The second two fellows arrived in Stanford in January 2011 and joined continuing fellows Weisjeng Lu and Keith Mathieson.

RICCARO BASSIRI

A number of optical applications are critically dependent on highly reflective mirrors of low optical and/or mechanical loss. This fellowship will aid in the development of experimental techniques that will allow the study of the atomic structure and properties of a range of amorphous dielectric optical coating materials. This will be of particular interest to industrial users of these coatings, such as in laser cavities, microelectronics and biomedical applications.

 

ARMAND NIEDERBERGER

Simulation of nanophotonics circuits
Research in optics and photonics has recently evolved to the point at which it is now possible to build nanophotonics circuits analogous to electronic circuits. The development of integrated (electronic) circuits has greatly benefited from numerical tools such as SPICE, which allows engineers to study the planned circuits efficiently before the production stage. For nanophotonics circuits, however, there is no such tool available today. This forces scientists and engineers to write custom-made simulations for their circuits and slows the production process down considerably. The aim of this project is therefore to study and simulate standard configurations of nanophotonics circuits, and to develop numerical tools that can facilitate their planning and construction.