MacArthur Fellow

Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT

(Photo by Greg Hren Photography for the RLE at MIT)

Group Members

Dr. Jorge Bravo Abad (postdoc)
Andre Kurs (PhD student)
Wenjun Qiu (PhD student)
Song Liang Chua (PhD student)
Rafif Hamam (PhD student)
Robert Moffatt (undergraduate student)
David Ramirez (undergraduate student)
Susannah Brown (undergraduate student)

Former Graduate Students

Dr. Yidong Chong (postdoc at Yale)

Research Interests

Technological advances of the past decade have enabled the
control of the material structure at length-scales smaller
than the wavelength of light. This enabled creation of new
materials (e.g. photonic bandgap crystals, or various surface
plasmon systems), whose optical properties are dramatically
different than those of any naturally occurring material. For
example, nanostructured materials which display diffraction-less
propagation of light, exhibit negative refraction, or support
very slow propagation of light, have all been demonstrated.
My research interests are in exploring the new and exciting
physical phenomena supported by these materials.

The unique properties of these new materials have already
enabled a wide range of very important applications (e.g.
in medicine, energy, telecommunications, defense, etc.) and
are expected to do even more so in the future.

I am also interested in various topics in nonlinear optical
physics. Maxwell's equations as presented in most undergraduate
text books are linear. However, all materials in nature are
nonlinear (including vacuum), and sure enough, at high light
intensities, optical phenomena becomes nonlinear, displaying
a wide range of rich and beautiful behavior. For example,
almost every general non-linear dynamics phenomenon (e.g.
solitons, pattern formation, fractals, etc.) can now be
studied in optical material systems.

Recently, I also got very interested in investigating the feasibility of
wireless power transfer.


Learn something about:

• my professional history