MARIN SOLJACIC, Assistant
Professor of Physics
Research Interests
Technological advances of the past decade have enabled the control of the material structure at length-scales smaller than the wavelength of light. This enabled the creation of new materials, e.g., photonic bandgap crystals, or various surface plasmon systems, whose optical properties are dramatically different than those of any naturally occurring material. For example, nanostructured materials which display diffraction-less propagation of light, exhibit negative refraction, or support very slow propagation of light, have all been demonstrated. Professor Soljacic's interests are in exploring the new and exciting physical phenomena supported by these materials.
The unique properties of these new materials have already enabled a wide range of very important applications, e.g., in medicine, telecommunications, defense, etc., and are expected to do so even more in the future.
Professor Soljacic is also interested in various topics in nonlinear optical physics. Maxwell's equations as presented in most undergraduate text books are linear. However, all materials in nature are nonlinear (including vacuum), and sure enough, at high light intensities, optical phenomena become nonlinear, displaying a wide range of rich and beautiful behavior. For example, almost every general non-linear dynamics phenomenon, e.g., solitons, pattern formation, fractals, etc., can now be studied in optical material systems.
More recently, Prof. Soljacic also became interested in investigating the
feasibility of wireless power transfer, which he and colleagues have dubbed "WiTricity."
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Biographical Sketch
Marin
Soljacic has been an Assistant Professor of Physics since September 2005. He received a BsE degree in physics and electrical engineering from MIT in 1996, and earned his PhD in physics at Princeton University in 2000. In September 2000, he was named an MIT Pappalardo Fellow in Physics, and in 2003 was appointed a Principal Research Scientist in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT. He is the recipient of the Adolph Lomb medal from the Optical Society of America (2005).
[top] Selected Publications
"Coherent optical photons from shock waves in crystals," Evan Reed, Marin Soljacic, Richard Gee, and J.D.Joannopoulos. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96, 013904 (2006).
"Surface-Plasmon-assisted guiding of broadband slow and subwavelength light in air," Aristeidis Karalis, E.Lidorikis, Mihai Ibanescu, J.D.Joannopoulos, and Marin Soljacic. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 063901 (2005).
“Enhancement of non-linear effects using photonic crystals,” Marin Soljacic, and J.D. Joannopoulos. Invited review article in Nature Materials, 3, p.211 (2004).
"Collisions of two solitons in an arbitrary number of coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations," Marin Soljacic, Ken Steiglitz, Suzanne M. Sears, Mordechai Segev, Mariusz H. Jakubowski, and Richard Squier. Phys. Rev. Lett., 90, 254102 (2003).
"Color of shock waves in photonic crystals," Evan Reed, Marin Soljacic, and J.D.Joannopoulos. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 203904 (2003).
"Pattern formation in a cavity longer than the coherence length of the light in it," Tal Carmon, Marin Soljacic, and Mordechai Segev. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 183902 (2002).
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