Biography
Eric Van Stryland received a PhD in Physics in 1976, from the Univ. of Arizona, Optical Sciences Center, where he worked on optical coherent transients and photon counting statistics. He worked in femtosecond pulse production, multiphoton absorption, and laser induced damage at the Center for Laser Studies, Univ. of Southern California. He joined the physics department at the Univ. of North Texas in l978 helping to form the Center for Applied Quantum Electronics. In l987 he joined the newly formed CREOL (Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers) at the Univ. of Central Florida. NSF and DoD have funded him for the past 30 years. His current research interests are in the characterization of the nonlinear optical properties of materials and their temporal response as well as the applications of these nonlinear materials properties for optical switching, beam control etc. He developed the Z-scan technique and established the methodology for applying Kramers-Kronig relations to ultrafast nonlinearities and developed the field of cascaded second-order effects. The JQE publication on Z-scan has been noted as the most highly cited paper in the journal’s 30 year history by a factor of 2. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), IEEE, SPIE and APS, a past member of the OSA and LIA Boards of Directors, former co-chair of the OSA Science and Engineering Council. He also served as a topical editor for Optics Letters. He was elected President of the OSA for 2006. He graduated 31 Ph.D.’s and published ~300 papers and is on the ISI ‘highly cited’ list. In 2003 he was awarded the highest honor UCF bestows, the Pegasus Award (earlier he was co-recipient of UNT’s highest award). He was Director of the School of Optics/CREOL from 1999 to 2004. With the elevation of the School to a College, he became its first Dean. In addition, Governor Jeb Bush established the Florida Photonics Center of Excellence (FPCE) in 2003 and he was the Director of that Center along with CREOL, both centers within the College. In a second round of centers of excellence, the College established the Townes Laser Institute named after the inventor of the maser and laser, Charles Hard Townes. In January, 2009 he retired as Dean but continues as a faculty member in the College, and he received UCF’s Researcher of the Year Award. He became a Trustee Chair in 2012, and was awarded the R.W. Wood Prize of the OSA in 2012.
Awards & Honors
- American Physical Society (APS) Fellow
- IEEE Photonics Society Fellow
- International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Fellow
- Optical Society of America (OSA) Fellow
- 2012 OSA R. W. Wood Prize
- 2012 UCF Trustee Chair
- 2009 Research Incentive Award (RIA)
- 2007 Office of Research & Commercialization Millionaire’s Club
- 2006 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant
- 2006 President of the OSA
- 2005 Florida Trend magazine’s one of the “174 Most Influential Floridians”
- 2001 Appointed to the Mayor of Orlando’s (Glenda Hood) High Technology Advisory Board
- 1999 Graduate Teacher of the Year, School of Optics
- 1998 University of Central Florida PEP award
- 1997 Elected to the Board of Directors of the OSA
- 1995 Topical editor for Optics Letters; Nonlinear Optics
- 1995 Honorary Prof., School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
- 1991 Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “Nonlinear Optics”
- 1991 Invited member Phi-Kappa-Phi
- 1990 Researcher of the year
- 1986 Co-Recipient of the NTSU President’s Award
- 1978 Member of the Editorial Board of “Review of Scientific Instruments”
Research Group
Conducting research on a variety of nonlinear optical effects, materials, and devices including nonlinear interactions in waveguides, nonlinear signal processing, optical power limiting, and characterizing materials response at picosecond and nanosecond scales.Faculty
Publications
HAO-JUNG CHANG, NATALIA MUNERA, CESAR LOPEZ-ZELAYA, DEBASMITA BANERJEE, GUY BEADIE, ERIC W. VAN STRYLAND, AND DAVID J. HAGAN "Refractive index measurements of liquids from 1 0.5 to 2 µm using Rayleigh interferometry" Opt. Mat. Express, 2024 (2024)
Van Stryland, Eric W. "Mansoor Sheik-Bahae: contributions to nonlinear optics at CREOL" Photonic Heat Engines: Science and Applications VI 12902 (2024)
Nathalie Vermeulen, Daniel Espinosa, Adam Ball, John Ballato, Philippe Boucaud, Georges Boudebs, Cecilia L. A. V. Campos, Peter Dragic, Anderson S. L. Gomes, Mikko J. Huttunen, Nathaniel Kinsey, Richard P. Mildren, Dragomir Neshev, Lázaro Padilha, Minhao Pu, Ray Secondo, Eiji Tokunaga, Dmitry Turchinovich, Jingshi Yan, Kresten Yvind, Ksenia Dolgaleva, and Eric W. Van Stryland "Nonlinear-optical material developments since 2000: characterization, data tables, and best practices" Proc. SPIE 13004, Nonlinear Optics and its Applications 2024, 130040F (20 June 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3022590 (2024)
Epstein, R (Epstein, Richard) [1] ; Seletskiy, D (Seletskiy, Denis) [2] ; Van Stryland, E (Van Stryland, Eric) [3] "Mansoor Sheik-Bahae (1956-2023) Obituary" Nature Photonics 17(10)pp.833-834 (2023)
N. Vermeulen, D. Espinosa, A. Ball, J. Ballato, P. Boucaud, G. Boudebs, C. L. A. V. Campos, P. Dragic, A. S. L. Gomes, M. J. Huttunen, N. Kinsey, R. Mildren, D. Neshev, L. Padilha, M. Pu, R. Secondo, E. Tokunaga, D. Turchinovich, J. Yan, K. Yvind, K. Dolgaleva, and E. W. Van Stryland, "Post-2000 Nonlinear Optical Materials and Measurements: Data Tables and Best Practices" Nathalie Vermeulen et al 2023 J. Phys. Photonics 5 035001 (2023) PDF
Sepehr Benis, Natalia Munera, Sanaz Faryadras, Eric W. Van Stryland, and David J. Hagan "Extremely large nondegenerate nonlinear index and phase shift in epsilon-near-zero materials" Opt. Mat. Ex. 12, 3856 (2022) (2022) PDF
Mykhailo V. Bondar, Sanaz Faryadras, Natalia Munera, Hao-Jung Chang, Mehrun Uddin, Kevin D. Belfield, Olexiy D. Kachkovsky, Eric W. Van Stryland, and David J. Hagan "New Two-Photon Absorbing Squaraine Derivative with Efficient Near-Infrared Fluorescence, Superluminescence, and High Photostability" J. Phys. Chem. B 2022, 126, 21, 3897–3907 (2022)
M. Yessenov, S. Faryadras, S. Benis, D.J. Hagan, E.W. Van Stryland and A.F. Abouraddy "Refraction of space–time wave packets in a dispersive medium" Optics Letters, 47(7), pp. 1630-1633 (2022) PDF
H.J. Chang, M.V. Bondar, N. Munera, S. David, O. Maury, G. Berginc, B. Le Guennic, D. Jacquemin, C. Andraud, D.J. Hagan and E.W. Van Stryland "Femtosecond Spectroscopy and Nonlinear Optical Properties of aza-BODIPY Derivatives in Solution" Chemistry-A European Journal, A. e202104072 (2022)
C. Kriso, T. Bergmeier, N. Giannini, A.R. Albrecht, M. Sheik-Bahae, S. Benis, S. Faryadras, E.W. Van Stryland, D.J. Hagan, M. Koch, G. Mette, and A. Rahimi-Iman "Probing the ultrafast gain and refractive index dynamics of a VECSEL" Applied Physics Letters, 119(9), A. 191105 (2021) PDF
Hao-Jung Chang, Natalia Munera, Christian Keyser, Scott Webster, Eric W. Van Stryland, and David H. Hagan "Refractive index measured by common path interferometry for solvents from visible to infrared" In Frontiers in Optics (pp. FM6C-3). Optical Society of America (2021)
S. Tofighi, N. Munera, M. Reichert, D.J. Hagan and E.W. Van Stryland "Transient mid-IR nonlinear refraction in air" Optics Express, 29(7), pp. 10863-10878 (2021) PDF
S. David, H.J. Chang, C. Lopes, C. Brannlund, B. Le Guennic, G. Berginc, E. Van Stryland, M.V. Bondar, D. Hagan, D. Jacquemin, C. Andraud and O. Maury "Benzothiadiazole-Substituted Aza-BODIPY Dyes: Two-Photon Absorption Enhancement for Improved Optical Limiting Performances in the Short-Wave IR Range" Chemistry-A European Journal, 27(10), pp. 3517-3525 (2021)
T.G. Allen, S. Benis, N. Munera, J.X. Zhang, S.X. Dai, T.F. Li, J. Boyu, W. Wang, S. Barlow, D.J. Hagan, E.W. Van Stryland, X.W. Zhan, J.W. Perry and S. Marder "Highly conjugated, fused-ring, quadrupolar organic chromophores with large two-photon absorption cross-sections in the near-infrared" The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 124(22), pp. 4367-4378 (2020) PDF
S. Benis, C.M. Cirloganu, N. Cox, T. Ensley, H.H. Hu, G. Nootz, P.D. Olszak, L.A. Padilha, D. Peceli, M. Reichert, S. Webster, M. Woodal, D.J. Hagan and E.W. Van Stryland "Three-photon absorption spectra and bandgap scaling in direct-gap semiconductors" Optica 7(8), pp. 888-899 (2020) PDF
N. Cox, J.X. Wei, H. Pattanaik, T. Tabbakh, S.P. Gorza, D.J. Hagan, and E.W. Van Stryland "Nondegenerate two-photon absorption in GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well waveguides" Physical Review RES. 2, 013376 (2020) PDF
A.J.-T. Lou, S. Benis, M. Gao, A. Baev, D. Kim, E.W. Van Stryland, D.J. Hagan, and T.J. Marks "Third- and fifth-order nonlinear optical response of a tict/stilbene hybrid chromophore" Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2020, 124, 9, 5363–5370 (2020) PDF
C.M. Cirloganu, P.D. Olszak, L.A. Padilha, S. Webster, D.J. Hagan, and E.W. Van Stryland "Three-photon absorption spectra of zinc blende semiconductors: theory and experiment, errata (vol 33, pg 2626, 2008)" Optics Letters, 45(4), pp. 1025-1026 (2020) PDF
Z. Li, A.A. Syed, P. Zhao, J.C. Yang, R. Sharma, T.R. Ensley, J.D. Matichak, I. Davydenko, S.H. Jang, D.J. Hagan, S.R. Marder, E.W. Van Stryland, and A.K.Y. Jen "Cationic polyelectrolyte for anionic cyanines: an efficient way to translate molecular properties into material properties" Journal of the American Chemical Society, 141(43), pp. 17331-17336 (2019)
H.J. Chang, M.V. Bondar, T.H. Liu, X.L. Liu, S. Singh, K.D. Belfield, A. Sheely, A.E. Masunov, D.J. Hagan, and E.W. Van Stryland "Electronic nature of neutral and charged two-photon absorbing squaraines for fluorescence bioimaging application" ACS Omega 4(12) pp. 14669-14679 (2019)
Alumni
PhD
Sanaz Faryadras, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2024Hao-Jung Chang, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2022
Sepehr Benis, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2020
Salimeh Tofighi, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2020
Peng Zhao, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2016
Matthew Reichert, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2015
Himansu Pattanaik, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2015
Manuel Ferdinandus, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2014
Davorin Peceli, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2013
Honghua Hu, Optics Ph.D., Summer 2012
Claudiu Cirloganu, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2010
Gero Nootz, Physics Ph.D., Fall 2010
Peter Olszak, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2010
Jie "Jeff" Fu, Optics Ph.D., Fall 2006
Mihaela Balu, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2006
Joel Hales, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2004
Richard Lepkowicz, Optics Ph.D., Spring 2004
Vladislav Dubikovskiy, Physics Ph.D., Spring 2003
Raluca Negres, Physics Ph.D., Spring 2001
Sidney Yang, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 2000
Dmitriy Kovsh, Optics Ph.D., Spring 1999
Edward Miesak, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 1999
Jin Hong Lim, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1998
Sean Ross, Optics Ph.D., Spring 1998
Arthur Dogariu, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1997
Sungwon Kim, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1997
Michael P. Hasselbeck, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 1996
Zuo Wang, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 1996
Tiejun "TJ" Xia, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1994
Richard DeSalvo, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1993
Jiangwei Jenny Wang, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 1993
Choong Bum "CB" Park, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Spring 1992
Tai-Huei Wei, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1992
Yuan-Yen "Wendy" Wu, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1990
Edesly Canto-Said, Physics Ph.D., Spring 1989
Nicholas Cox, Optics Ph.D., Unknown