I am currently in the Ultrafast Optics Group here at MIT in the Research Laboratory for Electronics. Our group performs research in ultrafast lasers and ultrafast phenomena as well as in biomedical optical imaging. Research includes the investigation of new solid state laser materials for tunable femtosecond pulse generation in the near infrared. Investigation and fabrication of nonlinear saturable absorbers based on multiple quantum wells and nonlinear semiconductor doped glasses for short pulse generation using passive modelocking and saturable absorber assisted KLM lasers is also being done in the group. Finally studies on laser fabrication of waveguide photonics devices and bandwidth broadening fiber laser sources are being pursued as well.
Research includes development of imaging technologies for use in research and clinical applications.
Biomedical studies include clinical investigations of ophthalmic applications in collaboration with the New England Eye Center. Studies of optical biopsy in internal medicine including arterial imaging, diagnosis of neoplasia, and surgical guidance in collaboration with investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital. In medical diagnostics, the technology enables visualization of disease pathology in living organisms at resolutions approaching the cellular level. How Optical Coherence Tomography Works OCT is somewhat analogous to conventional ultrasound or radar imaging techniques, except it uses light to produce images. In OCT, tomographic imaging is performed by measuring the echo delay of back-reflected light from internal biological microstructures.