Light carries more information than we know how to use. Unlocking that potential — whether to see through a scattering tissue sample, secure a quantum communication link, or render a holographic display — requires precise, real-time control over every degree of freedom of an optical beam: its phase, amplitude, polarization, and coherence, across space and time.

The Dorrah lab develops next generation meta-optics: ultrathin, nanostructured surfaces that reshape light at the wavelength scale with a speed, efficiency, and programmability that conventional optics cannot match. Our approach combines rigorous electromagnetic theory with experimental device physics, bridging the gap between a fundamental understanding of light–matter interaction and deployable photonic systems.

We pursue three interconnected goals: (a) mapping the fundamental limits and tradeoffs of wavefront-shaping platforms — what physics ultimately constrains their resolution, bandwidth, and efficiency; (b) introducing new device concepts and material combinations that push beyond those limits; and (c) embedding the resulting components into larger systems that address open problems in quantum information processing, optical communications, imaging, sensing, and holographic AR/VR.

Current and available research directions include, but are not limited to:

1. Combining meta-optics and 2D materials to build efficient, integrated quantum photonic devices.

2. Controlling light transport through scattering and disordered media using active metasurfaces — toward high-resolution imaging deep inside biological tissue or turbulent environments.

3. Engineering the spatial and temporal coherence of optical beams, and exploiting coherence as a tunable resource in remote sensing and imaging.

4. Ultrafast pulse shaping and spin–orbit coupling of light using time-varying metasurfaces.

5. On-chip metasurface integration for neuromorphic photonic computing and next-generation AR/VR optics.

6. Diffractive optical neural networks for spatial computing, leveraging metasurface phase engineering to perform all-optical inference at the speed of light for on-sensor AI in XR, autonomous systems, and medical imaging.