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2005

Visualizations and visual illusions: how the mind tricks us, at A Year of Physics Public Lecture, North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC), Wednesday, November 9, 2005:
talk_1186.pdf
Neurobiology and cognitive psychology have made great progress in understanding how the mind processes information – in particular visual information. The knowledge we can gain from these fields has important implications for the presentation of visual information and student learning.
Wrapping light around a hair: silica nanowires for optical components, at Hanscom Sigma Xi Chapter Joint Meeting with the IEEE Life Members, MIT Lincoln Labs (Lincoln, MA), Tuesday, November 8, 2005:
talk_1170.pdf
Silica — glass — fibers are widely used in optical communication, sensors and other applications. These fibers have roughly the same diameters as human hair. Device applications benefit from minimizing the width of these fibers, but fabricating low-loss optical waveguides with subwavelength diameters is challenging because of the strict requirements on surface roughness and diameter uniformity.

We have developed a process for fabricating silica nanowires with a diameter of only one thousandth the diameter of a hair. Although significantly narrower than the wavelength of light, these...

Read more about Wrapping light around a hair: silica nanowires for optical components
Wrapping light around a hair, at Nanotech 2005: A Symposium for Teachers, Museum of Science (Boston, MA), Monday, November 7, 2005:
talk_1192.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Nano and biophotonics, at DEAS Dean's Leadership Council Meeting, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Thursday, October 27, 2005:
talk_1194.pdf
A brief overview of some of the research in the group.
Stopping Time, at Science in the City, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (Cambridge, MA), Saturday, October 22, 2005:
talk_1191.pdf
Time is of philosophical interest as well as the subject of mathematical and scientific research. Even though it is a concept familiar to most, the passage of time remains one of the greatest enigmas of the universe. The philosopher Augustine once said: "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know." The concept time indeed cannot be explained in simple terms. Emotions, life, and death - all are related to our interpretation of the irreversible flow of time. After a discussion of the concept of time, we will review... Read more about Stopping Time
Materials Processing Using Ultrashort Laser Pulses, at OSA Frontiers in Optics Meeting (Tucson, AZ), Wednesday, October 19, 2005:
talk_1125.pdf
Ultrashort laser pulses are an important new tool in materials processing. We will discuss the physics of short-pulse laser interactions with materials and applications in micromachining and biotechnology.
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at OSA Frontiers in Optics Meeting (Tucson, AZ), Wednesday, October 19, 2005:
talk_1138.pdf
Silica nanowires allow the guiding and manipulation of light at the nanoscale. The linear optical properties of these wires can be easily modeled because they are a step-index, all-core cylindrical waveguides. The nonlinear optical properties wires open the door to novel applications in nanoscale photonics.
Wrapping light around a hair: optics at the nanoscale, at Physics Colloquium, Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), Thursday, October 13, 2005:
talk_1164.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair: optics at the nanoscale
Fundamentals and Applications of Femtosecond Laser Micromachining of Glass, at First Conference on Advances in Optical Materials (Tucson, AZ), Wednesday, October 12, 2005:
talk_1149.pdf
When femtosecond laser pulses are focused tightly into a transparent material, the intensity in the focal volume can become high enough to cause nonlinear absorption of laser energy. The absorption, in turn, can lead to permanent structural or chemical changes. Such changes can be used for micromachining bulk transparent materials. Applications include data storage and the writing of waveguides and waveguide splitters in bulk glass, fabrication of micromechanical devices in polymers, and of all-optical sensors.
Wrapping light around a hair: manipulating light at the nanoscale, at Physics Colloquium, University of Washington (Seattle, WA), Monday, October 10, 2005:
talk_1183.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair: manipulating light at the nanoscale

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