Research Projects

Project Listings


Principal Investigatorship (RM 194,200)


Co-Investigatorship (RM 527,952)


Project Member

Bio-electromagnetism of the Nervous System

Duration: 2019 - 2023

Advances in Neuroscience and Neural Networks has reignited the debate on the Neuron model. Of the numerous Biological Neuron Model, the most well-established and well-studied would be the Hodgkin-Huxley model. Yet, recent research on Neurology has a number of findings that contradict the predictions of the H-H model, spurring some controversial proposals of alternative Neuron models.

In this project, we seek to discover of the most plausible model of Neural propagation. We have developed various models including transmission lines, photonic and plasmonic waveguide models to describe the various neuronal phenomena, which includes saltatory conduction and ephaptic coupling. Some of our models could be verified through the use of full-wave electromagnetic simulations in FDTD software.

Team Members: C. K. Ong (Mentor), Q. Zhai (U/G), X. Sun (U/G)


Circuital and Physical Modelling of Urban Transport Networks

Duration: 2019 - 2023

The aspirations of intelligent cities would require the component of robust and intelligent transportation planning. The current urban transportation planning process may not be able to cope with rapid urban growth. Hence, the objective of this research is to identify and understand the fundamental physical theories associated with urban transport systems, in order to create a simple and deterministic transportation forecasting model. The study would first gather transportation data from critical, local urban road networks. From the data, key parameters that affects the flow of traffic will be identified. The parameters would then be fitted into an analogous electrical circuit model that would form the basic building blocks for the study of larger and wider transportation networks. It is expected that the research will reveal unprecedented insights into urban transport networks in Malaysia and solve the many paradoxes of urban transport design. The results from this research will be bring a huge paradigm shift to the way urban transport planning is carried out at the policy level. 

Team members: Md. Arif S. Bhuiyan, Burra V. D. Kumar, J. Y. Teh, Md. Iftekhar Salam, Simon B. Y. Lau (UTAR), Mamun B. I. Reaz (UKM)

This research is funded by the Ministry of Education Malaysia through the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS): FRGS/1/2019/TK08/XMU/02/1

This research is funded by the Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund, grant no. XMUMRF/2020-C5/IENG/0025

Three-Dimensional Dirac Semimetal Plasmonics Devices

Duration: 2018 - 2023

Three-dimensional Dirac semimetals, 3DS, has been found to share strikingly similar optical properties with graphene, such as tunable optical conductivities and high optical nonlinearities. Most of these manifest properties have origins from the Dirac bandstructure. 

In this project we analyze the optical properties that confer high performance and design optical devices based on them. 3DS may have more design flexibility and structural robustness, owing to its bulk form, when compared to graphene.

In collaboration with Dr. Yee Sin Ang, Mr. Jeremy Lim and Mr. Tianning Zhang from Singapore University of Technology and Design.

This project is funded by the Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund, grant no. XMUMRF/2019-C3/IECE/0003 

Innovative Lighting Solutions for Sustainability and Conservation in Singapore

Duration: 2016 - 2018

Singapore is a signatory to the Paris Agreement and has made a pledge to stabilise and limit its yearly greenhouse gas emissions to about 65 million tonnes by 2030. An estimated 13.8% of these emissions by electricity consumption are expected to be produced by buildings and 15% from it is attributed to the use for lighting.

In the project we seek to explore and solve lighting related inefficiencies that leads to unnecessary heating and wastage of energy resources, by technologically advancing solar illumination, daylighting systems, and architectural design.

This project is supported by the Ministry of National Development.

Nonlinear Ultra-Silicon-Rich Nitride Waveguides

Duration: 2014 - 2018

CMOS platforms operating at the telecommunications wavelength either reside within the highly dissipative two-photon regime in silicon-based optical devices, or possess only small Kerr nonlinearities for nitride- and oxide-based optical devices. We continue to push the limits of bandgap engineering of non-stoichiometric silicon nitride using state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, which led us to USRN (ultra-silicon-rich nitride) in the form of Si7N3 that boasts of high Kerr nonlinearity and negligible TPA coefficient.

A plethora of nonlinear optical devices is designed based on USRN, which includes optical parametric amplifiers, supercontinuum sources and all-optical switches.

In collaboration with MIT and A*STAR DSI.

This project is supported by the MOE ACRF Tier 2 grant, SUTD-MIT IDC Center and ZJU collaborative grant.

Design of nonlinear graphene photonic and plasmonic devices

Duration: 2014 - 2018

Graphene has been theoretically and experimentally found to have a large nonlinear coefficient. However, the atomic thickness of graphene and its high loss hinders effective nonlinear optical interactions for photonic devices. Moreover, the nonlinearity of graphene plasmonics is poorly accessible due to optical interactions only happening at the surface of graphene. Our research aims to study methods to improve the nonlinearity of graphene, which includes waveguide engineering to increase confinement of light in the graphene layer. Dispersion engineering of graphene-based waveguides is also studied to prepare for design of a myriad of nonlinear photonic applications.

In collaboration with JinLuo Cheng from Brussels Photonics Team and John E. Sipe from University of Toronto

This project is supported by the MOE ACRF Tier 2 grant, SUTD-MIT IDC center and ZJU collaborative grant.

Electrical-excited graphene plasmon polaritons

Duration: 2013 - 2015

There has been increasing attention paid on electron-excited surface plasmon polaritons. The first demonstration of this phenomenon dates back to Ritchie’s high-energy electron-bombardment in 1957, followed by Lecante, Ballu and Newns’ aloof-scattering in 1977, and also Lambe and McCarthy’s electron-tunneling plasmons in 1976. Recent progress in this field has sought out graphene as a viable material for electron-excited graphene plasmon polaritons. The motivation for this is from two angles: firstly, optical excitation for graphene plasmons is difficult due to the large phase mismatch between photonic and plasmonic momenta, hence making electrical-excitation attractive; secondly, the high propagation constants of graphene achievable at low frequencies has enabled large electron-plasmon couplings at non-relativistic energies, recently shown by García de Abajo. Our research  investigates the efficiency and viability of graphene to be used as an electrical-excited plasmonic source.

In collaboration with Chu Hong Son and Koh Wee Shing from A*STAR IHPC, with support from the National Research Foundation Singapore under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP Award No. NRF-CRP 8-2011-07).

This project is supported by the SUTD-MIT IDC grant (IDG21200106 and IDD21200103).

Design of graphene-based plasmonic optoelectronic devices

Duration: 2013 - 2014

Graphene emerged as a very strong contender for an efficient plasmonic material due to its versatile tunability of its optical conductivity as well as its extreme confinement strength in the mid-infrared, both properties which are unprecedented in metal-based plasmonics. The broad tunability of graphene’s optical conductivity arises from the easily tunable Fermi level (unlike metals), while the confinement strength arises from graphene being a thin film (which follows a different dispersion relation from bulk materials), and also being a 2-dimensional material which has a nonclassical scaling-law for the plasma frequency. Our research takes advantage of these unique properties of graphene to design ultracompact and broadly-tunable plasmonic devices, ranging from modulators, active splitters and logic devices.

In collaboration with Chu Hong Son from A*STAR IHPC.

This project is supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP Award No. NRF-CRP 8-2011-07).

Kelvin Ooi and Ricky Ang acknowledge the support of SUTD-MIT IDC grant (IDG21200106 and IDD21200103).

Design of metal-based plasmonic optoelectronic devices

Duration: 2011 - 2013

The continuous scaling of electronic chips in accordance to the Moore’s law has resulted in the great electrical interconnect bottleneck, as shrinking dimensions increase their power dissipation and RC propagation delay, causing diminishing gains in computing speeds. Photonic interconnects are the potential replacement for electrical interconnects, however they have a scaling disadvantage due to the diffraction limit, and thus pose a problem for chip-scale integration. Here, we proposed plasmonic devices as the link between the two major technologies (electronics and photonics), marrying size and speed. The subwavelength size of plasmonic optoelectronic devices enables integration of optical devices in electronic chips. Plasmonic optoelectronics have also shown greater reduction of operating power and increase in operating speed as a benefit from size-scaling. Our research focused on the novel design of plasmonic structures, borrowing ideas from established fields such as RF engineering, photonic crystal cavities and transmission line theory to name a few. We also looked into novel materials such as vanadium dioxide to improve efficiency of the plasmonic devices.

A*STAR IHPC mentors: Bai Ping, Chu Hong Son, Gu Ming Xia

Thesis Advisors: Ricky Ang Lay Kee and Bai Ping

This project was supported by the Agency for Science and Technology Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Metamaterials–Nanoplasmonics research programme under A*STAR–SERC grant No. 092–154–0098.

Kelvin Ooi acknowledges the financial support of a PhD scholarship funded by the MOE Tier 2 grant 2008–T2–01–033.