Research

Top down and bottom up micro/nanofabrication

Bottom up self assembly is employed to construct a variety of photonic structures such as waveguide and light emitter. Top down fabrication, which is utilized extensively for silicon integrated circuit, MEMS and optoelectronics, is utilized to create multi-layer planar devices. Our research includes combining top down and bottom up fabrication techniques and new materials to create structures and devices in the micro- and nano- scale. Ongoing projects include micro chemical reactor, microfabricated ion trap, ionizer, and microfluidic sensors.

Polarization and 3D imaging

Polymer guest/host system is used to create a variety of micro-optical components, such as color filter, retarder and polarizer. Arbitrary pattern of optical thin film with well defined emission, absorption (visible to IR) and polarization (linear, elliptical, circular) properties can be fabricated at high resolution (~3 microns) using polarized ultraviolet lithography and a combination of nematic and cholesteric liquid crystal polymer, dichroic dyes and fluorophore. The micro-optical component is integrated into a polarization camera that can measure the full Stokes vector. Applications include plenoptic, 3D and time-of-flight imaging and sensing.

Energy conversion

Power conversion efficiency is an important parameter in energy conversion of renewable energy resources. Our research projects include investigation of photovoltaic, solar powered laser, and hydrogen generation for energy conversion applications.