20 April 2024: Dr Christophe Pin joins the LMIQT Unit

Welcome to Dr Christophe Pin who recently joined us from Hokkaido University.  

20 April 2024: Perspective published in J. Phys. Photonics

Atom-light interactions using optical nanofibres - A perspective. W Li, D Brown, A Vylegzhanin, Z Shahrabifarhani, A Raj, J Du and S Nic Chormaic, J. Phys: Photon. 6, 021002 (2024)

20 April 2024: Welcome to Sophia and Chris!

This month we welcome Sophia Paul from Bonn, Germany, and Chris Brand from Auckland, New Zealand for research internships.   

02 February 2023: Collaborative work published in Applied Physics Letters

Coupled deformed microdisk cavities featuring non-Hermitian properties, TS Rodemund, S Nic Chormaic and M Hentschel, Appl. Phys. Lett. 124, 051107 (2024)

23 January 2024: Work published in Optics Express

Evaporation characteristics of Er3+ doped silica fiber and its application in the preparation of whispering gallery mode lasers, A Li, JM Ward, K Tian, J Yu, S She, C Hou, H Guo, S Nic Chormaic and P Wang, Opt. Express 32, 3912 (2024)

16 January 2024: Two PhD students join unit

Welcome to Sergei Abdrakhmanov (formerly Novosibirsk State University Russia) and Hania Altabbaa (formerly Damscus University Syria) who have joined the unit for their PhDs. 

04 November 2023: Review paper in Biomed. Opt. Express

Particle trapping with optical nanofibers - A review. P Praveen Kamath, S Sil, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic. Biomed. Opt. Express 14, 6172 (2023)

03 November 2023: Two new students in the unit

Welcome to our two new students. Veronika Giricz is a visiting student from Stuttgart, Germany, and is working on tweezers for atoms. Guillermo Perez Lobato is a research intern from IPN, Mexico and is working on optical nanofibres for cold atoms.

29 September 2023: Publication in Optica Quantum's inaugral issue

Excitation of ⁸⁷Rb Rydberg atoms to nS and nD states (n<68) via an optical nanofiber. A Vylegzhanin, DJ Brown, A Raj, DF Kornovan, JL Everett, E Brion, J Robert and S Nic Chormaic. Optica Quant. 1, 6 (2023)

23 September 2023: Prof. Ke Tian joins the LMI-QT Unit

Welcome back to Ke who is rejoining the LMI-QT Unit as a visiting professor from Harbin Engineering University, China.  

01 September 2023 - Welcome to Samuel Begumya, new PhD student

Samuel will start his PhD at LMI-QT for work on quantum emitters coupled to cavities.   Samuel, originally from Uganda, completed his MSc in India and has been at OIST previously as a research intern.   

27 August 2023 - Work published in Biomed. Opt. Express

Asymmetric split-ring plasmonic nanostructures for the optical sensing of Escherichia coli. DG Kotsifaki, RR Singh, S Nic Chormaic and VG Truong. Biomed. Opt. Express 14, 4875 (2023)

16 August 2023 - Work published in Photonics Research

Structural characterization of thin-walled microbubble cavities. MZ Jalaludeen, S Li, K Tian, T Sasaki and S Nic Chormaic. Photonics Res. 11, A19 (2023)

16 August 2023 - Collaborative work with Prof. Tal Carmon, Tel Aviv University, published in Nature Communications

Absorption-induced transmission in plasma microphotonics.  B Bathish, R Gad, F Cheng, K Karlsson, R Madugani, M Douvidzon, S Nic Chormaic and T Carmon. Nat. Commun. 14, 4535 (2023)

14 July - Lunnet Newman Yokomizo joins as research intern

Welcome to our new research intern student, Lunnet Newman Yokomizo from the École Polytechnique - Palaiseau, France, who’ll Welcome to our newest research intern student, Lunnet Newman Yokomizo from the École Polytechnique - Palaiseau, France, who’ll work on diamond -based quantum networks.

01 June 2023 - Work published in Photonics Research

Manipulation of polarization topology using a Fabry-Perot fiber cavity with a higher-order mode optical nanofibers. M Maeda, J Keloth and S Nic Chormaic. Photonics Res. 11, 1029 (2023)

01 June 2023 - Latest work published in Nano Letters

Enabling self-induced back-action trapping of gold nanoparticles in metamaterial plasmonic tweezers. TD Bouloumis, DG Kotsifaki and S Nic Chormaic. Nano Lett. 23, 4723 (2023). 

18 May 2023: New intern student, Anna Kortel

Welcome to our newest student, Anna Kortel, previously from National Research University Higher School of Economics and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She's joined on the Chimu Gukuru progamme and will work on photon correlations using cold Rb atoms and nanofibres.

06 May 2023: New research intern - German Suslin

German Suslin, formerly of the Far Eastern Federal University, Russia, has joined us for a research internship in the NanoBioOptics subgroup.   

02 May 2023: New visiting researcher - Dr Aysen Gurkan

Dr Aysen Gurkan has rejoined the unit as a visiting researcher to work on plasmonic sensing with the NanoBioOptics team.   

02 May 2023: Amal Jose joins as a PhD student

Amal Jose has joined the unit as a PhD student for work related to nonlinear optics and sensing in WGM resonators.   Amal completed his BSc/MSc in Cochin, India before joining OIST in May 2022.   

05 April 2023: Paper published in Nanophotonics

Fluorescence engineering in metamaterial-assisted super-resolution localization microscope. KR Choi, S Li, I Ozerov, F Bedu, DH Park, BC Joo, JW Wu, S Nic Chormaic and YU Lee. Nanophotonics 12, 2491  (2023) 

04 April 2023: LMI-QT Unit welcomes new postdoc, Dr Fathy Hassan

Dr Fathy Hassan has joined the LMI-QT Unit as an OIST Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar in collaboration with the pi-Conjugated Polymers Unit (Christine Luscombe Unit)  

04 April 2023: Paper published in Optics Letters

High-sensitivity vector bend sensor based on a fiber directional coupler inscribed by a femtosecond laser. K Tian, M Zhang, C Zhao, H Li, S Li, Y Jiang, E Lewis, G Farrell and P Wang. Opt. Lett. 48, 1498 (2023)

04 April 2023: Paper published in Nature Communications

Evanescent field trapping and propulsion of Janus particles along optical nanofibers. G Tkachenko, VG Truong, CL Esporlas, I Sanskriti and S Nic Chormaic. Nat. Commun. 14, 1691 (2023)

05 March 2023: Publication in EPJ Quantum Technol.

Cold atoms in space: Community workshop summary and proposed road-map. I Alonso et al. [RK Gupta]. EPJ Quantum Technol. 9, 30 (2022)

05 March 2023: Publication in New J. Phys.

Interaction of two Rydberg atoms in the vicinity of an optical nanofibre. E Stourm, M Lepers, J Robert, S Nic Chormaic, K  Mølmer and E Brion. New J. Phys. 25, 023022 (2023)

20 January 2023: Latest Publication - Phys. Rev. A

Direction-dependent coupling between a nanofiber-guided light field and a two-level atom with an electric quadrupole transition. F Le Kien, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch, Phys. Rev. A 107, 013713 (2023)

10 January 2023: Publication in J. Phys. Chem.

Active control of plasmonic-photonic interactions in a microbubble cavity.  F Pan, K Karlsson, A Nixon, L Hogan, J Ward, K Smith, D Masiello, S Nic Chormaic and R Goldsmith. J. Phys. Chem. C 126, 20470 (2022)

10 January 2023: New rotation student - Amal Jose

Amal Jose joins for a rotation on WGM cavities for sensing applications.  Amal completed his MSc from CUSAT, India in 2021.   

03 November 2022: New intern student - Jiajun Chen

Jiajun Chen joins us as a research intern from the University of Bristol, where she has completed an MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. While at OIST she'll work on our NV-centre diamond project.

23 October 2022: Welcome back to Dr Wenfang Li

Dr Wenfang Li joins the unit as a Staff Scientist following a postdoc position in CQT, Singapore.  Welcome back!

06 October 2022: New intern student - Sergei Abdrakhmanov

Sergei Abdrakhmanov will join us as a Research Intern for the next 6 months. Sergei has an MSc in physics from the Novosibirsk State University, Russia. During his time with us, he will work on cold atoms and optical traps. 

01 September 2022: Two new students

Pramitha Kamath, a graduate from CUSAT, joins for her PhD on particle manipulation using nanofibres, while Harley Suchiang, a graduate of IISER-Kolkata joins us for a lab rotation on fibre cavities. Welcome to both! 

16 August 2022: Publication in Photonics Research

Blue band nonlinear optics and photodarkening in silica microdevices. K Tian, J Yu, F Lei, JM Ward, A Li, P Wang and S Nic Chormaic. Photonics Res. 10, 2073 (2022) 

10 August 2022: JSPS Visiting Fellow, Prof. Yeon Ui Lee

We are happy to host Yeon Ui Lee from Chungbuk National University, Korea, on a JSPS Visiting Fellowship this month.   Yeon Ui runs the Optical Nanoscopy Lab aimed at developing the next generation of optical imaging tools.   

08 July 2022: Publication in Phys. Rev. A

Transfer of angular momentum of guided light to an atom with an electric quadrupole transition near an optical nanofiber.  F Le Kien, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. Phys. Rev. A 106, 013712 (2022)

28 June 2022: Publication in Phys. Rev. A

Optical force between two coupled identical parallel optical nanofibers.  F Le Kien, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. Phys. Rev. A 105, 063517 (2022)

14 June 2022: New research intern

Aleksandr Zaitsev joins as a research intern for 6 months having completed his studies in St Petersburg University, Russia. He will work on atoms+nanofibres for nonlinear optics. 

13 June 2022: Visiting research student - Liming Mao

Liming Mao is a visiting research student from Harbin Engineering University, China. Liming works on laser materials and resonators. He will spend 1 year here funded by the China Scholarship Council.

12 June 2022: Visiting research student - Zhuowei Cheng

Zhuowei Cheng is visiting from Harbin Engineering University, China.  He will spend one year with the unit working on novel lasing materials for whispering gallery resonators funded by the China Scholarship Council.   

09 June 2022: New research intern

Meet Hania Al Tabbaa, a Rita R. Colwell Impact Fund Research Intern from Damascus University, Syria. Hania will work on plasmonic trapping and thermal effects. 

07 June 2022: New research intern

Arrival no 11 to the group since Japan relaxed its border entry. Meet Maryna Khrypko, a physics graduate from National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. She'll work on plasmonic materials and is funded by the OIST Foundation.

01 June 2022: New research intern

Arrival no 10 to the group since Japan relaxed its border conditions.  Meet Arina Ismail, a physics graduate from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. During her internship she'll work on WGM cavities.

26 May 2022: Publication in J Phys B

Rubidium atom spectral lineshapes in high intensity electric fields near an optical nanofibre. V Gokhroo, F Le Kien and S Nic Chormaic. J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 55, 125301 (2022)

26 May 2022: Research intern, Yousif Saleh, arrives at OIST

Arrival no. 9 to the research unit since Japan let researchers enter the country in April is Yousif Saleh, a physics graduate from Al-Nahrain University in Iraq. During his time here he'll work on cold Rydberg atoms.

19 May 2022: Intern student, Jennifer Sanchez, arrives at OIST

Arrival no. 8 to our research unit since the border condition relaxed is Jennifer Sanchez from Ecuador who starts at OIST. Jennifer joins us for a research internship on the topic of particle manipulation using optical fibres.

16 May 2022: New visiting researcher, Dr Yanqiu Du

Dr Yanqiu Du, a lecturer and researcher from Harbin, China, joins the unit as a visiting researcher for one year to work on optical microcavities, funded by the China Scholarship Council.  Back home, she works as a postdoc/lecturer at Harbin Engineering University/Heilongjiang University of  Science and Technology.  

12 May 2022: Publication in AVS Quantum Sci.

Machine leaner optimization of optical nanofiber-based dipole traps for cold ⁸⁷Rb atoms. RK Gupta, JL Everett, AD Tranter, R Henke, V Gokhroo, PK Lam and S Nic Chormaic. AVS Quantum Sci. 4, 026801 (2022)

10 May 2022: Pramitha Praveen Kamath joins for a rotation

We welcome OIST PhD student, Pramitha Praveen Kamath, for a 4-month research rotation in our NanoBioOptics Group. Pramitha hails from India where she completed her studies in CUSAT. She'll work on structured optical fibres for particle trapping.

29 April 2022: New staff member

Souvik Sil has joined the unit as a researcher on optical fibre-based particle trapping.  He's also currently in the final stages of his PhD at IISER-Kolkata, India.   

29 April 2022: Publication in Phys. Rev. A

Repulsive Casimir-Polder potentials of low-lying excited states of a multlevel alkali-metal atom near an optical nanofiber.  F Le Kien, DF Kornovan, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. Phys. Rev. A 105, 042817 (2022)

26 April 2022: Congrats to Dr Ratnesh Kumar Gupta

Ratnesh defended his PhD thesis titled "Evanescent field mediated interaction of cold Rubidium atoms with nanofiber guided light" in front of Profs. Irina Novikova and Mark Sadgrove today.    Well done!

18 April 2022: Research intern, Nick Kokkinidis, arrives from Greece

Nick Kokkinidis from Crete has just joined us for an internship on metamaterial and plasmonic optical tweezers. Another new face in the house!

12 April 2022: Samuel Begumya starts his research internship

Samuel Begumya, a Ugandan student who completed his MSc studies in India, arrives for his research internship on fs laser writing of single NV centres.

11 April 2022: Two new postdocs join the unit

We welcome Drs Ramgopal Madugani and Vishnu Kavungal to the research unit. They'll be involved in whispering gallery and optical nanofibre cavities.

07 April 2022: Latest publication in Nanophotonics

The role of temperature induced effects generated by plasmonic nanostructures on particle delivery and manipulation:  A review.   D Kotsifaki and S Nic Chormaic.  Nanophotonics (2022)

04 March 2022: Book chapter on "Plasmon-enhanced optical forces and tweezsers"

Plasmon-enhanced optical forces and tweezers. DG Kotsifaki, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic in Plasmon-Enhanced Light-Matter Interactions (eds. P Yu, H Xu, ZM Wang),  Springer Lect. Notes Nanoscale Sci. (LNNST, volume 31), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87544-2. 

01 March 2022: Welcome to Jennifer, a research intern in the unit.

Jennifer Sanchez, a graduate from Yachay Tech University in Ecuador, has joined our unit for a remote internship with the hope that Japan will let her enter Okinawa in the near future.   Jennifer has completed a Bachelor's degree in Physics and will work in optical trapping using optical nanofibers and plasmonic chips while at OIST.   While patiently waiting, she will work on modelling mode propagation in optical nanofibers.  

01 March 2022: Congratulations to new KAKENHI awardees

Drs Dylan Brown and Ke Tian won JSPS KAKENHI grants for their ongoing research in the unit.  Congratulations to both of them!

01 March 2022: Publication in Photonics Research

Emission spectroscopy of NaYF4:Eu nanorods optically trapped by Fresnel lens fibers.  A Kumar, A Asadollahbaik, J Kim, K Lahlil, S Thiele, A Herkommer, S Nic Chormaic, J Kim, T Gacoin, H Giessen and J Fick.  Photonics Res. 10, 332-339 (2022)

01 March 2022: Publication in Nature Reviews Methods Primers

Whispering-gallery-mode sensors for biological and physical sensing.  D Yu, M Humar, K Meserve, R Bailey, S Nic Chormaic and F Vollmer.  Nat. Rev. Methods Primers 1, 83 (2021)

30 August 2021: Two new PhD students join the LMI-QT Unit

We welcome two new PhD students to the Unit from September. Mohammed Zia Jalaludeen is a graduate from CUSAT (India) and Aswathy Raj is a graduate from IISER-Kolkata (India). 

30 June 2021: Publication in Photonics Technology Letters

1.6 GHz frequency scanning of a 482 nm laser stabilized using electromagentically induced transparency. KP Subramonian Rajasree, K Karlsson, T Ray and S Nic Chormaic. Photon. Technol. Lett. (2021)

12 June 2021: Publication in Phys. Rev. A

Optical trap for an atom around the midpoint between two coupled identical prallel optical nanofibers. F Le Kien, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. Phys. Rev. A 103, 063106 (2021) 

23 May 2021: Congratulations to Theo for winning an SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship

Theodoros Bouloumis has been awarded a 2021 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field

18 May 2021: Publication in Optics Express

A packaged whispering gallery resonator device based on an optical nanoantenna coupler. A Li, K Tian, J Yu, RA Minz, JM Ward, S Mondal, P Wang and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 29, 16879 (2021)

07 May 2021: A new rotation student in the unit

We are happy to welcome Mohammed Zia Jalaludeen to the unit as a rotation student for the next few months.  Zia will work on building an all-fibred quantum light source.   Before coming to OIST, he completed his integrated BSc-MSc studies in CUSAT, India with internships in KIT (Germany) and RRI (India).  

07 May 2021: OSA podcast on diversity at OIST

The OSA #WeAreOSA podcasts address issues that concern the members of the society.  In this edition, we discuss the diversity within the optics community, including a focus on some of OIST's efforts in being a diverse educator.  Click here to listen.  

04 March: New special research student - Konosuke Shimazaki

Today we welcome a special research student to our unit from Kyoto University. Konosuke Shimazaki will spend one month working on optical nanofibre cavities.

27 February: Publication in New J. Phys.

Spatial distributions of the fields in guided normal modes of two coupled parallel nanofibers, F Le Kien, L Ruks, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch, New J. Phys. 23, 043006 (2021)

26 February: New intern in the unit

Ayushman Tripathi, an MEng student from the University of Ryukyus, joins the unit for an internship in mechanical engineering and fabrication 

28 January: Publication in OSA Continuum

Trapping of rare earth-doped nanorods using quasi Bessel beam optical fiber tweezers.  RA Minz, U Tiwari, A Kumar, S Nic Chormaic, K Lahlil, T Gacoin, SK Mondal and J Fick.  OSA Continuum 4, 364 (2021)

13 January 2021: Publication in Applied Physics Letters

Dynamic multiple nanoparticle trapping using metamaterial plasmonic tweezers, DG Kotsifaki, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Appl. Phys. Lett. 118, 021107 (2021)

04 January: Two students join the unit for rotations

Two students from OIST PhD programme, both graduates from IISER Kolkate, are joining our research group for laboratory rotations. Aswathy Raj will work on cavity QED using optical nanofibers, while Prajakta Kokate will work on superoscillation imaging.

01 January 2021: Two new PhD students join the unit

Alex Vylegzhanin and Zohreh Shahrabifarahani have joined the unit for PhD work related to cold atoms.  

31 December: Publication in Sci. Total Environ.

Analysis of small microplastics in coastal surface water samples of the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan, C Ripken, S Nic Chormaic and DG Kotsifaki, Sci. Total Environ. 760, 143927 (2021) 

Latest Publication: New J. Phys

Coupling between guided modes of two parallel nanofibers. F Le Kien, L Ruks, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. New J. Phys. 22, 123007 (2020)

13 November: Latest publication - Microorganisms

Response of coral reef dinoflagellates to nanoplastics under experimental conditions. C Ripken, E Shoguchi and K Khalturin. Microorganisms 8, 1759 (2020).

05 November: Congratulations to Domna!

Dr Domna Kotsifaki has won a grant from The Sumitomo Foundation for work on developing a "Smart Quantum Plasmonic Sensor for Immunoassay Diagnosis".  

05 November: Latest publication - Opt. Express

A tellurite glass optical microbubble resonator, J Yu, J Zhang, R Wang, A Li, M Zhang, S Wang, P Wang, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 28, 32858 (2020) Editor's Pick

05 November: Latest publication - Nanotechnology

Fast and efficient nanoparticle trapping using plasmonic connected nanoring apertures, TD Bouloumis, DG Kotsifaki, X Han, S Nic Chormaic and VG Truong, Nanotechnology 32, 025507 (2020)

01 November: New staff scientist - Dr Shilong Li

A warm welcome to Dr Shilong Li who has joined the unit as a staff scientist to work in the Cavity Group. Dr Li is currently in China waiting for permission to enter Japan. Let's hope it is soon!

04 September: New students in the unit

We welcome two new rotation students to the unit for this term.  Kang-Yu Chu completed his MSc in the National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) in 2016 with speciality in Biomedical Engineering.   Carla Lupu is from Romania and completed her MSc in the University Politehnica of Bucharest earlier this year on Engineering and Applications of Lasers and Particle Accelerators.   We wish them both luck on this new stage of their education.  

04 September: Latest publication - Phys. Rev. Res.

Spin selection in single frequency, two photon excitation of alkali atoms, KS Rajasree, RK Gupta, V Gokhroo, F Le Kien, T Nieddu, T Ray, S Nic Chormaic and G Tkachenko, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033341 (2020)

01 July: New postdoctoral scholar - Dr Dylan Brown

23 June: Congratulations to Theo!

Congratulations to PhD student, Theo Bouloumis, who won OIST's 3 Minute Thesis competition where he presented his research work on trapping of quantum emitters using plasmonic structures.  

23 June: New intern student - Jaime Rivera

We are happy to finally welcome a new intern student to the unit! Meet Jaime Rivera, who completed a BSc in Physics from the University of Philippines back in 2019. The internship will be focussed on quantum dot excitation via an optical nanofibre.

14 June: Latest publication - Phys. Rev. A

Chiral excitation of a single atom by a single photon in a guided mode of a nanofiber. F Le Kien, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch. Phys. Rev. A 101, 063816 (2020)

01 June: Latest publication - Appl. Phys. B

Fabrication of optical nanofibre-based cavities using focussed ion-beam millling - A review. P Romagnoli, M Maeda, JM Ward, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic. Appl. Phys. B  126, 111 (2020)

18 May: Latest publication - Phys. Rev. A

Spontaneous emission and energy shifts of a Rydberg rubidium atom close to an optical nanofiber. E Stourm, M Lepers, J Robert, S Nic Chormaic, K Mølmer and E Brion, Phys. Rev. A 101, 052508 (2020)

01 May: New rotation student - Alexey Vylegzhanin

We've another rotation student joining the unit today. Alexey Vylegzhanin will work on optomechanics of small particles near optical nanofibers. He completed his MSc in Physics in 2018 from Moscow State University (Russia) before moving to Asia first as a teacher and now as a PhD student at OIST.

01 May: New rotation student - Irina Korshok

We welcome Irina Korshok as a rotation project student to the unit. Irina has just started the OIST PhD programme, having completed an MSc in Physics in Saint Petersburg State University (Russia) in 2019. She'll work in our neutral atom group during the next few months.

14 April: Latest Publication - Nano Letters

Fano resonant, asymmetric, metamaterial-assisted tweezers for single nanoparticle trapping. DG Kotsifaki, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic. Nano Lett. 20, 3388 (2020)

08 April: Latest Publication - J. Light. Technol.

An experimental and theoretical investigation of a 2 µm wavelength low-threshold microsphere laser. J Yu, X Wang, W Li, M Zhang, J Zhang, S Nic Chormaic and P Wang.  J. Light. Technol. 38, 1880 (2020)

08 April: New Visiting Researcher - Dr Isha Sanskriti

Dr Isha Sanskriti joins the unit as a Visiting Scientist.   Isha has a PhD in Chemistry from Banaras Hindu University (India) where she worked on chemosensing of inorganic sulphide and few biothiols through silver and gold nanoparticles.  While with the unit she'll assist on technical aspects of material and chemical handling.   

01 April: Latest Publication - J. Phys. Photonics

Optical trapping and orientation-resolved spectroscopy of europium-doped nanorods. A Kumar, J Kim, K Lahlil, G Julie, S Nic Chormaic, J Kim, T Gacoin and J Fick. J. Phys. Photonics 2, 025007 (2020)

01 April: JSPS Kakenhi Award for Dr Domna Kotsifaki

Congratulations to unit member, Dr Domna Kotsifaki, who just won a JSPS Kakenhi award to study "Novel label-free tool for infections diagnosis based on Nano-Electro Optical Tweezers".

31 March: Latest Publication - New Journal of Physics

Observation of the ⁸⁷Rb 5S_1/2 to 4D_3/2 electric quadrupole transition at 516.6 nm mediated via an optical nanofibre (Fast Track Communication). T Ray, RK Gupta, V Gokhroo, JL Everett, T Nieddu, KS Rajasree and S Nic Chormaic. New J. Phys. (2020)

14 March: Latest Publication - Applied Science

From far-field to near-field micro- and nanoparticle optical trapping. T Bouloumis and S Nic Chormaic. Appl. Sci. 10, 1375 2020

14 March: Latest Publication - Physical Review Letters

Polarization-controlled cavity input-output relations.  F Lei, JM Ward, P Romagnoli and S Nic Chormaic. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 103902 (2020)

15 February: Latest Publication - Physical Review Research

Generation of cold Rydberg atoms at submicron distances from an optical nanofiber.  KS Rajasree, T Ray, K Karlsson, JL Everett and S Nic Chormaic. Phys. Rev. Research 2, 012038(R) (2020)

15 January 2020: Latest Publication - ACS Photonics

Enhanced directional coupling of light with a whispering gallery microcavity.  F Lei, G Tkachenko, X Jiang, JM Ward, L Yang and S Nic Chormaic, ACS Photonics (2020)

11 January: Latest publication- Optica

Light-induced rotation of dielectric microparticles around an optical nanofiber. G Tkachenko, I Toftul, C Esporlas, A Maimaiti, F Le Kien, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic.  Optica 7, 59 (2020)

10 January 2020: New postdoctoral researcher - Dr Ke Tian

This month we are happy to welcome Dr Ke Tian, from Harbin Engineering University, China, who joins our unit as a postdoc in the Cavity and Sensing Group.  Dr Tian will continue his work on whispering gallery resonators while at OIST. 

10 January 2020: New rotation student - Tai Tran

Tai Tran will join the LMI-QT Unit for a rotation on mutilevel atomic systems this term.  Tai completed his BSc in Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (Vietnam) in 2018 and joined the OIST PhD programme in 2019. 

02 December: Maki Maeda wins Best Poster Prize!

Congratulations to Maki for winning the best poster prize at JSAP’s annual meeting of the Photonics Division in Naha.

28 November: Latest Publication - J. Opt.

Polarisation control for optical nanofibres by imaging through a single lens.  G Tkachenko, F Lei and S Nic Chormaic. J. Opt. 21, 125604 (2019)

27 October: New visiting research student - Angzhen Li

This week we welcome another new member to the Optical Cavities and Sensing Group.  Angzhen Li is a PhD student in Harbin Engineering University (China) and will spend one year working with us at OIST on whispering

22 October 2019: Latest Publication - ACS Nano

Toward real-time monitoring and control of nanoparticle properties with a microbubble resonator spectrometer.  LT Hogan, EH Horak, JM Ward, KA  Knapper, S Nic Chormaic, and RH Goldsmith, ACS Nano (2019). 

20 October 2019: Two new research interns join the unit

This week we welcome two new intern students to the group. Soma Mishra, from India, will work on anisotropic particle trapping, while Zohreh Shahrabifarahani, from Iran, will work on atom interactions with optical cavities.

13 September: New visiting research student - Jibo Yu

Very busy time for the unit.  We welcome another new member, this time to the Optical Cavities and Sensing Group.  Jibo Yu is a PhD student in Harbin Engineering University (China) and will spend one year working with us at OIST on whispering gallery resonators using novel active materials.  

12 September: Latest Publication - Laser & Photonics Reviews

Raman laser switching induced by cascaded light scattering. S Kasumie, F Lei, JM Ward, X Jiang, L Yang and S Nic Chormaic. Laser Photonics Rev. 1900138 (2019)

04 September: New rotation student - Monika Eggenberger

Welcome to new OIST PhD student, Monika Eggenberger, who'll start her Okinawan life in the cold atom lab on a rotation. Monika, who hails from the USA, completed her BSc at Northeastern University, Boston. Great to have her on board!

02 September: New unit member - Dr Jameesh Keloth

Delighted to welcome Jameesh into our unit.  He completed his PhD in UEC, Tokyo, under the guidance of Prof. K. Hakuta and will continue working on fibre-based cavities while at OIST.  Wishing him every success.

25 July: Latest Publication in Nanophotonics

Plasmonic optical tweezers based on nanostructures: fundamentals, advances and prospects. DG Kotsifaki and S Nic Chormaic, Nanophotonics 8, 1227 (2019)

02 July: Visiting professor - Xue Han

Delighted to welcome Prof. Xue Han from Dalian University of Technology back to our lab for the next two months.

28 June: Latest publication in Optics Letters

Excitation of whispering-gallery-modes with a "point-and-play" fiber-based, optical nano-antenna , JM Ward, F Lei, S Vincent, P Gupta, SK Mondal, J Fick and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Lett. 44, 3386 (2019)

18 June: Latest publication in Phys. Rev. Appl.

Complete polarization control for a nanofiber waveguide using directional coupling, F Lei, G Tkachenko, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, Phys. Rev. Appl. 11, 064041 (2019)

18 June: Congratulations to Theo!

Congratulations to LMI Unit's PhD student, Theodoros Bouloumis, who has been awarded JASSO’s “Monbukagakusho Honor’s Scholarship” for FY2019!

14 June: Research Intern - Mathieu Couillard

Meet our latest unit member, Mathieu Couillard, an MSc student from Concordia University, Canada. Matt will spend the summer studying microbubble cavities and is funded through a JSPS-MITACS fellowship.

09 June - Congratulations!

Well done to Thomas Nieddu and Sho Kasumie who defended their PhD theses in the last week!  

24 April: New unit member - visiting research student

Meet our newest student, René Henke. René is an MSc student in physics from the University of Münster, Germany. He has been funded by the DAAD to spend one year with us at OIST for his MSc project work. Hope this leads to several lab successes!

17 March: Two new interns join the LMI Unit

Meet the two newest members of the LMI Unit. Paul Wood is studying for his BSc in Applied Physics and Instrumentation and Simon Jeffers is studying for his BSc in Instrument Engineering. Both are students at Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. While here, they will work on interfacing and automation of our many experiments.

26 February: New unit member - Research Intern

Antoine Pichené has joined the unit for a 6 month research internship in the Neutral Atoms for Quantum Technologies group.  Antoine is a graduate from the Institut d'Optique Aquitaine in France.   

21 February: Latest research publication - Optics Express

A simple, narrow, and robust atomic frequency reference at 993 nm exploiting the rubidium (Rb) 5S_1/2 to 6S_1/2 transition using one-color two-photon excitation. T Nieddu, T Ray, KS Rajasree, R Roy and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 27, 6528 (2019)

13 February: US Patent Application from the LMI Unit

Nanopositioner and method of making.  RMJ Murphy, F Lei, J Ward, S Nic Chormaic and Y Yang.  US 2019/0033527 A1. 

02 February: Two new unit members

Welcome to two new unit members. Vandna Gokhroo rejoins the unit as a staff scientist from Washington State University (USA), while Jean-Baptiste Ceppe joins as a postdoc having completed his PhD at the University of Rennes (France).

28 January: Latest research publication - JPhysB

Spontaneous emission of a sodium Rydberg atom close to an optical nanofibre, E Stourm, Y Zhang, M Lepers, R Guérout, J Robert, S Nic Chormaic, K Mølmer and E Brion, J. Phys. B 52, 045503 (2019)

14 January: New rotation students - Ianto Cannon and Kristine Faith Roque

Ianto Cannon and Kristine Faith Roque are two new rotation students in the LMI Unit for this term. Ianto is a graduate from Cambridge University (UK) in the Natural Sciences and Kristine is a gradute from the University of the Philippines Diliman, both with backgrounds in physics.

O7 January: New rotation student - Muhammad Sirajul Hasan

Welcome new student, Muhammad Sirajul Hasan, to our unit for his PhD rotation project in the cold atom lab. He previously completed his MSc at JNU, India.

03 December: Ivan wins JSAP Poster Prize

Ivan Toftul, a visiting research student in the LMI Unit, from ITMO, St. Petersburg, Russia, won the JSAP Photonics Division Annual Meeting poster prize for his work entitled "Dipole nanoparticles with induced anisotropy as point detectors of the angular momentum of light".  

22 October: Latest research publication - NJP

Force of light on a two-level atom near an ultrathin optical fiber, F Le Kien, DF Kornovan, SSS Hejazi, VG Truong, MI Petrov, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch, New J. Phys. 20, 093031 (2018)

30 September: latest research publication

Sequential trapping of single nanoparticles using a gold plasmonic nanohole array, X Han, VG Truong, PS Thomas and S Nic Chormaic, Photon. Res. 6, 981 (2018)

15 September: Latest research results published in OSA Continuum

Single mode green lasing and multicolor luminescent emission from an Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped compound fluorosilicate glass microsphere resonator.  X Wang, Y Yu, S Zhou, S Wang, Z Gao, JM Ward, S Nic Chormaic and P Wang. OSA Continuum 1, 261 (2018)

13 September: Theo Bouloumis joins LMI Unit for PhD

Theodoros Bouloumis, a graduate in physics from the Aistotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, has joined the LMI Unit for his PhD. Wishing him lots of success during the next few years.

09 September: Georgiy wins a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship!

Congratulations to Georgiy who has won a prestigious JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue here at OIST for a further two years. He will be investigating near-field polarisation of ultrathin optical fibres.  

08 September: New postdoc - Jesse Everett

Jesse Everett has joined the unit for a postdoc position in cold atoms. He completed his PhD in ANU, Australia, earlier this year.

21 July: Latest research results published in Nano Futures

Efficient microparticle trapping with plasmonic annular aperture arrays, X Han, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Nano Futures (2018) doi.org/10.1088/2399-1984/aad4c0

21 July: New staff scientist - Domna Kotsifaki

Domna Kotsifaki joins us as a staff scientist this week. Her previous post was as a postdoc in the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Domna works on optical trapping of micro and nanoparticles for applications in life sciences.

09 July: New intern student - Stephy Vincent

Stephy Vincent has recently completed her MSc in Physics at Sacred Heart College, Thevara, India and is working on our WGM projects while on Okinawa for 6 months.

09 July: New intern student - Elliott Harvie

Elliott Harvie has joined our group from St Andrews University in Scotland where he recently completed his BSc in Physics. While on Okinawa, he'll spend 6 months as a research intern working on optical trapping.

26 June: New visiting research student - Ivan Toftul

Today, we welcome Ivan Toftul, from ITMO St. Petersburg, Russia to our group for 6 months research internship. Ivan is a theoretician and working on particle behaviour next to ultrathin fibres. 

25 June: Latest Publication - Phys Rev A

Chiral force of guided light on an atom, F Le Kien, SSS Hejazi, VG Truong, S Nic Chormaic and T Busch, Phys. Rev. A 97, 063849 (2018)

01 June: New postdoctoral scholar - Priscila Romagnoli

Warm welcome to our newest postdoctoral scholar, Priscila Romagnoli. Priscila hails from Brazil and completed her PhD in Electrical Engineering at Mackenzie Presbyterian University. She'll be working on novel fibre-based devices for quantum emitters.

25 May: New Intern Student - Taylor Douglas

Very happy to welcome our newest unit intern, Taylor Douglas, from Rowan University, NJ, USA. Taylor is studying for a degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Physics. While with our unit, she'll focus on looking at nonlinear properties of nanoparticles via evanescent field interactions.

20 May: Latest publication - Optica

Nanoparticle sensing beyond evanescent field interaction with a quasi-droplet microcavity, JM Ward, Y Yang, F Lei, X-C Yu, Y-F Xiao and S Nic Chormaic, Optica 5, 674 (2018)

02 May: New rotation student - Lewis Ruks

Lewis Ruks, a maths graduate from the University of Oxford, has commenced a rotation with our unit.  During his time with us, he'll work with the experimentalists in the cold atom lab to learn about the type of theory we need and how to model physical systems. 

24 April: New rotation student - Theodoros Bouloumis

Theodoros Bouloumis, a graduate in physics from the Aistotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, has joined the LMI Unit for a rotation this term.  He will be working on the fabrication of tapered waveguides.  

18 April: Latest Publication - Methods Appl. Fluoresc.

Fluorescence from a single Symbiodinium cell, C Guzman, X Han, E Shoguchi and S Nic Chormaic, Methods Appl. Fluoresc. 6, 035033 (2018)

04 April: Latest Publication - Opt. Lett.

Tailoring a nanofiber for enhanced photon emission and coupling efficiency from single quantum emitters, W Li, J Du and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Lett. 43, 1674 (2018)

24 March: Latest Publication - Rev. Las. Eng.

Toward visible frequency comb generation using a hollow WGM resonator (invited review), S Kasumie, Y Yang, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, Rev. Las. Engin. 46, 92 (2018)

24 March: Latest Publication - Biomed. Opt. Express

Fiber-bundle-basis sparse reconstruction for high resolution wide-field microendoscopy, SP Mekhail, N Abudukeyoumu, JM Ward, G Arbuthnott and S Nic Chormaic, Biomed. Opt. Express 9, 1843 (2018)

08 February: Latest Publication - Phys. Rev. Appl.

Probing decoherence in plasmonic waveguides in the quantum regime, SG Dlamini, JT Francis, X Zhang, SK Ozdemir, S Nic Chormaic, F Petruccione and MS Tame, Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 024003 (2018)

17 January: Latest Publication - Phys. Rev. A

Enhancement of the quadrupole interaction of an atom with guided light of an ultrathin optical fiber, F Le Kien, T Ray, T Nieddu, T Busch and S Nic Chormaic, Phys Rev A 97, 013821 (2018)

09 January: New research intern - Kalyani Thakur

Welcome to our latest research intern, Kalyani Thakur, who recently completed an MSc in Applied Physics from Amity University, India. During her time with the LMI Unit, Kalyani will be working in our WGM subgroup. Best of luck!

20 December: Latest Publication - Phys. Rev. A

Channeling of spontaneous emission from an atom into the fundamental and higher-order modes of a vacuum-clad ultrathin optical fiber, F Le Kien, SSS Hejazi, T Busch, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Phys. Rev. A 96, 043859 (2017)

10 Dec: Visiting scientist:- Aditya Saxena

We've a new visiting scientist in our group, Aditya Saxena.  During his time at OIST he will assist us with fabrication of microfluidic devices for our particle trapping work.  

03 October: New research intern - Hassan Kazi

Welcome to new unit intern, Hassan Kazi, who has completed an MSc in Photonics at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.  He will spend the next few months working on optical trapping of nanoparticles. 

29 September: Latest Publication - Optics Express

Pump induced lasing suppression in Yb:Er-doped microlasers, F Lei, Y Yang, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 25, 24679 (2017)

27 September: New intern student - Anjana Krishnadas

Welcome to our latest research intern, Anjana Krishnadas, a recent MSc graduate in physics from IISER-Kolkata, India. During the next 6 months at OIST, Anjana will work on Rydberg atom formation next to an optical nanofibre. 

08 September: New rotation student - Lina Koronfel

Lina Koronfel has joined the unit for a PhD rotation.  Lina, with a background in neuroscience, hails from Eygypt.  During her rotation she'll work on correction algorithms for DMDs for use in neuronal imaging techniques.

04 September: New rotation student - Maki Maeda

Welcome to our newest unit member, Maki Maeda, from Kobe, Japan. Maki has a background in chemistry from ANU Australia and has joined the unit for a PhD rotation on atomic interactions with WGM resonators. Best of luck!

29 August: SPIE Student Chapter founded at OIST!

OIST students have founded a new SPIE Student Chapter here at OIST.  This will work alongside the OSA Student Chapter to provide more outreach opportunities to our local community.  

26 August: Latest Publication - Phys. Rev. A

Higher-order modes of vacuum-clad ultrathin optical fibers, F Le Kien, T Busch, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Phys. Rev. A 96 023835 (2017)

26 August: Latest Publication - Photonics Research

Bandpass transmission spectra of a whispering gallery microcavity coupled to an ultrathin fiber, F Lei, RMJ Murphy, JM Ward, Y Yang and S Nic Chormaic, Photonics Research 5 362 (2017)

20 July: New research intern - Lewis Picard

Welcome to our newest research intern, Lewis Picard, from Durham University. Lewis will spend the next few months working on our cold Rydberg atom experiment and we wish him all the best!

08 July: New intern student - Joanna Lis

Welcome to the latest summer research intern, Joanna Lis, from University College London, UK.  Joanna will work on whispering gallery resonators during her time at OIST. 

03 July: New LMI Unit member - Dr Georgiy Tkachenko

Delighted to welcome a new postdoc to our unit this week. Dr Georgiy Tkachenko did his PhD in France and later worked as a postdoc in Scotland before moving to Okinawa. We hope for much success in his research at OIST.

22 June: Latest Publication - Appl. Phys. Lett.

Optical nanofiber-based cavity induced by periodic air-nanohole arrays, W Li, J Du, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Appl. Phys. Lett.110, 253102 (2017)

21 June: Congratulations to Peter Mekhail!

Congratulations to LMI Unit's PhD student, Peter Mekhail, who has been awarded JASSO’s “Monbukagakusho Honor’s Scholarship” for FY2017!

09 June: Latest Publication - Communications in Physics

Chirality of light in hybrid modes of vacuum-clad ultrathin optical fibers, F Le Kien, T Busch, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Communications in Physics 27, 23 (2017)

09 June: ONNA 2017

From 05-08 June we organised and hosted the ONNA workshop on optical nanofibre applications.  We had a chance for many great scientific interactions and hope that fruitful collaborations can emanate from the discussions.  

03 June: Visitors to LMI Unit

On Friday we welcomed Prof Yoshiyuki Kakihana (Kagoshima University, Japan) and Prof. Alexandre Douplik (Ryerson University, Cananda) to the LMI Unit on discuss future medical applications related collaborations. 

Photo (left to right): Alexandre Douplik and Peter preparing for some butchering. 

03 June: Visitors to LMI Unit

During the week we were delighted to host Irina Novikova (College of William and Mary - USA), Alexander Akoulchine (Swinburne University - Australia) and Jonathan Dowling (LSU - USA) at the LMI Unit for discussions on multiphoton processes and OAM transfer in atomic systems.

From left to right (back):  Síle, Wenfang, Ratnesh, Kristoffer, Jon Dowling, Irina Novikova, Alexander Akoulchine, Thomas, Fam, Krishnapriya; (front) Mayuri, Jinjin, Tridib. 

31 May: Latest publication - Optics Express

All-optical nanopositioning of high-Q silica microspheres, RMJ Murphy, F Lei, JM Ward, Y Yang and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 25, 13101 (2017)

18 May: New unit intern - Mayuri Kawale

We are delighted to welcome Mayuri Kawale from IISER-Kolkata back for her second internship at OIST!  This year, she'll work on 4WM in a cloud of cold Rb. 

08 May: New rotation student - Christine Guzman

Welcome to the newest unit member, Christine Guzman. Christine is a life scientist with a special interest in marine science. She hails from the Philippines and will work on optical trapping while in our group.

26 April: Workshop on Optical Trapping and Structured Light

On 23rd April we held a workshop on Optical Trapping and Structured Light with invited speakers Yoshihiko Arita (University of St Andrews),  Cornelia Denz (Universitaet Muenster), Jasper Glueckstad (DTU), Lene Oddershede (Nils Bohr Institute) and Takashige Omatsu (Chiba University).  Afterwards, we all enjoyed dinner together to explore possible future collaboration opportunities. 

04 April: Congratulations to Jinjin!

Dr Jinjin  Du has been awarded a JSPS kakenhi research grant for work on transferring orbital angular momentum from ultrathin fibre modes to cold atoms.  Well done and all the best in your research!

27 January: IOP Recognition for Unit's Work

The unit's work was selected by IOP J. Opt. for inclusion in the Highlights of 2016 collection.  Well done to all involved. 

21 January: Unit Publication acknowledged as Top Cited Review from J Opt in 2016

Our review paper on Optical Nanofibres and Neutral Atoms has been acknowledged by J. Opt. as one of their top cited review papers of 2016.  

19 January: Latest Publication - Optics Express

Tunable erbium-doped microbubble laser fabricated by sol-gel coating, Y Yang, F Lei, S Kasumie, L Xu, J Ward, L Yang and S Nic Chormaic,Opt. Express 25, 1308 (2017)

15 January: New Research Intern - Prince Sunil Thomas

Prince Sunil Thomas is the latest research intern to join the LMI Unit. Prince has completed an MSc in UCD, Ireland in 2016 and will be working on plasmonic trapping while here at OIST.

09 January: New Research Intern - Yan Chen

Yan Chen, an undergraduate student from Jilin University, China, joins the LMI Unit as a research intern this week. Yan will work on whispering gallery mode resonators.

08 January: DAAD-JSPS Fellow - Maria Langbecker

We are happy to welcome Maria Langbecker to the LMI Unit for a couple of months.  Maria won a DAAD-JSPS Fellowship Award and will work on the Rydberg atom + nanofibre project.  Maria is a PhD student in the University of Mainz, Germany.  

08 January: New Rotation Student - Chris Campbell

Chris Campbell, a physics graduate from NUIG, Ireland, has joined the LMI Unit for one of his PhD rotation projects.  Chris will work on the slotted ultrathin optical fibre for quantum networks. 

08 January: New Rotation Student - Masakazu Taira

Welcome to Masakazu Taira who has joined the unit for one of his PhD rotation projects. Masakazu graduated from Soka University (Japan) in 2016 and entered the OIST PhD programme. While in the LMI Unit, he'll work on wavefront distortion corrections using a DMD.

06 January: New Research Intern - Haritha Kambalathmana

Haritha Kambalathmana is joining us for her MSc project work. She's a student in CUSAT, India and will work on optical trapping of nanoparticles.

20 December: Congratulations Dr Ramgopal Madugani!

Ramgopal Madugani successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled Whispering Gallery Mode Microcavities: From Fabrication to Applications before examiners Prof John Donegan (TCD) and Dr Bryan Kelleher (UCC) in UCC, Ireland.  Well done, Ram!

16 December: Congratulations to Mark Daly!

Today, a milestone for OIST and a milestone for the LMI Unit.  Our very own, Mark Daly, was the first PhD student to defend his thesis in OIST!  Ever!!  History cannot be rewritten.   The topic of Mark's thesis was "Light-Induced Interactions using Near-Field Optical Devices" and it was examined by Dr Phil Jones (UCL, UK) and Prof Limin Tong (Zhejiang University China).  The exam was chaired by Prof Jonathan Miller (OIST).   Well done, Mark!  Hope to call you Dr Daly soon!!

07 December: OSA Traveling Lecturer Program

To celebrate 100 years of OSA, the society doubled its support for the Traveling Lecturer Program.  As part of this initiative Prof. Nic Chormaic travelled to Monash University in Australia for IONS KOALA and CSIR & UKZN in South Africa to interact with the local OSA student chapters.

06 December: Latest Publication - Appl. Phys. B

Cavity ring-up spectroscopy for dissipative and dispersive sensing in a whispering gallery mode resonator, Y Yang, R Madugani, S Kasumie, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, Appl. Phys. B 122, 291 (2016) 

01 December: Latest Publication - Opt. Data Process. Storage.

Advances in fibre microendoscopy for neuronal imaging, SP Mekhail, G Arbuthnott and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Data Process. Storage 2, 30 (2016)

15 November: Congratulations to Dr Aili Maimaiti

Aili Maimaiti successfully defended his PhD at UCC (Ireland) recently.

12 November: Latest Publication - Optics Letters

Four-wave mixing parametric oscillation and frequency comb generation at visible wavelengths in a silica microbubble resonator, Y Yang, X Jiang, S Kasumie, G Zhao, L Xu, J Ward, L Yang and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Lett. 41, 5266 (2016) 

27 October: New Research Intern

Welcome to the latest research intern to join the LMI Unit. Rafino Murphy is a physics graduate of NUIM, Ireland and will spend the next six months working on WGM resonators.

14 October: New Research Intern

Shicheng Zhang, a PhD student from East China University of Science and Technology, joined LMI Unit today to learn about the integration of atoms and nanofibres. He'll be with us until the end of December. Let's wish him a fruitful first trip outside China!

08 October: CQD2016

Two science-packed weeks of CQD2016 have finished and we hope that everyone learnt as much as we did from our wonderful speakers!  See you again next year here on Okinawa for CQD2017. 

01 October: Latest Publication - Journal of Optics

Temperature measurement of cold atoms using transient absorption of a resonant probe through an optical nanofibre, R Kumar, V Gokhroo, VB Tiwari and S Nic Chormaic, J. Opt. 18, 115401 (2016).

22 September: New PhD students

02 August: Latest Publication - Nanotechnology

Highly tunable plasmonic nanoring arrays for nanoparticle manipulation and detection, M Sergides, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Nanotechnology 27, 365301 (2016)

28 July: Latest Publication - Scientific Reports

Nonlinear force dependence on optically bound arrays of micro-particles trapped in the evanescent fields of fundamental and higher order microfibre modes. A Maimaiti, D Holzmann, VG Truong, H Ritsch and S Nic Chormaic, Sci. Rep. 6, 30131 (2016)

22 July: Latest Publication - Photon. Technol. Lett.

Packaged optical add-drop filter based on an optical microfiber coupler and a microsphere.  P Wang, R Magugani, H Zhao, W Yang, JM Ward, Y Yang, G Farrell, G Brambilla and S Nic Chormaic. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2016.2591959 

22 July: Latest Publication - Scientific Reports

Quantum coherent tractor beam effect for atoms trapped near a nanowaveguide, M Sadgrove, S Wimberger and S Nic Chormaic, Sci. Rep. 6, 28905 (2016)

20 July: New Research Intern - Nikol Lambeva

Welcome to Nikol Lambeva, joining us from the University of Birmingham, UK. Nikol will work on laser cooling and Rydberg atom excitation during her research internship.

30 June: New Research Intern - Jan von Keitz

We are happy to welcome a new research intern to the unit.  Jan von Keitz is a student at the University of Muenster in Germany and will spend the summer months working on particle trapping using ultrathin optical fibres.

21 May: Latest Publication - Optics Express

Evanescent field trapping of nanoparticles using nanostructured ultrathin optical fibers, M Daly, VG Truong and S Nic Chormaic, Opt. Express 24, 263072 (2016) 

15 May: Two Research Interns join the LMI Unit

We are delighted to welcome the two newest members to the LMI Unit who'll start this week. Sakthi Priya Amirtharaj from IIT-Madras (India, on the left) and Mayuri Kawale from IISER-Kolkata (India, on the right) will spend the Summer on Okinawa. We hope they have a fun and fruitful learning experience.

Congratulations to Peter Mekhail (PhD student)!

Peter Mekhail was a finalist in the 2016 Biomedical Optics Student Poster Presentation Award for his paper on "Fiber Bundle in-vivo Epifluorescence Microscopy with Image Reconstruction". Well done (and spend that money wisely!).

Ratnesh Kumar Gupta joins the LMI Unit

Ratnesh Kumar Gupta (formerly from IISER-Kolkata) has joined the LMI Unit for his third rotation project, which will be on Rb atoms and microcavities.  We wish him all the best. 

Congratulations to Dr Ward!

Dr Jonathan Ward won JSPS Kakenhi funding for work on atoms and resonators. Congratulations!

Latest Publication - Scientific Reports

Glass-on-glass fabrication of bottle-shaped tunable micro-lasers and their applications, 

Krishnapriya features in the OSA Centennial Booklet

Congratulations to unit PhD student, Krishnapriya SR, who features in the OSA's Centennial Booklet.  It can be read by clicking here.  

Latest Publication - Photonics Technology Letters

Linear laser tuning using a pressure sensitive microbubble resonator, R Madugani, Y Yang, VH Le,  JM Ward, and S Nic Chormaic, IEEE Photon. Technol.

Dr Fuchuan Lei joins LMI Unit

Dr Fuchuan Lei, formerly from Tsinghua University, China has joined the LMI Unit as a postdoctoral scholar.  His research interests are in whispering gallery resonators.

Latest Publication - Journal of Optics

T. Nieddu, V. Gokhroo and S. Nic Chormaic.  Optical nanofibres and neutral atoms.   J. Opt. 18, 053001 (2016). 

Latest Publication - Optics Letters

Y Yang, Y Ooka, RM Thompson, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic.  Degnerate four-wave mixing in a silica hollow bottle-like microresonator.  Opt. Lett. 41, 575 (2016). 

Dr Kristoffer Karlsson joins the LMI Unit

Welcome to our new research technician, Dr Kristoffer Karlsson. Kristoffer completed his PhD at Luleå University of Technology (Sweden) in 2014 and has decided to follow a new direction in Japan.

Latest Publication - Optics Express

Y Yang, S Saurabh, JM Ward and S Nic Chormaic, "High-Q, ultrathin-walled microbubble resonator for aerostatic perssure sensing", Opt. Express 24, 294 (2016) 

Sho Kasumie joins the LMI Unit for PhD studies

We are delighted to welcome Sho Kasumie into our unit for his PhD thesis work on whispering gallery resonators and optomechanics.  Sho has a keen interest in theoretical quantum physics and will work on experimental and theoretical problems during his proposal preparation year.   

Congratulations to Dr Ravi Kumar!

Ravi Kumar successfully defended his PhD at UCC (Ireland) recently.   The title of his thesis is Nonlinear Optics with Cold Rb Atoms using Tapered Optical Nanofibres and he was examined by Drs. Aidan Arnold (University of Strathclyde) and Andreas Ruschhaupt (UCC).   Ravi will move to the Centre for Quantum Technologies, NUS, Singapore for his first postdoctoral post soon.  

Latest Publication - New Journal of Physics

R. Kumar, V. Gokhroo and S. Nic Chormaic, "Multi-level cascaded electromagnetically induced transparency in cold atoms using an optical nanofibre interface", New J. Phys. 17,  123012 (2015)

Read more here. 

Debanuj Chatterjee (IISER-Kolkata) visits the LMI Unit

We're very pleased to welcome Debanuj Chatterjee, a student from IISER-Kolkata, to our group for the month. Debanuj has been awarded an SPIE Education and Scholarship Grant for his time at OIST.  We hope he has a good experience here. 

Metin Ozer and Aysen Gurkan join the LMI Unit

Welcome to Mr Metin Ozer and Dr Aysen Gurkan who have joined the LMI Unit.  Metin has taken up a research technician post at OIST and Aysen, currently a visitor, will start as a part-time technician in 2016.   Wishing them both an enjoyable time at OIST.

Wenfang Li joins the LMI Unit

Wenfang Li from Shanxi University in China has joined the LMI Unit for the final 6 months of her PhD on cold atoms and nano-optics/cavities.   We wish her a successful time at OIST.

Pei Zeng joins the LMI Unit as a Research Intern

Pei Zeng, an undergraduate student from Nanjing University, China has joined our unit for a Research Internship.   During this time he will work on studying the mechanical properties of slotted tapered optical fibres.  We hope he enjoys his time at OIST.

Sho Kasumie joins the LMI Unit

Sho Kasumie, formerly from Tokyo Metropolitan University, has joined the LMI Unit for a research rotation on WGM resonators.  We wish him success on this project. 

Latest Publication - Applied Physics Express

Raman lasing in a hollow, bottle-like microresonator, Y Ooka, Y Yang, J Ward, and S Nic Chormaic, Appl. Phys. Express 8, 092001 (2015) 

Meet the newest members of the LMI Unit

Welcome to our two newest unit members. Cindy Esporlas from Philippines and Sahar Hejazy from Iran have joined for their first rotation projects at OIST. I hope this is an enjoyable and productive start to their PhDs in Japan!

Dr Xue Han joins LMI Unit

Welcome to Dr Xue Han who has joined the LMI Unit as a postdoctoral scholar.  Prior to OIST, Xue completed her PhD in Physics at the University of Louisville, USA in late 2014 and continued working there during 2015.  

Eugen Prel visits LMI Unit

We are happy to welcome Eugen Prel, from UCC, back to the LMI Unit as part of his studies for his MSc.  We hope that he has a fruitful visit to OIST. 

Dr Jinjin Du joins LMI Unit

Dr Jinjin Du has joined the LMI Unit as a Postdoctoral Scholar.  Dr Du completed his PhD in Shanxi University, China, in the area of cold atoms.   We welcome him to OIST. 

Two new unit members this week

Vikraman K (left) and Sanele Dlamini (right) have joined the LMI Unit this week.  Vikraman, a physics graduate from IIT Roorkee in India, will work as a technician, while Sanele, a PhD student from UKZN, South Africa, will do an internship as part of his PhD studies.  We wish them both a fun and productive time at OIST.  

Latest Publication - Photonics

Optical nanofiber integrated into an optical tweezers for in situ fiber probing and optical binding studies, I Gusachenko, V G Truong, M C Frawley and S Nic Chormaic, Photonics 2, 795 (2015)

Colum O'Leary joins LMI Unit as a Research Intern

Colum O'Leary, an undergraduate physics student from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, has joined the unit as a research intern for the Summer months.  He'll be working on WGM cavities and a confocal microscope setup.   We wish him all the best in OIST.  

Latest Publication - Applied Physics Letters

Optomechanical transduction and characterisation of a silica microsphere pendulum via evanescent light, R Madugani, Y Yang, J Ward, and S Nic Chormaic, 

ONNA2015 Workshop @ OIST

ONNA2015, the second in a series of workshops on Optical Nanofibre Applications, is being held at OIST from 25-28 May.  For details please visit the website. 

Latest Publication - Phys Rev A

Autler-Townes splitting via frequency up-conversion at ultralow-power levels in cold atoms using an optical nanofiber, Ravi Kumar, Vandna Gokhroo, Kieran Deasy, and Síle Nic Chormaic, Phys. Rev.

Tushar Kanti Saha joins LMI Unit as Research Intern

Tushar Kanti Saha, a 3rd year undergraduate student from IISER-Kolkata has joined our unit as a Research Intern.  We hope he enjoys his time in OIST and Japan.  

Mr Raphael Dahan, Technion Israel, visits LMI Unit

We are happy to welcome Mr Raphael Dahan, a student of Prof Tal Carmon, Technion, Israel to the LMI Unit for a few days. While here Raphael will give a seminar on "Droplet Cavity Optomechanics".  

Dr Pengfei Wang visits LMI Unit

Dr Pengfei Wang from Dublin Institute of Technology is currently visiting the LMI Unit through Science Foundation Ireland's Ireland-Japan International Stategic Cooperation  Award (ISCA).   While visiting Dr Wang will do experimental work related to whispering gallery mode cavities. We wish him a fruitful visit to OIST. 

OSA Senior Member designation given to Prof. Nic Chormaic

For details visit the OSA News Release 

Ruth Thompson joins LMI Unit for PhD rotation

Ruth Thompson, formerly from UCL, UK, has joined the LMI Unit for one of her three PhD rotations.  During her time with the unit Ruth will work on nonlinear optics effects in whispering gallery resonators. 

Krishnapriya SR joins LMI Unit as rotation student

Krishnapriya SR has joined the unit for a rotation project on the generation of Rydberg atoms.   Krishnapriya completed her MSc in Photonics at CUSAT (India) and held a research internship with our unit in 2014.   

New Publication - Laser and Photonics Reviews

Optical trapping and manipulation of micron and submicron particles, M Daly, M Sergides and S Nic Chormaic, 

New Publication - Optics Letters

Coupled-mode induced transparency in aerostatically-tuned microbubble whispering gallery mode resonators, Y Yang, S Saurabh, J Ward and S Nic Chormaic, 

Dr Andreas Schell visits LMI Unit

Dr Andreas Schell from Kyoto University is visiting the LMI unit this week.  During his visit he will deliver a seminar on "Hybrid integration of single photon emitters". 

Christiane Ebongue joins LMI Unit as research intern

Christiane Ebongue joins the LMI unit as a research intern.  Christiane recently graduated with a physics degree from the University of Maryland.   We welcome her to OIST. 

Navin Prakash Ghimire visits LMI Unit

This week the LMI Unit hosts Mr Navin Ghimire from Swinburne University, Australia.   During his visit he is presenting his work on endo-microscopy techniques using higher order fibre modes.  

Latest Publication - Scientific Reports

Higher order microfibre modes for particle for dielectric particle trapping and propulsion.  A. Maimaiti, V.G. Truong, M. Sergides, I. Gusachenko and S. Nic Chormaic.  Scientific Reports 5, 9077 (2015). 

Dr Tomas Cizmar visits LMI Unit

Dr Tomas Cizmar from the University of Dundee, Scotland, is visiting the LMI Unit.  During his visit he will deliver a seminar on "Multimode Fibres: Seeing through Chaos".  We are delighted to welcome Tomas to OIST for his first visit to Okinawa.  

Yuta Ooka joins LMI Unit as a Student Intern

Yuta Ooka, an undergraduate student from Keio University, Tokyo, has joined the LMI Unit for a 2-month internship on WGM resonator applications.  We wish him all the best during his time here at OIST. 

Latest Publication - Appl. Phys. Lett.

Lead-silicate glass microbubble resonator, P. Wang, J. Ward, Y. Yang, X. Feng, G. Brambilla, G. Farrell and S. Nic Chormaic, Appl. Phys. Lett. 106,061101 (2015) 

Prof Fam Le Kien visits LMI Unit

This week we are delighted to host Prof Fam Le Kien from the Atom Institut, Vienna, Austria.  During his time, Prof Le Kien is delivering a series of lectures on "atoms&nanofibres".  

Latest Publication - New J. Phys.

Interaction of laser-cooled ⁸⁷Rb with higher order modes of an optical nanofiber, R Kumar, V Gokhroo, K Deasy, A Maimaiti, C Phelan, M Frawley and S Nic Chormaic, 

LMI Unit hosts OIST mini-symposium on Quantum Control of Light and Matter

The LMI unit is hosting a mini-symposium on Quantum Control of Light and Matter at OIST.  This is co-funded by JSPS.  

Pranam Prakash joins LMI Unit as Intern

Pranam Prakash, a final year student on the integrated BSc/MSc programme in Photonics at CUSAT, India has joined the LMI Unit to conduct his MSc research project on optical trapping of nanoscale particles.   He will stay with the unit until early May.  As this is his first time outside India, we hope that he has a wonderful experience.  

Christina Lee joins LMI Unit for PhD rotation

Christina Lee joins the unit for a PhD rotation project this month. Christina is from the USA and completed her BSc in Caltech back in 2013. While with our unit she'll work on the theory of atom trapping using slotted fibres.

Mr Yi Chen (Shanghai University) visits LMI Unit

Yi Chen, a postgraduate student from Shanghai University visits the LMI unit this month.   Yi is working on evanescent wave enhancement using plasmonics.   We hope he enjoys his time in Okinawa. 

Peter Mekhail joins LMI Unit for PhD

Simon Peter Mekhail, a second year PhD student, has joined the LMI Unit for the preparation of his PhD proposal on imaging of neuronal activity using optical fibres.  Peter comes from New Zealand and graduated with a BEng in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Auckland in 2013.   We are looking forward to a successful year ahead.    

2015 - International Year of Light

2015 is the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies and we here at OIST hope to celebrate this year with the international community.   To learn more visit http://www.light2015.org/Home.html where you'll find details on the background behind this UNESCO designation and a list of worldwide events being held.  

New Unit Member in the LMI Unit

Mr Tridib Ray, formerly from the Raman Research Institute, India, has recently joined the LMI Unit to work in the area of cold atoms.  We hope that he has a wonderful time at OIST.  

Mr Jinjin Du visits LMI Unit

This week, we are happy to welcome Mr Jinjin Du from Shanxi University, China, to visit the Light-Matter Interactions Unit.   Mr Du will give a seminar on his research involving cold atoms in cavities during this visit.  

Latest Publication - Rev. Sci. Instrum.

"Optical micro- and nanofiber pulling rig" has appeared in Rev. Sci. Instrum.  If you are interested in reading it, follow this link.  

Two New Members Join LMI Unit

We are happy to welcome two new unit members this month.   Ali Seer, from the University of Konstanz, Germany, has joined the unit as a research intern for his MSc project.   Bishwajeet Singh, formerly from CUSAT, India, joins as a technician/research assistant.  We hope they both enjoy their stay at OIST.  

Latest Publication - Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics

We have just published a review article on "Hollow core whispering gallery mode resonators" in Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics and it can be read here.

Okinawa School in Physics: Coherent Quantum Dynamics

The Okinawa School in Physics ran from 16-25 September 2014 and during these two weeks we hosted more than 40 students from around the world and 13 lecturers covering topics ranging from presentation skills to implementations of quantum computing.   Looking forward to CQD2015 from 29 September - 8 October.    More details will appear later. 

New Student in LMI Unit

James Schloss, a 1st year PhD student at OIST, has joined our unit for a project looking at plasmonic structures for nanoparticle trapping.  James is from the US and completed his undergraduate BSc degree in physics at Auburn University in Alabama.    Welcome to OIST and Japan!

New Research Intern Student in LMI Unit

Vineetha Naniyil has recently joined the LMI Unit as a research intern.  She will spend 4 months working on  nonlinear optics phenomena in cold atoms.   Vineetha is from India and completed her MSc in Photonics in CUSAT, after which she worked for the Raman Research Institute.  We wish her all the best at OIST.  

Thomas Nieddu joins LMI Unit

Thomas Nieddu, a second year PhD student, has joined the cold atom group for the preparation of his PhD proposal on cold atom trapping strategies for the development of atom-based quantum networks.  Thomas hails from Belgium and graduated with an MSc in Physical Sciences from Liège in 2013.   We are looking forward to a very fruitful year of work.    

New Student in LMI Unit

Simon Peter Mekhail has joined the LMI Unit for a PhD Rotation Project for the next 4 months.  Peter, from New Zealand, has a BEng in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Auckland.   He will work on developing fibre probes for imaging neuronal activity.   Welcome!

New Research Intern Student in LMI Unit

The LMI Unit is happy to welcome Mr Sunny Saurabh for a 6 month resarch internship.   Sunny, previously from CUSAT and Raman Research Institute, India, will work on non-linear optics effects in whispering gallery resonators.  We wish him a productive time at OIST.  

Dr Pengfei Wang visits LMI Unit

Dr Pengfei Wang, from Dublin Institute of Technology Ireland, is currently visiting the LMI Unit as part of the SFI Ireland-Japan collaborative programme.   We wish him a successful scientific stay during the next few weeks.  

Latest publication - Optics Express

The group has just published work on "Selective particle binding and optical trapping in the evanescent field of an optical nanofiber" and this work can be read here:  Opt. Exp. 22, 16322 (2014) OPEN ACCESS

New Research Intern Student in LMI Unit

Krishnapriya Subramonian Rajasree has joined the LMI Unit for a 4-month research internship from CUSAT, India.  We hope that she has a fruitful experience during her time here on the 2-photon Rb experiment.

Latest publication - New Journal of Physics

Our most recent paper has appeared in NJP, entitled "Nanostructured optical nanofibres for atom trapping".  It's open access so anyone can read it here.     

Vacancies in the LMI Unit

We have some vacancies coming up in the LMI unit at all levels.   For information please look at our Vacancies page.  

Prof Helmut Ritsch, University of Innsbruck, Austria visits LMI Unit this week

Prof Helmut Ritsch is visiting the LMI Unit this week on his first ever visit to Japan.  During his time at OIST he will discuss with unit members and present a seminar on "From cavity QED with quantum gases to optomechanics".   We hope he has a productive stay on Okinawa. 

Prof Yun-Feng Xiao, Peking University, visits LMI Unit

Prof Yun-Feng Xiao from Peking Unviersity is visiting the LMI unit from 21-24 May.  During his stay he'll give a seminar on "Asymmetric whispering gallery microcavity optics and photonics".  We wish him a pleasant stay on Okinawa.  

3 new students join LMI Unit

We are happy to welcome 3 new students to the unit for the Summer months.  These are Thomas Nieddu and Masakawa Igarashi who are doing OIST PhD rotation projects with us and Himanshu Agarwal, a research intern from IIT Kharagpur, India.   The students will work on projects ranging from higher order mode propagation in optical nanofibres, through atom trapping around optical nanofibres, to using optical fibres for detection of neuronal activity.  

Picture (left to right):  Masakawa Igarashi, Himanshu Agarwal, Thomas Nieddu

Prof. Serge Haroche (Nobel Prize in Physics 2012) visits the LMI Unit labs

In April, we were delighted to welcome Prof Serge Haroche and his wife, Claudine Haroche, to our labs at OIST.   Prof Haroche won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012, jointly with Dave Wineland, for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems".     Pictured are unit members with Prof and Mrs Haroche, and Prof Bob Baughman (Provost, OIST).  

Congratulations to Dr Mary Frawley

Mary Frawley successfully defended her PhD thesis on Optical Micro- and Nanofibres: Higher Mode Generation and Particle Manipulation Studies before Drs Phil Jones (UCL) and Frank Peters (UCC). Well done, Dr Frawley!

Latest Publication - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

Two-qubit gate operation on selected nearest-neighbor neutral atom qubits

Latest Publication - Measurement Science and Technology

We've recently published a paper on an "Investigation of a 85-Rb dark MOT using an optical nanofibre" in Meas. Sci. Technol. 25, 055203 (2014). 

Members of LMI Unit visit Zhejiang University, China

Prof Nic Chormaic and Dr Truong enjoy a mountain hike with members of the Nanophotonics Group, Zhejiang University. 

OIST Open Campus

Members of the LMI Unit during OIST Open Campus 

Latest Publication - Optics Express

The group's latest work on "Quasi-droplet microbubbles for high resolution sensing applications" has appeared in Optics Express, Vol. 22, pp. 6881-6898 (2014). 

Prof Reuven Gordon, University of Victoria, Canada, visits LMI Unit

During the week of 3rd March, Prof Gordon, from University of Victoria, is visiting the research group.   We are very fotunate to have him here and deliver two talks, one on "Nanoplasmonics: Reaching out to the single molecule" and the other on "Challenging the limits of diffraction".  We hope he enjoys his stay in Okinawa. 

Congratulations to Dr Laura Russell

Our most recent alumna, Laura Russell, on her graduation from University College Cork.  Well done, Laura!

Lisa Nakahara joins LMI Unit

Lisa Nakahara, a second year student from Tsukuba University, Japan, has joined our unit for a 6-week research internship.   Lisa has a background in mechanical engineering and will be working on the preparation of optical fibres for our unit's work and testing the strength of optical nanofibre probes when injected into various substances.  

Prof Peter Barker, UCL, visits LMI Unit

Prof Peter Barker from the AMOPP Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCL, London, is visiting the Unit this week.  During his time at OIST he will deliver a seminar on "Cooling and manipulating complex particles".  

初音ミク visits LMI Unit

Hatsune Miku visited the LMI unit and learnt about static electricity and electric charge while working on the van der Graaf generator.  Thank you for coming by and visiting us at OIST!  

Dr Jonathan Ward presents two papers at Photonics West LASE Conference

Jonathan Ward, a researcher with the LMI Unit, presented two papers at Photonics West, San Francisco, this week.    The papers were on "Optimization of whispering gallery modes in microbubble resonators for sensing applications" and "Liquid core microbubble resonators for highly sensitive temperature sensing".

Dr Tracy Melvin, University of Southampton, visits the LMI Unit

Dr Tracy Melvin from the ORC, University of Southampton, is visiting the LMI Unit this week.  During her time in Okinawa she will give a talk on "Probing biological questions with optical approaches".   

Prof Takasumi Tanabe, Keio University Tokyo, visits LMI Unit

Prof. Tanable will deliver a seminar on "Optical nonlinear control at very low power in ultrahigh-Q microcavity systems" during his visit to OIST.  This is his first trip to Okinawa and we hope that he enjoys his time here. 

Funding Success: Irish-Japanese Research Consortium

We are part of the recently announced Irish-Japanese Consortium to foster academic-industry interactions between Ireland and Japan.   

Prof Jacques Robert, Université Paris-Sud, visits LMI Unit.

Prof. Jacques Robert is visiting the LMI Unit from 18-22nd November and will present a seminar on "Metastable hydrogen atoms from H2 molecues: towards twin atoms".   Trivia:  Prof. Robert was the PhD supervisor of Prof. Nic Chormaic.  

Dr Marios Sergides joins LMI Unit as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow

Welcome to our newest unit member, Dr Marios Sergides, from Cyprus.  Marios is well-known to our unit since we worked on a European network project together when he was a student in UCL.   We wish him a very productive time here in OIST.  

Dr Devendra Kumar Mishra, VS Mehta College of Science, India visits LMI Unit

From 11-15th November Dr Devendra Kumar Mishra is visiting the Unit to discuss collaboration possibilities on non-classical light states in quantum optics.    

Image of the Day

LMI Unit work on microbubbles selected by LiveScience as Image of the Day (#7) in October!   Scroll to image 7 out of 23 to see it. 

Prof. John Donegan, TCD Ireland, visits LMI Unit

Prof. John Donegan from the Physics Department, Trinity College Dublin, is visiting us from 4-8 November.  During his stay he will deliver a seminar on "Focussing light into the nanoworld - light scattering from planar structures".  

Latest Publication - Photonics Technology Letters

Y. Yang, J. Ward and S. Nic Chormaic, "Highly sensitive temperature measurements with liquid-core filled microbubble resonators", Phot. Tech. Lett. (2013) 

Unit work presented at 4th APOS, Wuhan, China

Yong Yang presented an oral paper at the Fourth Asia-Pacific Optical Sensors Conference in Wuhan, China on "Thermal-optical properties of microbubbles for sensing applications". 

Dr Patience Mthunzi CSIR, South Africa visits LMI Unit

Dr Patience Mthunzi from CSIR, South Africa is visiting our Unit from 15-19 October.  Dr Mthunzi was named as one of the 20 "Youngest Power Women in Africa 2012" by Forbes Magazine and was honoured by South African President Jacob Zuma with the Order of Mapungubwe in Bronze (OMB) for her research achievements.  We are honoured to welcome her here to OIST and hope that she enjoys her time.   During her stay she will deliver a seminar on "Biomedical Applications of Lasers in Biophotonics". 

Unit members present multiple oral papers at OSA's Frontiers in Optics 2013 Conference

Unit members, Ciarán Phelan, Ivan Gusachenko and Mark Daly, presented a total of five oral presentations at the OSA's Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics, held in Orlando, Florida during October 2013.    Further details can be seen under Presentations. 

Nitesh Dhasmana joins LMI Unit

Nitesh Dhasmana, formerly of IIT Guwahati, has joined our unit for 6 months as a Research Assistant.   We hope that he has an enjoyable and productive time here at OIST. 

E Laine Wong joins LMI Unit

We are very happy to welcome OIST PhD student, Elaine Wong, to our unit for a 13-week rotation project on laser-cooling of Rb atoms.  

Latest Publication - Optics Communications

L. Russell, R. Kumar, V. B. Tiwari and S. Nic Chormaic, "Measurements on release-recapture of cold 85Rb using an optical nanofiber in a magneto-optical trap", Opt. Commun. 309, 313 (2013). 

Latest Publication - Sensors Journal OPEN ACCESS

M. J. Morrissey, K. Deasy, M. Frawley, R. Kumar, E. Prel, L. Russell, V. G.Truong and S. Nic Chormaic, "Spectroscopy, Manipulation and Trapping of Neutral Atoms, Molecules, and Other Particles Using Optical Nanofibers: A Review", Sensors 13(8), 10449-10481 (2013)

Congratulations to Dr Laura Russell

Laura Russell successfully defended her PhD thesis on Characterisation and spectroscopy of laser-cooled atoms with an optical nanofibre before Drs Tim Freegarde (Southampton) and Bob Manning (Tyndall-UCC). Well done, Dr Russell!

JSPS Fellowship awarded to Marios Sergides (UCL, London)

Marios Sergides, currently completing his PhD in UCL London, has been awarded a JSPS Fellowship to join our unit.   We have previously worked with Marios through an ERANET collaborative programme and are delighted to soon welcome him to our team. 

Unit members present three papers at CLEO-PR, Kyoto.

Ravi Kumar, Ramgopal Madugani and Aili Maimaiti, PhD students in the Light-Matter Interactions Unit, presented posters on their research at  CLEO-PR in the beautiful city of Kyoto, Japan.   The photo shows Ramgopal explaining his work to Prof. Joerg Schmiedmayer of Vienna, Austria.

Visiting Student from UCC, Ireland

Danny Riordan, an undergraduate student from University College Cork, is visiting OIST for the next two months.  He's working on whispering gallery mode resonators during his time here. 

ONNA2013 Workshop

The ONNA2013 Workshop on Applicatons of Optical Nanofibers is running from 1-7 June in Seaside House.  About 70 speakers and participants are taking part in the first meeting of its kind on this highly topical field.   The program covers talks related to cold atoms, sensing, particle manipulation, whispering gallery mode devices, and explores the latest advances and the recent progress in optical nanofibers.  

Prof. Johannes Hecker-Denschlag visits OIST

Prof. Johannes Hecker-Denschlag from the University of Ulm, Germany is visiting the Light-Matter Interactions Unit from 31st March to 11th April.  

St. Patrick's Day Celebrations at OIST

Weekly teatime had an Irish twist with some White Day flavour today at OIST.   Members of the Light-Matter Interactions Unit and other OISTers got together to play Irish music during the tea break and all were encouraged to don some green.   While St. Patrick's Day is still a few days away this was the ideal opportunity to let the OIST community hear some ceoil.  

Chang-Ling Zou visits OIST

Chang-Ling Zou from the Microcavity Group at the Key Laboratory of Quantum Information,  USTC, China is visiting us for a week to discuss new models of WGM resonators.   While still a PhD candidate, Chang-Ling has already published more than 40 research papers during his short scientific career and we are very happy to welcome him here to Okinawa.   

Dr. Michael Morrissey visits OIST

Dr Michael Morrissey from the Centre for Quantum Technology, University Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa is visiting the Light-Matter Interactions Unit from 19 February to 1st March.  During his time here Dr Morrissey will be involved in setting up experimental work on Rb vapour experiments and will also give a seminar on "Construction of a Bose Einstein Condensation Machine".  

Prof. Kohzo Hakuta visits OIST

Prof. Kohzo Hakuta from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, visited the Light-Matter Interactions Unit in January and gave a seminar entitled "Nanofiber Quantum Photonics: A Novel Route for Manipulating and Controlling Single Atoms and Single Photons"

ONNA 2013: Workshop on Optical Nanofibre Applications: From Quantum to Bio Technologies - Application Period Closed

Applications are now being accepted for our workshop on Optical Nanofibre Applications, being held in OIST in June 2013.

Cold Atoms Achieved - 8th January 2013

Light-Matter Interactions Unit Optical Manipulation Lab (left, middle) and Laser CoolingLab (right).

Job Vacancy - Postdoc in Laser Cooling of Rubidium - POSITION CLOSED

THIS POST HAS BEEN FILLED.  WE CURRENTLY HAVE NO VACANCIES.

Latest Publication - Optics Communications

M. Frawley, A. Petcu-Colan, V. G. Truong and S. Nic Chormaic, "Higher order mode propagation in an optical nanofiber", Opt. Commun. 285, 4648 (2012).

Latest Publication - Optics Letters

R. Madugani, Y.Yang, J. Ward, J. Riordan, S. Coppola, V. Vespini, S. Grilli, A. Finizio, P. Ferraro, and S. Nic Chormaic, "TeraHz tuning of whispering gallery modes in a PDMS, stand-alone, stretchable microsphere", Opt. Lett. 37, 4762 (2012). 

Latest Publication - AIP Conference Proceedings

L. Russell, M. Daly and S. Nic Chormaic, "1- and 2-photon absoprtion by laser-cooled 85Rb using an optical nanofiber", AIP Conf.

Unit members start arriving at OIST

Light-Matter Interactions Unit members have started to arrive in OIST, with Mark Daly joining Vandna Gokhroo and Emi Nakamura earlier this month.   There will be a rapid expansion phase during the next three weeks.

Unit publication selected for inclusion in the exclusive Measurement Science and Technology (MST) 'Highlights of 2011-2012' collection!

A recent paper by our unit, 'Sub-Doppler temperature measurements of laser-cooled atoms using optical nanofibres' (http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-0233/23/1/015201) was selected for inclusion in the exclusive Measurement Science and Technology (MST) 'Highlights of 2011-2012' collection.  It is available for free download until December 2012.

Welcome new unit member, Dr Vandna Gokhroo

We are delighted to welcome Dr Vandna Gokhroo to OIST and wish her all the best in her research.