Light is a powerful tool for interrogating and manipulating biological systems, enabling targeted stimulation, sensing, and imaging. The study of neural circuits and encoding, for example, has been transformed by optical methods like optogenetics and functional imaging, which make it possible to control and read neural activity using light, enabling remarkable experiments in which light controls the walking behavior of mice or even the memory of songbirds. However, current optical stimulation and sensing devices rely on bulk table-top optics, limiting their access deep within living and moving biological systems due to their size and weight. Additionally, the ability to flexibly address neurons with single-cell resolution and sub-millisecond timescales across the many regions and hierarchies of the brain has remained a longstanding challenge. Building miniaturized optical tools will enable new neuromodulation and behavior studies of underlying neural circuits to better inform our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and mental illness.

We are designing nanophotonic systems compact enough to be placed on the tip of a needle for 3D light projection and sensing on implantable probes and wearable biomedical devices, prostheses, and next generation brain-machine-interfaces. We are bringing functionalities including 3D volumetric beam shaping, sub-diffraction limit resolutions, and highly parallelized interferometric/spectroscopic sensing to neural and biomedical devices. We are developing new optical devices and understanding their underlying physics to address the challenges that come with this goal including photonic platforms working outside of the traditional telecommunications wavelengths (e.g. below 1300 nm), integration with electronic systems, ultra-low power optical circuits, wireless control, and flexible devices for better biocompatibility.

To learn more about our lab, visit the lab website here