Birck Seminar Series: Advancing Optical Manipulation and Measurement at the Nanoscale

Join Jingang Li from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering as he presents novel optical technologies for versatile manipulation of nanomaterials and advanced characterization with high spatiotemporal resolution. First, he developed optothermal manipulation techniques to overcome the limitations of optical tweezers. Specifically, opto-refrigerative tweezers exploit laser cooling and thermophoresis to mitigate common optical heating damages, enabling non-invasive analysis of cells and biomolecules. Then, extending from fluid environments, he pioneered optical manipulation at solid surfaces, enabling optical assembly and nanomotors for next-generation lab-on-a-chip systems. Apart from those, he will show the implementation of an ultrafast optical nanoscopy by integrating pump-probe optics with near-field imaging. This platform reveals unprecedented insights into intriguing carrier dynamics and energy transport in various functional materials with nanoscale heterogeneity. Along the way, he will highlight the potential of these optical innovations to provide solutions to disease diagnosis, nanomanufacturing, and energy-efficient optoelectronic devices, as well as discuss their future improvement directions.