Estakhri Research Group at Chapman University
Engineering the interaction of wave and matter with nanophotonics and metamaterials
Assistant Professor- Fowler School of Engineering, Chapman University
Webpage last Updated September 2021
Our Research:
Our current research interests are in the areas of nano-photonics, metamaterials, plasmonics, and applied electromagnetics. Our work focuses on understanding and controlling different aspects of wave interaction with engineered nano-structures. We design novel meta-structures that involve enhanced and function-based light-matter interaction phenomena with strong potential scientific and technological impact in the future. To learn about specific recent and ongoing projects visit our Research page.
Upcoming Events:
20-25 September 2021- Invited Talk at the 15th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena (Metamaterials 2021).
27 February-3 March 2022- Invited Talk at the 150th Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society Annual Meeting & Exhibition (TMS 2022).
Recent News
Two postdoctoral positions available starting January 2022. Details and application form at: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/19312
23 September 2021: Nasim gave an invited talk on "Self Duality: From Symmetry Protected Transmission to Extreme Wave Funneling and Zero Backscattering" at the 15th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena-Metamaterials. Thank you Carsten Rockstuhl for the invitation.
August 2021: Congratulations to our undergraduate researcher "Gabriela Pinto" for starting a new full-time internship at Intel! Good luck in the new job Gabriela!
21 July 2021: Nasim gave an invited talk on the "Interplay of Absorption and Scattering in Metal-Dielectric Cylinders: Extreme Refractive Index Limits and Response Sensitivities" at the META 2021, the 11th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics. Thank you Nicolò Maccaferri, Vincenzo Caligiuri and Mario Miscuglio for the invitation and the great session.
May 2021: Congratulations to our undergraduate researcher "Gabriela Pinto" for being admitted to the 2021 NSF REU program in LS&T at Worcester Polytechnic Institute!
May 2021: Checkout our work on artificial birefringence with metasurfaces at the 2021 virtual CLEO conference:
Artificial Birefringence with Moving Metasurfaces,
Nasim Mohammadi Estakhri, Nader Engheta
May 11, 2021 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (PDT) (Joint Poster Session I Tuesday)
28 April 2021: Nasim received the "2021 Faculty Opportunity Funds" from Chapman University! Thank you Office of Research for your support. Announcement here.
March 2021: Andrew Wells, Chase Appleton, Tyler Woo, Brandon Camp, Jessica Trawick, and Alex Vallone joined our group as undergraduate researchers. Welcome to the group!
February 2021: Gabriela Pinto joined our group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Gabriela!
November 3, 2020: Our paper on "Tunable metasurface-based waveplates- A proposal using inverse design" is now published in Comptes Rendus Physique (French Academy of Sciences) special issue on Metamaterials!
August 2020: Check out this nice article by Chapman Newsroom about new Faculty and staff joining Fowler School of engineering in Fall 2020.
May 2020: I am presenting our work on self-duality induced Kerker condition at the 2020 virtual CLEO conference:
Generalized Class of Kerker Particles: Self-Duality and Zero Backscattering,
Nasim Mohammadi Estakhri, Raphael Kastner, Nader Engheta
May 13, 2020 from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (Joint Poster Session Wednesday)
Spring 2020: I am giving seminars at several schools this Spring, as will be updated below. Attend my talk on "Designer Matter: New Frontiers in Wave Interactions with Meta- and Nano-structures" if you are interested in learning about metamaterials!
13 March, 2020: Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY.
2 March, 2020: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
20 February, 2020: School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.
12 February, 2020: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
3 February, 2020: Fowler School of Engineering, Chapman University, Orange, CA.
23 January, 2020: Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.
January 22, 2020: Our paper on Electromagnetic Funnel: Reflectionless Transmission and Guiding of Wave through Subwavelength Apertures in collaboration with Prof. Raphael Kastner is now published in Physical Review Letters.
December 23, 2019: Our paper on "Tunable metasurface-based waveplates- A proposal using inverse design" is accepted for publication in Comptes Rendus Physique (French Academy of Sciences) special issue on Metamaterials!
December 16, 2019: We have received the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) 2019 Research Prize for the best scientific contribution made during the years 2017 and 2018 in the Area of Exact, Biological, Medical and Technological Sciences at UPNA for our work on "Experimental Demonstration of Metasurface-Based Ultrathin Carpet Cloak for Millimetre Waves" with colleagues Bakhtiyar Orazbayev, Andrea Alù, and Miguel Beruete! [Link]
November 21, 2019: Our paper on Solving Equations with Metamaterials has been published in the special issue of Optics and Photonics News, Year in Optics, featuring the best research in optics published in 2019.
October 18, 2019: Our paper on "Electromagnetic Funnel: Reflectionless Transmission and Guiding of Wave through Subwavelength Apertures" is accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters!
October 17, 2019: Invited talk on "Inverse-designed Metastructures to Solve Linear Equations" at the 17th International System-on-Chip (SoC) conference, , University of California, Irvine (Calit2), Irvine, CA.
October 5, 2019: Invited talk on "Seeing without being seen: A recipe to hide an antenna" at the 2019 Gotham-Metro Condensed Matter Meeting, New York University (Rosenthal Pavilion), New York, NY.
October 4, 2019: Our paper on Solving Equations with Metamaterials has been accepted for publication in Optics and Photonics News, Year in Optics, as one of the featured highlights for optics research in 2019.
September 30, 2019: I am joining the APL Photonics Early Career Editorial Advisory Board for a two-year term of 2020-2022. The Early Career Editorial Advisory Board advise the Editors of APL Photonics on matters of specific importance to early career researchers, on the scientific and educational content of the journal, and on matters of editorial policy. [See the announcement here]
July 11, 2019: Our paper on "Experimental Demonstration of Metasurface-Based Ultrathin Carpet Cloak for Millimeter Waves" has been featured in the 2019 "Metasurfaces" virtual issue highlighting recent cutting-edge research in this area.
June 5, 2019: Check out this nice article by Christine Middleton in Physics Today covering our recent work on metamaterial analog computing.
March 2019: Our paper on using inverse-designed metamaterials to solve systems of linear equations is published in Science magazine, and covered by several news outlets including Penn Today, Phys.org, Science Daily, The Daily Pennsylvanian, COSMOS, The Naked Scientists, Physics world, Photonics.com, and Medium.
January 2019: I have been selected as one of Caltech's 2019 "Young Investigator Lecturers in Engineering and Applied Science." I will give a seminar in Caltech in March 2019 about my recent research works.
You can find the seminar flyer here:
October 2018: Check out the article by Nicholas Wang in the October issue of IEEE Photonics Society Newsletter on recent IPS Gradate Fellows. [Link].
August 21, 2018: Our paper titled "Low-Threshold Lasing and Coherent Perfect Absorption in the Generalized PT-Symmetric Optical Structures," in collaboration with Prof. Chen's group at University of Illinois-Chicago, has been published in Physical Review Applied. [Link]
July 2018: We have two contributions at the 2018 IEEE AP-S/URSI Symposium, Boston, MA:
Title: Flat Optical Mach-Zehnder Interferometer based on Gradient Metasurfaces
Session: Functional Material Platforms Enabling Exotic Scattering Phenomena
Time: Wednesday, July 11, 09:00 - 09:20
Title: Wide Scan, Wideband Arrays with Self-Dual Point-Like Elements
Session: Wideband and UWB Array Radiators
Time: Tuesday, July 10, 16:00 - 17:40
June 22, 2018: I have been selected as a speaker at the upcoming Plasmonics and Nanophotonics Gordon Research Seminar. Few research abstracts are selected by the conference chair to be presented at this 1-day seminar. The focus of this meeting is on innovations in nanoscale light-matter interactions using plasmonic and resonant dielectric nanostructures, which enable and enhance applications in biomedical science, energy generation and storage, and quantum information technology.
My talk titled "Flat Optics: Ultra-Compact Optical Devices Enabled by Dielectric Metasurfaces".
June 11, 2018: I have been selected to participate in the "Rising Stars in EECS 2018" Workshop at MIT! This prestigious workshop identifies and mentors outstanding women in electrical engineers and computer scientists interested in exploring careers in academia. See more information here. I have also been selected as the "Rising star in EECS" in 2017 by Stanford University.
June 2018: I am attending the prestigious International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2018), with a contributed talk on "Wideband, Periodically Arranged Self-Dual Subwavelength Waveguides". This year IMS is held at Philadelphia convention center!
May 2018: My advisor is giving a plenary talk at CLEO this year. If you attend CLEO, mark your calendars for his talk on Tuesday morning (May 15th).
May 2018: I am attending the 2018 CLEO conference with two contributed presentations on Metasurface-based optical elements (poster presentation on Wednesday May 16th), and Mathematical equation solving with MZI networks (see Mario's talk on Friday May 18th).
April 30, 2018: Our paper titled "Enhanced Photoresponse in Metasurface-Integrated Organic Photodetectors," has been published in Nano Letters. [Link]
April 30, 2018: Our paper in collaboration with colleagues at the UT-Austin ECE and ME departments, titled "Enhanced Photoresponse in Metasurface-Integrated Organic Photodetectors," has been accepted for publication in Nano Letters. This work provides experimental evidence on practical applications of gradient metasurfaces for enhanced photodetection and solar energy conversion, proposed in my earlier works [Related publication can be found here].
April 2018: I have been selected to attend the prestigious “2018 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Plasmonics and Nanophotonics” and the associated “Gordon Research Seminar (GRS)” with my abstract titled "Flat Optics: Ultra-compact Optical Devices Enabled by Dielectric Metasurfaces".
March 2018: I received the "DMP Post-Doctoral Travel Award" to attend APS March meeting 2018, Los Angeles, CA. These awards are presented and funded through the APS Division of Materials Physics (DMP), through a very competitive process.
March 2018: I am attending the 2018 APS March meeting with a contributed talk on computational capabilities of EM waves.
January 2018: Our review paper on "Recent progress in Gradient Metasurfaces" has been one of the most downloaded papers from The Journal of the Optical Society of America B, in January 2018.
January 2018: I am presenting two paper at the 2018 SPIE Photonics West on "near-field engineering" and "metamaterial-based equation solving".
November 6, 2017: I am attending the "Rising Stars in EECS 2017" Workshop, at Stanford University, presenting my research on "Computational meta-platforms: Using light to solve mathematical equations". For event details see here.
October 25, 2017: Invited seminar on "Wave-matter Interactions to Solve Integral Equations" at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Wayne State University.
August 4, 2017: I have been selected to participate in the "Rising Stars in EECS 2017" Workshop, at Stanford University! This workshop brings top graduate and postdoc women in EECS together for sci-entific discussions and informal sessions aimed at navigating the early stages of an academic career. See more information here.
July 10, 2017: I am presenting my work on metaplatforms for solving Integral Equations with waves at the IEEE AP-S/URSI Symposium, San Diego, CA.
June 26, 2017: Our paper titled "Cascaded Exciton Energy Transfer in a Monolayer Semiconductor Lateral Heterostructure Assisted by Surface Plasmon Polariton," has been published in Nature Commutations. [Link]
May 28, 2017: I received the International USNC-URSI Travel Grant 2017 to support the participation in the 32nd International Union of Radio Science General Assembly and Scientific Symposium in Montreal, Québec, Canada.
May 18, 2017: I am presenting my recent works on solving Integral Equations with metamaterial structures at the CLEO conference, San Jose, CA.
April 28, 2017: Our paper in collaboration with colleagues at the UT-Austin physics department, titled "Cascaded Exciton Energy Transfer in a Monolayer Semiconductor Lateral Heterostructure Assisted by Surface Plasmon Polariton," has been accepted for publication in Nature Commutations.
January 23, 2017: Our paper in collaboration with colleagues at AMOLF, titled "Visible Light, Wide-Angle Graded Metasurface for Back Reflection" has been accepted for publication in ACS Photonics and published online.[Link]
November 15, 2016: Our paper titled "Experimental Demonstration of Metasurface-Based Ultrathin Carpet Cloaks for Millimeter Waves" has been published in Advanced Optical Materials. [Link]
October 14, 2016: Our paper titled "Wave-front Transformation with Gradient Metasurfaces" has been published in Physical Review X. [Link]
September 23, 2016: Our paper in collaboration with colleagues at Universidad Pública de Navarra, titled "Experimental Demonstration of Metasurface-based Ultrathin Carpet Cloak for Millimetre Waves" has been accepted for publication in Advanced Optical Materials.
August 18, 2016: Our paper on fundamental limitations of passive metastases, titled "Wave-front Transformation with Gradient Metasurfaces," has been accepted for publication in Physical Review X.
August 8, 2016: I joined Engheta group at Upenn!
July 27, 2016: I have been selected as the recipient of 2016 IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship.
July 2016: I am presenting a poster at the Gordon Research Conference on Plasmonics and Nanophotonics: From Plasmonic Fundamentals to Nanooptical Applications in Sunday River Newry, ME. I will discuss my recent works on the unique scattering properties of parity-time symmetric nanoparticles.
To see the news prior to July 2016, please visit here.
May 2021: Checkout our work on artificial birefringence with metasurfaces at the 2021 virtual CLEO conference:
Artificial Birefringence with Moving Metasurfaces,
Nasim Mohammadi Estakhri, Nader Engheta
May 11, 2021 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (PDT) (Joint Poster Session I Tuesday)
May 2021: Checkout our work on artificial birefringence with metasurfaces at the 2021 virtual CLEO conference:
Artificial Birefringence with Moving Metasurfaces,
Nasim Mohammadi Estakhri, Nader Engheta
May 11, 2021 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (PDT) (Joint Poster Session I Tuesday)