News

January 2008: Kuebler Group awarded an NSF CAREER Grant !!

In January 2008 Dr. Stephen M. Kuebler and the NPM Group were awarded a CAREER Grant by the National Science Foundation. This award (no. 0748712) is supported jointly by the Division of Materials Research and the Chemistry Division of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate. The award, entitled "CAREER: Three-Dimensional Multi-Scale Metallodielectric Materials", provides support over a period of five years for the investigation of new processes for creating optically functional three-dimensional metallo-dielectric meta-materials. All members of the NPM group helped collect the preliminary data that supported the proposal leading to this award. Way to go team!!!

3 July 2007: Masters student Amir Tal graduates !!

On 3 July 2007 NPM Group member Amir Tal successfully defended his Masters of Science in Optics thesis entitled "Three-Dimensional Micron-Scale Metal Photonic Crystals via Multi-Photon Direct Laser Writing and Electroless Metal Deposition". Amir started a new position as an optical design engineer on 13 August 2007 with Coastal Optical Systems in West Palm Beach, Fl. Congratulations, Amir !!!

8 May 2007: Welcome Amanda Dupuy !!

Undergraduate Amanda Dupuy is a Student Mentor Academic Research Team (SMART) fellowship recipient and the newest member of the NPM Group. Amanda is investigating methods for electroless metallization and studying how the material processing conditions affect the nanoscale morphology of the deposited metal.

2 February 2007: NPM Group member Toufic Jabbour's research is published in Optics Letters!

Toufic Jabbour and Stephen M. Kuebler, "Axial field shaping under high-numerical-aperture focusing," Opt. Lett., 2006, vol. 32(5), pp. 527-530.

14 October 2006: NPM Group member Yun-Sheng Chen presented a paper entitled "Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Micron-Scale Metallic-Dielectric Composites and Functional Devices" at the Florida Inorganic Mini-Symposium, hosted by the Inorganic Division of the Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL.

9 October 2006: NPM Group member Amir Tal teaches students in the "Science Seminar" course at Seminole Community College about his research in nanophotonics (9 October 2006, Maitland, FL).

29 August 2006: NPM-Group research makes cover of Advanced Functional Materials !!

Yun-Sheng Chen, Amir Tal, David B. Torrance, and Stephen M. Kuebler, "Fabrication and characterization of three-dimensional silver-coated polymeric microstructures," Adv. Funct. Mater., 2006, vol. 16(13), pp. 1739 - 1744.

May 2006: Congratulations to Yigit "Ozan" Yilmaz who graduated with an MS in optics from CREOL-UCF!

Ozan is the first graduate of the NPM Group. In addition to completing a rigorous program of course work, Ozan was very active in research. His work included (1) contributing toward the development of the NPM-Group's multi-photon 3D microfabrication system and (2) studying a novel microphotonic structure that can be used to efficiently guide light by total internal reflection in a low-refractive-index waveguide supported on a high-index substrate. Ozan is now pursuing the PhD in optics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Good luck Ozan!

26 March 2006: Dr. Stephen M. Kuebler chaired a special symposium entitled "Micro- and Nano-Scale Patterning Via Multi-Photon Activated Processes" at the 231st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, held in Atlanta, GA, USA, 26-30 March 2006. Guest presenters included:

• Prof. John Fourkas (Univ. of Maryland)
• Prof. Stephen M. Kuebler (Univ. Central FL)
• Prof. Egbert Zojer (Univ. of Graz)
• Prof. Chris K. Ober (Cornell)
• Prof. Paul Campignola (Univ. of Connecticut)
• Prof. Joseph W. Perry (GA Tech)
• Mr. Jian Zhou (Perry Group, GA Tech)
• Dr. Wenting Dong (Perry Group, GA Tech)
• Prof. Satoshi Kawata (Univ. of Osaka and RIKEN)
• Prof. Martin Wegener (Univ. of Karlsruhe)
• Prof. Robert G. Denning (Univ. of Oxford)
• Ms. Stephanie A. Pruzinsky (P. V. Braun Group, UIUC)
• Prof. Shoji Maruo (Univ. of Yokohama)
• Mr. Seokwoo Jeon (J. A. Rogers Group, UIUC)

We gratefully acknowledge financial support for the symposium provided by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (grant no. 42322-G5) and the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering. Thank you to these agencies and all speakers and attendees for your participation.

6 February 2006: Publication

Toufic Jabbour and Stephen M. Kuebler, "Vector diffraction analysis of high numerical aperture focused beams modified by two- and three-zone annular multi-phase plates," Optics Express, 2006, 14, 1033-1043.