University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering
Mechanical Science & Engineering

Toussaint research makes cover of popular optics magazine

6/12/2015 Julia Cation

From the OPN cover: Convection currents surrounding plasmonic nano¬tweezers draw particles into the optical trap. Illustration by Brian J. Roxworthy.</p>

Written by Julia Cation

From the OPN cover: Convection currents surrounding plasmonic nano&not;tweezers draw particles into the optical trap. Illustration by Brian J. Roxworthy.
From the OPN cover: Convection currents surrounding plasmonic nano¬tweezers draw particles into the optical trap. Illustration by Brian J. Roxworthy.
From the OPN cover: Convection currents surrounding plasmonic nano¬tweezers draw particles into the optical trap. Illustration by Brian J. Roxworthy.
An article authored by Associate Professor Kimani Toussaint has been published as the cover story in the June 2015 issue of Optics & Photonics News, the professional news magazine of the Optical Society of America (OSA).

“Plasmonic nanoantennas: from nanotweezers to plasmonic photography” focuses on metal or plasmonic nanoantennas, which are of considerable interest to the nanophotonics community because of their ability to concentrate and enhance light in regions that are smaller than the wavelength of the light itself.

The article discusses several interesting applications of these nanoantennas, including gas and biological sensors and data storage. The article also relates Toussaint’s contributions to the field, namely the use of nanotweezers for manipulating small objects in solutions and plasmonic photography for recording the properties of light in the optical near-field.

Coauthors include Brian J. Roxworthy (one of Toussaint’s former PhD students who is now a National Research Council Postdoctoral Researcher in the Nanofabrication Research Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland); Hao Chen (a former postdoc in Toussaint's lab); Abdul Bhuiya (ECE graduate student in Toussaint's group); and Qing Ding (also an ECE graduate student in Toussaint’s lab).

Toussaint’s research focuses on optical microscopy; polarization vector beams; and nano-and biophotonics.He also directs the PROBE laboratory in the MechSE department at Illinois.

OSA’s Optics and Photonics News, provides in-depth coverage of recent developments in the field of optics. Founded in 1916, OSA is the leading professional association in optics and photonics, home to accomplished science, engineering, and business leaders from all over the world. 

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This story was published June 12, 2015.