how quantum computing works, using quantum bits that take on superpositions of 0 and 1 simultaneously.

Jun-Chieh Wang receives Best Oral Paper Award for plasma research

Wang’s research studies the glow-like atmospheric pressure microdischarges created under specialized conditions in laser printers.

New laser shows what substances are made of; could be new eyes for military

By shining the laser on a target and analyzing the reflected light, researchers can tell the chemical composition of the target.

A new laser paradigm: An electrically injected polariton laser

“It is no longer a scientific curiosity. It’s a real device.”

Using HERCULES to probe the interior of dense plasmas

Thanks to HERCULES, scientists are now able to study very dense plasmas — a crucial step in nuclear fusion and astrophysical research.

Super-fine sound beam could one day be an invisible scalpel

“We believe this could be used as an invisible knife for noninvasive surgery,” Guo said. “Nothing pokes into your body, just the ultrasound beam.”

Ted Norris named Gérard A. Mourou Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

In the tradition of our best faculty at Michigan, Ted is a phenomenal teacher and mentor as well as researcher. Congratulations!

A new way to cool materials with light

The work advances the scientific understanding of laser cooling technologies currently being pursued to explore the boundary between classical and quantum physics.

Celebrating the birth of a new science

The discovery of nonlinear optics was just one of several Michigan “firsts” that occurred about fifty years ago, and underscores the importance of involving undergrads in research.

Nonlinear Optics at 50: A Symposium

As the birthplace of nonlinear optics, the University of Michigan is proud to host a symposium which will bring together some of the pioneers in the field.

Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible

This new technique could make solar power cheaper and, with improved materials, more efficient.

HERCULES laser rivals a synchrotron for short pulse x-ray beams

By using the wiggling motion of electrons in a plasma bubble generated by the ultrashort laser pulse, researchers produced X-rays comparable to that produced in a synchrotron facility.

New work resolves long-standing questions about short pulses in quantum cascade lasers

Can the laser’s pulse propagate in such a way that it does not change its energy, and leaves the system in the excited state? Does the pulse speed up during propagation?

Organic laser breakthrough

The team is working toward building organic lasers that, like many inorganic lasers today, can be excited with electricity rather than light.

Tal Carmon receives Young Investigator Award for research in lasers and optics

The award will support Professor Carmon in three years of basic research on continuous on-chip extreme UV emitters.

Duncan Steel will advance quantum information processes in new MURI

Steel will concentrate his efforts on solid state systems, specifically with epitaxially grown InAs/lGaAs semiconductor quantum dots.

Ted Norris and CUOS: Reaching new frontiers in ultrafast optical science

Comprised of electrical engineers, astrophysicists, physicists, materials scientists, biomedical engineers, and doctors, CUOS explore ultrafast laser applications.

In tunneling physics, a decades-old paradox is resolved

Professor Winful sheds light on one of the most perplexing mysteries of quantum tunneling.

Gérard A. Mourou: In pursuit of new directions in science

“The future of CUOS is bright,” said Mourou. “Nothing will stop the flow of discoveries.”