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The most powerful laser in the US recently produced 2 quadrillion watts of power
The Verge reports on ZEUS and its 2 quadrillion watts of power, “but don’t expect it to be harnessed to recreate the Death Star.”The US test-fired its most powerful laser ever
Popular Science reports on ZEUS achieving 2 petawatts of power, which is “more than 100 times the electricity output across the entire planet.”US fires world’s most powerful laser ever, 100 times brighter than global power
“The laser’s immense power lasted just a fleeting 25 quintillionths of a second.”The US has a new most powerful laser
Hitting 2 petawatts, the NSF-funded ZEUS facility at U-M enables research that could improve medicine, national security, materials science and more.Alex Burgers receives NSF CAREER Award to advance quantum communications
Prof. Burgers will use atom-photon entanglement and nanophotonic structures to transmit quantum information over fiber optic cables.The power of quantum materials to harness photons for quantum technologies
Prof. Mack Kira talks about the semiconductor material, chromium sulfide bromide, which he calls a “miracle material” that bridges the worlds of optics and magnetism.Herbert Winful part of MURI team investigating AI-guided self-organization in nonlinear systems
Prof. Winful adds his unique expertise on the behavior of coupled semiconductor laser systems to a collaborative $9M project led by researchers at Yale University.2025 EECS Outstanding Achievement Awards
The EECS Department has honored four faculty for their sustained excellence in instruction and curricular development, distinguished participation in service activities, or for their significant achievements in scholarly research.Zetian Mi receives 2025 Nick Holonyak Jr. Award from Optica
Mi is recognized for his innovations on wide energy gap nanostructures for light emission and energy generation applications.Six faculty receive 2025 Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award
These six research scientists helped design, build, and implement the ZEUS laser facility, which is the highest power laser in the U.S.Boosting AI model size and training speed with lightwave-connected chips
AI growth is capped by data transfer rates between computing chips, but transferring data with light could remove the ceiling.Seven ECE staff honored with 2024 College of Engineering Staff Incentive Awards
Amy Brooks, Jessi Cebulski, Lisa Flick, Patrick McCollum, Chris Puzzuoli, Michele Ruffino, and Grant Young received these awards for their contributions to the ECE community.Unlocking Lightwave Electronics
Prof. Mack Kira co-authored an article with Prof. Rupert Huber (U. Regensburg) summarizing the state of the art in lightwave electronics. According to the authors, combining optical and electronic systems could enable information processing that is a million times faster than existing gigahertz technology. The research was featured on the cover of the January 2025 issue of Optics & Photonics News.Alex Burgers receives AFOSR support for research on atom-photon interactions
Prof. Burgers will use optical tweezers to create quantum mirrors from 2D arrays of atoms in a first-of-its-kind experimental demonstration.2024 ECE Core Values Excellence Award Winners
The recipients for 2024 are Shelly Feldkamp, Nancy Slowey, and Rick Van Camp.ECE Spinout company NS Nanotech releases first solid-state semiconductor to produce human-safe disinfecting UV light
NS Nanotech’s new product, enabled by ECE Prof. Zetian Mi’s research, can safely disinfect high-risk spaces like ambulances and school buses.Zetian Mi awarded $7.5M MURI for research on ferroelectric nitrides
Prof. Mi is the lead PI on a collaborative project that aims to advance ferroelectric nitrides for applications in next-generation microelectronics and quantum-photonic devices.Arthur Xiao wins SID Detroit Metro Chapter Academic Award for work on red micro-LEDs
Xiao’s PhD work has focused on developing tiny, efficient, and stable red LEDs for use in virtual and augmented reality displays.An OLED for compact, lightweight night vision
Thinner than a human hair, the device amplifies and converts near infrared light into visible light with the potential for low power consumption and long battery life.In step toward solar fuels, durable artificial photosynthesis setup chains two carbons together
The system produces ethylene, an important ingredient of many plastics, with much higher efficiency, yield and longevity than competing systems.US engineers develop ChatGPT algorithm to design solar cells
OptoGPT is a new algorithm that harnesses the computer architecture underpinning ChatGPT. L. Jay Guo, ECE professor, says that it will enable researchers and engineers to design optical multilayer film structures for a wide range of applications, including solar cells.OptoGPT for improving solar cells, smart windows, telescopes and more
Taking advantage of the transformer neural networks that power large language models, engineers can get recipes for materials with the optical properties they need.Cameras with Facial Recognition Detect Driver Impairment
Mohammed Islam, Electrical and Computer Engineering professor discusses his research developing systems to identify impaired drivers in Vision Spectra.Updating the textbook on polarization in gallium nitride to optimize wide bandgap semiconductors
Understanding the phenomenon underpinning the material’s electronic performance will inform the design of smaller, faster and more efficient electronic and quantum devices.Renewable grid: Recovering electricity from heat storage hits 44% efficiency
Thermophotovoltaics developed at U-M can recover significantly more energy stored in heat batteries.Parag Deotare and Zetian Mi are editors of new book: 2D Excitonic Materials and Devices
The book, which is part of Elsevier’s Semiconductors and Semimetals series, offers both an overview and a deep dive into 2D excitonic materials and their applications.John Nees earns U-M Research Faculty Achievement Award
Nees has been a key contributor to the many ultrafast and high science advancements accomplished at the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences.Cars could detect drunk and impaired drivers using technology developed by U-M engineers
Local news source Concentrate interviewed Mohammed Islam about his plan to keep drunk and impaired drivers off the road with inexpensive technology that can be incorporated into cars in the near future.Scientists use biometrics, behavior analysis for drunk driver detection
News outlet Biometrics Update reports on Mohammed Islam’s solution to detect drunk and impaired drivers. They describe the solution as “More economically viable for mass adoption than in-car breathalyzer.”Auto industry deadlines loom for impaired-driver detection tech, U-M offers a low-cost solution
As the comment period closes on the new federal requirement, a U-M team led by Prof. Mohammed Islam demonstrates that upgrades to current technologies could do the job2024 EECS Outstanding Achievement Awards
The EECS Department has honored four faculty for their sustained excellence in instruction and curricular development, distinguished participation in service activities, or for their significant achievements in scholarly research.Mack Kira receives CoE Monroe-Brown Foundation Service Excellence Award
Prof. Kira’s efforts led directly to the establishment of the University of Michigan Quantum Research Institute.Leland Pierce receives the Jon R. and Beverly S. Holt Award for Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Pierce’s heroic efforts to turn a hands-on lab into a virtual learning experience were highly successful.Zetian Mi receives CoE Rexford E. Hall Innovation Excellence Award
Prof. Mi has launched two startup companies to promote his pioneering research in artificial photosynthesis and GaN nanoLEDs for applications in sustainable energy, displays and disinfection.Why the world’s most powerful lasers could unlock secrets of the cosmos
In this piece on how laser systems are helping scientists probe the fabric of the Universe, the BBC features U-M’s ZEUS, the most powerful laser system in the U.S., and Prof. Karl Krushelnick, as well as Nobel Laureate and Prof. Emeritus Gérard Mourou’s acclaimed research on Chirped Pulse Amplification.New faculty member Di Liang elected IEEE Fellow
Prof. Liang begins his career at Michigan by building up his Large-Scale Integrated Photonics (LSIP) group.Nextgen computing: Hard-to-move quasiparticles glide up pyramid edges
Computing with a combination of light and chargeless excitons could beat heat losses and more, but excitons need new modes of transportP.C. Ku Named Fellow of Optica
Prof. Ku received this honor for his pioneering contributions to semiconductor nanostructured optoelectronic materials, devices, and their applications.Shaping the quantum future with lightwave electronics
The semiconductor-compatible technology is a million times faster than existing electronics and could give us access to an entire new world of quantum phenomena.University of Michigan unveils new super powerful laser
In this video, John Nees and Gerard Mourou talk about the ZEUS laser and the 30-year journey to achieve the three-petawatt laser (100x the world grid power, says Nees). The laser is open to researchers around the world.Soon-to-be most powerful laser in the US is open for experiments
The NSF-supported facility at U-M is about to begin welcoming researchers to study extreme physics that could advance medicine, microelectronics and more.Duncan Steel retires, leaving a quantumly inspired legacy
With a history at Michigan dating back to the early 1970’s, Duncan Steel built a lasting legacy as he crossed disciplines and changed lives.Entanglement-enhanced optomechanical sensors offer unprecedented precision
Zheshen Zhang and his team are exploiting quantum entanglement to provide optomechanical sensors with unprecedented measurement sensitivity and speed. The research was recently published in Nature Photonics.Inside the Quantum Research Institute
Mack Kira, co-director of the Quantum Research Institute with Steven Cundiff, is taking Michigan’s quantum activities to the next level.Gregory Robinson details the journey of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for Gilleo Lectureship
Under Robinson’s leadership, the James Webb Space Telescope project went from being years behind schedule and billions over-budget to one of NASA’s greatest achievements of the 21st century.A Talk with Herbert Winful
This interview will feed into an upcoming feature article called, “Breaking Barriers, Advancing Optics,” which will also feature five other Black scientists in the U.S.2023 EECS Outstanding Achievement Awards
The EECS Department has honored four faculty for their sustained excellence in instruction and curricular development, distinguished participation in service activities, or for their significant achievements in scholarly research.Parag Deotare awarded DURIP grant to probe exciton energy transport at nanoscale
The tool is expected to advance the study of exciton dynamics, which could help identify new research directions for clean energy and information technology.Meet ZEUS, the highest-power laser in the U.S.
Dr. Anatoly Maksimchuk describes Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS), the most powerful laser in the U.S., in a short recorded interviewNew non-invasive optical imaging approach for monitoring brain health could improve outcomes for traumatic brain injury patients
The SCISCCO system could better monitor brain and organ metabolism, helping to diagnose concussions, monitor cerebral metabolism in traumatic brain injury patients, and gauge the response of organs to treatments in an operating or emergency room scenario.Louise Willingale elected Fellow of APS
Willingale is a plasma science leader who is currently helping launch the ZEUS laser facility.Seeing electron movement at fastest speed ever could help unlock next-level quantum computing
New technique could enable processing speeds a million to a billion times faster than today’s computers and spur progress in many-body physics.Golden Goose Award Honors 11 Researchers for Unusual Discoveries that Greatly Benefit Society
These scientific breakthroughs led to the development of a bladeless LASIK procedure, paper microscopes, and the discovery of a non-opioid pain reliever hidden in the venom of cone snailsU-M discovery leading to LASIK is a Golden Goose
The AAAS Golden Goose awards highlight federally funded breakthroughs that go on to bring important benefits to the lives of regular people.Univ. of Michigan’s ZEUS will be most powerful laser in US
ZEUS is a 3 petawatt laser. And “3 petawatts is 3,000 times more powerful than the U.S. power grid,” said Louise Willingale, Assoc. Director of the laser facility.First light soon at the most powerful laser in the US
The ZEUS laser at the University of Michigan has begun its commissioning experimentsNew photodetector design inspired by plant photosynthesis
Phys.org features Prof. Stephen Forrest’s research on a new type of high-efficiency photodetector inspired by the photosynthetic complexes plants use to turn sunlight into energy.ZEUS Joins International Community of Extreme Light Virtuosos
As a member of the X-lites program, ZEUS joins an international community of extreme light labs working together to advance laser science for the benefit of society‘Impossible’ unipolar terahertz emitter is another step toward quantum computing
An effectively unipolar terahertz emitter created by Mack Kira and collaborators may provide a way to accelerate conventional computing and process quantum information at room temperature.Lauren Cooper awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE
Cooper, an ECE PhD student, works to advance fiber lasers, which could help provide the bursts for next-generation particle accelerators and advance attosecond science.Emulating impossible “unipolar” laser pulses paves the way for processing quantum information
Quantum materials emit light as though it were only a positive pulse, rather than a positive-negative oscillation.2022 IEEE William Cherry Award to be presented at the 49th IEEE PVSC to Stephen R. Forrest
Prof. Stephen R. Forrest was awarded the William R. Cherry Award in recognition of his devotion to the advancement of the science and technology of photovoltaic energy conversion.Louise Willingale named Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences
Willingale was a featured speaker at the 2022 Kavli Frontiers of Science U.S. Symposium, where she presented on high intensity lasers, including ZEUS.Aaditya Hambarde awarded Towner prize for his outstanding contributions as a Graduate Student Instructor
Hambarde is recognized for his tremendous dedication to students and for the creation of new course resources for Introduction to Signals and Systems.Most Read Featured Articles from 2020-2021
The article “Monolayer GaN excitonic deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes,” co-authored by Profs. Zetian Mi, Mack Kira, and Manos Kioupakis (MSE) was among the most downloaded articles published in Applied Physics Letters from 2020-2021, with 3,364 downloads.Fiber Lasers Poised to Advance Berkeley Lab’s Development of Practical Laser-Plasma Accelerators
Prof. Almantas Galvanauskas is collaborating on a project led by former student and alumnus, Dr. Tong Zhou, to develop practical laser-plasma particle accelerators.In a First, Physicists Glimpse a Quantum Ghost
Mackillo Kira explains the significance of reconstructing a quantum wave function. Kira is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science.Lauren Cooper awarded Department of Energy Fellowship for her work on ultra-short pulse fiber lasers
Cooper’s research is focused on nonlinear coherent pulse stacking, a method of generating pulses with energies and pulse durations suitable for particle accelerators and attosecond science.Herbert Winful receives University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship
$1.8M to develop room temperature, controllable quantum nanomaterials
The project could pave the way for compact quantum computing and communications as well as efficient UV lamps for sterilization and air purification.Solar cells with 30-year lifetimes for power-generating windows
High-efficiency but fragile molecules for converting light to electricity thrive with a little protection.Che-Hsuan Cheng’s hybrid transistor earns Best Poster Award
Cheng’s research may help advance the design of next generation microchip devices, as well as ultrasensitive UV photodetectors.Revamped OLED Electrodes Could Cut Power Consumption
Optics & Photonics News covers research by L. Jay Guo and his efficient organic LED (OLED) that emits more light with the same amount of power.Nanotech OLED electrode liberates 20% more light, could slash display power consumption
A five-nanometer-thick layer of silver and copper outperforms conventional indium tin oxide without adding cost.Herbert Winful awarded the 2021 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award
New textbook introduces students to the field of Quantum Nanotechnology
U-M Researchers Develop 3-D Motion Tracking for Autonomous Tech
Researchers have developed a 3-D motion tracking system that could one day replace LiDAR and cameras in autonomous technologies.3D motion tracking system could streamline vision for autonomous tech
Anatoly Maksimchuk recognized for his achievements in high-intensity lasers and laser-plasma interaction
Building on decades of groundbreaking research, Maksimchuk is a key member of the team building the $20M laser facility known as ZEUSMarkus Borsch awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship to support research in quantum engineering
Stephen Rand: officially retired, but still breaking new ground
Carbon neutrality commission releases draft recommendations
The President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, co-chaired by Prof. Stephen Forrest and charged with recommending scalable and transferable strategies for U-M to achieve net-zero emissions, has released its preliminary draft recommendations for public comment.DYNAMO achieves first observation of the “charge separation effect”
Mapping quantum structures with light to unlock their capabilities
Podcast: Artificial photosynthesis for sustainable solar fuels
Devices Reflect 99% Of Heat To Up Chance To Turn It Into Power
Futurity covers Prof. Forrest’s work on new heat-harnessing “solar” cells, or thermal photovoltaics, that reflect 99% of the energy they can’t convert to electricity.Burn after reading
Mirror-like photovoltaics get more electricity out of heat
The Future of Lasers
A research profile of Prof. Gérard Mourou and other ECE scientists talks about the future of lasers, from transmuting nuclear waste to shooting space junk.Making plastic more transparent while also adding electrical conductivity
Herbert Winful receives IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award
For pioneering the field of nonlinear optical periodic structures and for foundational contributions to nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor laser arrays.PhD student Laura Andre is awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE
Improved neural probe can pose precise questions without losing parts of the answers
Herbert Winful named Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering
New lasers see into the brain to detect concussions
Russel Lecture: Fighting climate change with organic electronics
John Nees wins Research Scientist Award from the College of Engineering
Toward a portable concussion detector that relies on an infrared laser
A 3D camera for safer autonomy and advanced biomedical imaging
Nobel Prize winners talk research, Nobel ceremony, and are remembered by U-M colleagues
U-M to become Mount Olympus with ZEUS, the most powerful laser to be built in the U.S.
Two members of ECE will represent U-M at the 2019 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
Most powerful laser in the US to be built at Michigan
Using extreme light to explore quantum dynamics, advance medicine and more.Commission co-chairs: Climate change solutions need broad commitment
An update on the work done by U-M’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, co-chaired by Prof. Stephen Forrest.Beyond Apollo 11: U-M ECE’s role in advancing space exploration
Kim Winick retires, leaving a legacy that empowers students to seek life and learning outside of the lab
Kirigami can spin terahertz rays in real time to peer into biological tissue
Louise Willingale creates extreme plasma conditions using high-intensity laser pulses
Stephen Forrest named Henry Russel Lecturer for 2020
Two U-M students receive scholarships from the International Society for Optics and Photonics
Nooshin M. Estakhri receives the Helen Wu Award
A Spotlight on Optics
U-M alum is key player in first-ever image of a black hole
Laura Andre brings the engineering community together
2018 Nobel Prize Laureate Gérard Mourou talks high-intensity optics
Extreme light: Nobel laureate discusses the past & future of lasers
ECE student Brandon Russell explores space phenomena in a lab
A world-shaking discovery 100 years in the making
$6.8M initiative to enable American laser renaissance
Mackillo Kira Elected OSA Fellow for contributions to quantum optics
Nobel Prize for ‘the most powerful laser pulses known to humanity’
It takes two photonic qubits to make quantum computing possible
Light could make semiconductor computers a million times faster or even go quantum
Duncan Steel is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopedia of Modern Optics, 2nd edition
Louise Willingale advancing scientific knowledge of plasmas
A shoe-box-sized chemical detector
Laser cooling with Laura Andre
Cooling off with lasers
Precise pulses explore light’s magnetism
A new laser will investigate an unusual magnetic effect that may lead to efficient solar energy harvesting.Doubling the power of the world’s most intense laser
Zetian Mi elected OSA Fellow
John Nees elected OSA Fellow
Almantas Galvanauskas elected OSA Fellow
Ultrashort light pulses for fast “lightwave” computers
Herb Winful – professor of optics, friend of the arts
Zetian Mi elected SPIE Fellow for contributions to photonic devices and artificial photosynthesis
CUOS: Pushing the limits of optical science
Steve Rand: expanding technical education in India
A better 3D camera with clear, graphene light detectors
Gift launches M. Alten Gilleo distinguished lecture series in optical sciences and optoelectronics
Layered graphene beats the heat
Next generation laser plasma accelerator
Stephen Forrest named Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor
Cheng Zhang awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for research on nanophotonic materials and devices
The future of solar: $1.3M to advance organic photovoltaics
Cheng Zhang receives Optical Sciences Scholarship
Ted Norris receives Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award
Thomas Frost receives Best Paper Award for achieving a HQ QD red laser
Celebrating Gérard Mourou: From ultrafast to extreme light
New research program to investigate optical energy conversion
A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power
T-ray converts light to sound for weapons detection, medical imaging
Student Spotlight: Elizabeth Dreyer – Ambassador for Optics
New tech could lead to night vision contact lenses
What are quantum computers going to do for us?
Anatoly Maksimchuk elected Fellow of APS
New algorithms and theory for shining light through non-transparent media
How a metamaterial might improve a depression treatment
Kyu Hyun Kim receives Emil Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Award at Frontiers in Optics Meeting
New laser shows what substances are made of; could be new eyes for military
A new laser paradigm: An electrically injected polariton laser
Using HERCULES to probe the interior of dense plasmas
Super-fine sound beam could one day be an invisible scalpel
Ted Norris named Gérard A. Mourou Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
A new way to cool materials with light
Four EECS Faculty recognized with College of Engineering Awards
A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams
Celebrating the birth of a new science
Heather Ferguson awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
New NSF Center for Photonic and Multiscale Nanomaterials
New laser could treat acne with telecom technology
Nonlinear Optics at 50: A Symposium
Using imprint processing to mass-produce tiny antennas could improve wireless electronics
Sung Ho Park receives 2011 IEEE MTT-S Scholarship
Morteza Nick receives Best Paper Award at IMS2011
Iverson Bell awarded NSF Fellowship for Research in Space Propulsion
Solar power without solar cells: A hidden magnetic effect of light could make it possible
Ted Norris honored with Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award
HERCULES laser rivals a synchrotron for short pulse x-ray beams
New work resolves long-standing questions about short pulses in quantum cascade lasers
WIMS and CUOS among 60 Years of Sensational Research by NSF
Eric Tkaczyk Named Fulbright Fellow and Whitaker Scholar
Tal Carmon receives Young Investigator Award for research in lasers and optics
Duncan Steel will advance quantum information processes in new MURI
Duncan Steel awarded 2010 APS Frank Isakson Prize
Ted Norris and CUOS: Reaching new frontiers in ultrafast optical science
First Distinguished University Innovator award recipient announced
Professor Mohammed N. Islam is the first recipient of the Distinguished University Innovator Award.In tunneling physics, a decades-old paradox is resolved
Emmett Leith (1927 – 2005): Inventor of Practical Holography
Eric Tkacyk receives Best Paper Award for research in biomedical optics
Gérard A. Mourou: In pursuit of new directions in science