Univ of Illinois Micro + Nanotechnology Lab 2016 Highlights Report | Page 12

NEW FACULTY

An expert on lasers and optics , ECE faculty member PETER DRAGIC is conducting research to overcome non-linear optical effects that limit the informationcarrying capacity of silica fibers . Dragic ’ s approach is to expand the materials pallet from which fibers are made , exploring materials like sapphire , yttriumaluminum-garnet , spinel , and barium oxide instead of relying solely on silica and common dopants like
GeO 2 or P2O 5
. In 2013 , Dragic and a colleague at Clemson University demonstrated a fiber that nearly eliminated Brillouin scattering , a deleterious coupling between optical and acoustic waves in high-power applications that causes information loss . They also made fibers from silica and lithia , a promising combination that Dragic will develop into sensors for monitoring the structural health of bridges and buildings . At MNTL , Dragic is focusing on developing all of his proof-of-concept fibers into fiber-optic systems and lasers , which other research groups could use to conduct atmospheric studies or other projects .
Peter Dragic
VIKTOR GRUEV , who is well known for integrating novel nano-materials with CMOS or CCD technology , is creating sensors that capture the polarization and multi-spectral properties of light . As a faculty member at Washington University in St . Louis , Gruev and his students reverse engineered the mantis shrimp ’ s eye into a camera so they could use polarized light to diagnose disease and injury . The group clinically translated this camera technology into the operating room , helping physicians correctly identify lymph nodes or particular organs and successfully remove all primary and secondary tumors during breast cancer surgeries . As an Illinois faculty member , Gruev will continue developing this biomedical technology platform , which has special multi-spectral cameras that super-impose highlighted tissue areas over real-time video during surgery . Gruev ’ s work was featured in a National Geographic special on bio-inspired sensors , as well as on NPR .
Viktor Gruev
MNTL | 10 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign