Optical tweezers, Arthur Ashkin's Nobel Prize-winning invention, revolutionized biological studies. Building on this, we developed advanced user-friendly optical manipulation techniques using light to control interactions, transformations, and movements across multiple scales. By integrating direct manipulation with light-induced thermal, chemical, electrical, and acoustic effects, our innovations enhance operational versatility, broaden material applicability, and reduce power requirements. These advances drive progress in multifunctional measurement, manufacturing, active matter, and robotics, with applications in life sciences, quantum technologies, healthcare, energy, and sustainability.
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Research
We harness dual-faceted optical manipulation—manipulation by light and of light—in spectroscopy and microscopy to reveal biological structures and functions with exceptional sensitivity, resolution, and speed. Enhanced optical microscopy with rotation and machine learning enables volumetric imaging and precise organism classification. An adhesion frequency assay profiles cell-cell interactions, while chiroptical spectroscopy offers label-free, ultrasensitive enantiodiscrimination of chiral molecules. These innovations expand optical measurement capabilities, advancing life sciences, space exploration, pharmaceutical quality control, and disease diagnosis.
When arranged into nano-architected materials like metamaterials, discrete nanostructures enable novel optical phenomena, revolutionizing the manipulation and use of light. We design these materials for applications in optical sensing, photochemistry, solar energy, radiative cooling, optical computing, and quantum communication. Inspired by nature and leveraging machine learning, we customize nano-architectures for specific needs. Our advanced optical techniques enable green, on-demand fabrication and precise property measurements at single-structure and ensemble scales.