Arka Majumdar
October 4, 2019
New metasurface design can control optical fields in three dimensions
![An image showing how the optical element focuses light to a specific point in 3D space above the element's surface.](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/10/04104108/Performance_1550nm-150x150.jpg)
A team led by scientists at the University of Washington has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. As they report in a paper published Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances, their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern.
November 13, 2018
Scientists engineer a functional optical lens out of 2D materials
![An image of four lenses under a microscope.](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/11/13152247/metalens_4prototypes2-150x150.jpg)
In a paper published Oct. 8 in the journal Nano Letters, a team from the University of Washington and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan announced that it has constructed functional metalenses that are one-tenth to one-half the thickness of the wavelengths of light that they focus. Their metalenses, which were constructed out of layered 2D materials, were as thin as 190 nanometers — less than 1/100,000ths of an inch thick.
February 20, 2018
Using a laser to wirelessly charge a smartphone safely across a room
![Five people posing](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/02/04131216/WIRELESS-LASER-CHARGING_2017_12_20_0110-150x150.jpg)
Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time developed a method to safely charge a smartphone wirelessly using a laser.
February 15, 2018
Five UW scientists awarded Sloan Fellowships for early-career research
![](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/11/04133434/Bronze-W-fall1-150x150.jpg)
Five faculty members at the University of Washington have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, include Maya Cakmak, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; Jiun-Haw Chu, assistant professor of clean energy and physics; Arka Majumdar, assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics; Jessica Werk, assistant professor of astronomy; and Chelsea Wood, assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
February 12, 2018
Hybrid optics bring color imaging using ultrathin metalenses into focus
![A portion of the team’s experimental setup for capturing an image using a metalens. The researchers capture an image of flowers through a metalens (mounted on a microscope slide) and visualize it through a microscope.](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/02/04131523/Metalens_lab_setup-150x150.jpg)
In a paper published Feb. 9 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington announced that they have successfully combined two different imaging methods — a type of lens designed for nanoscale interaction with lightwaves, along with robust computational processing — to create full-color images.
March 23, 2015
UW scientists build a nanolaser using a single atomic sheet
![](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/03/04172915/UW-nanolaser-configuration-150x150.jpg)
University of Washington scientists have built a new nanometer-sized laser using a semiconductor that’s only three atoms thick. It could help open the door to next-generation computing that uses light, rather than electrons, to transfer information.