Research Highlights

Newton’s third law states that the action-reaction forces involved in an elemental two-body interaction must be equal and opposite. Combined with the second law of motion, this implies that two classical bodies are expected to accelerate either towards or away from each other, but never in the same direction. This is true as long as…

Due to negative forces, surface-bound droplets move opposite to the directio of illumination. After Nature Photonics 7, 787 (2013).   Light induces mechanical action in different ways. When energy is exchanged, both light and material properties may be altered leading to a variety of movement or propulsion mechanisms, such as phototaxis or photophoresis. Light also…

Professor Sasan Fathpour and members of his research team (Research Scientist Dr. P. Rabiei, and graduate students J. Ma, S. Khan and J. Chiles) have developed a new way of integrating photonic devices that can potentially revolutionize integrated optics for applications in telecommunications as well as nonlinear and quantum optic devices on chips. Despite decades of research, there appears to be…

When thinking of an optical fiber, one usually imagines the thin strands of glass that extend for thousands of kilometers around the globe forming the backbone for optical communications networks and the internet. A wide range of other devices, from fiber lasers to sensors, also benefit from extending optical functionalities along the length of a…

The quest for the shortest attosecond laser pulse has been underway since the first demonstration of such light sources in 2001. Single attosecond pulses with a record duration of 80 as were previously generated in 2008. Further reduction of the pulse width requires a broader spectrum with correct phase. The extreme ultraviolet (XUV) continuum produced…