Photonics at Wisconsin CHIPS makes light a core tool for semiconductor development and uses semiconductor technology as a platform for new optical devices.
Our researchers design, fabricate, and integrate semiconductor optoelectronic devices, from lasers and LEDs to single-photon sources. We design photodetectors and energy harvesters, from photovoltaic cells to single-photon avalanche photodiodes. We also develop photonic integrated circuits that speed data movement and computation.
We are developing spectroscopy tools to help evaluate semiconductor material quality and monitor processing steps during device fabrication. Once a device is constructed and operating, advanced thermal imaging and sensing techniques can be used to understand and improve heat flow.
Semiconductor-based quantum sensors can enable navigation in GPS-denied environments and revolutionize medical diagnostics. The integration of on-sensor processing and high-speed semiconductor detectors can enable smarter cameras and science-fiction-like imaging around corners.
Research Faculty and Staff
Filiz Yesilköy
Position title: Vilas and Grainger Assistant Professor
- Biosensors
- Nanophotonics
- Nanobiotechnology
- Bioimaging and microscopy techniques
- Spectroscopy
- Biomedical devices and instrumentation
- Micro-Nano Fabrication
- Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-chip devices
Joseph Andrews
Position title: Alfred Fritz Assistant Professor
- Printed and flexible electronics
- Electronically transduced biosensors
- Print process control systems
- Electronics from nanomaterials
- Sensor design and validation
- Distributed sensing arrays
Michael Arnold
Position title: Beckwith-Bascom Professorship
Materials Science & Engineering
- Carbon nanotubes & graphene for nanoelectronics
- 2D/1D heterostructures for advanced devices
- Flexible & wearable electronics
- Next-gen solar cells & photodetectors
- Selective membranes for chemical separations
- Artificial materials mimicking biological energy transfer
- Multidisciplinary synthesis & integration of nanomaterials
Dan Botez
Position title: Philip Dunham Reed Professor Emeritus
Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering
- High-power, spatially coherent semiconductor lasers
- Photonic Crystal semiconductor lasers for high coherent-power generation
- Quantum Cascade lasers
Victor Brar
Position title: Van Vleck Associate Professor
- Scanning tunneling microscopy
- 2D materials
- Magnetic materials
- Optics
- Metasurfaces
- Thermal emission
Jennifer Choy
Position title: Associate Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Quantum engineering
- Atomic and optical physics
- Nanophotonics
- Development and characterization of solid-state defects
- Quantum sensing using atoms and defects in solids
- Inertial navigation and timekeeping
Adrien Couet
Position title: Associate Chair for Graduate Studies Professor
Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
- Nuclear materials
- Irradiation damage
- Corrosion of metals and alloys
- Oxidation model
- Electrochemistry
- Synchrotron radiation
- Defect transport in oxides
Paul Evans
Position title: Professor
Materials Science & Engineering
- Ferroelectric and multiferroic materials: electric-field-driven structural control
- Superlattice domain dynamics: ultrafast switching behavior
- Photoinduced charge transfer: interface engineering for optoelectronics
- Advanced x-ray techniques: nanoscale probing of material properties
Randall Goldsmith
Position title: Professor
- Nanophotonics
- Photonics-enhanced spectroscopy
- Topological photonics
- Molecular quantum optics
- Single-molecule spectroscopy
- Photonic materials
- Catalysis
- Biophysics
Padma Gopalan
Position title: Associate Chair of Graduate Studies
Materials Science & Engineering
- Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
- Electro-optic and Photonic Materials
- Self-assembly of Block Copolymers
- Photonic Devices
- Liquid Crystalline Polymers
Chirag Gupta
Position title: Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Semiconductor devices (WBG and UWBG)
- Group III-nitrides (GaN) and Oxides (GaOx)
- RF and power electronics: HEMTs and MOSFETs
- Optoelectronics (LEDs, LASERs)
- Lattice engineering
- Quantum applications
Mohit Gupta
Position title: Associate Professor
- Computer vision
- Computational imaging
- Machine learning
- 3D and single-photon imaging
Aviad Hai
Position title: Vilas Early Career Assistant Professor
- Neural engineering
- Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Nanoelectronics & Nanofabrication
- Brain Machine Interfaces
Robert J. Hamers
Position title: Professor of Chemistry and Steenbock Professor of Physical Science
- Electrode and catalyst development
- Energy
- Environmental
- Functional materials
- Laser/NMR spectroscopy
- Mechanism and theory
- Physical inorganic
- Biomaterials
- Single-molecule
- Surfaces and interfaces
- Nanomaterials and/or nanotechnology
Robert Jacobberger
Position title: Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Atomic-scale engineering of 2D, 1D, and 0D materials
- Carbon nanoelectronics using graphene nanoribbons and diamane
- Quantum devices with spin qubits and single-photon emitters
- Scalable heterostructure fabrication for novel electronic and optical phenomena
- Next-gen technologies in electronics, optoelectronics, and quantum systems
Akhilesh Jaiswal
Position title: Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Device-circuit co-design using existing and alternate state variables for future computing systems
- Processing-in-pixel and processing-in-sensor technology
- In-memory-computing
- Hardware-software co-design for efficient distributed computing
- Bio-inspired paradigms for sensing and compute, including neuromorphic systems
- Electro-optic general-purpose computing
Hongrui Jiang
Position title: Lynn H. Matthias Professor in Engineering, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- MicroElectroMechanical System
- Microsensors and microactuators
- BioMEMS and micro-optics
- Microfluidics
- Lab on chips
- Biomimetics and bioinspiration
Mikhail Kats
Position title: Jack St. Clair Kilby and Antoine-Bascom Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Optics
- Photonics
- Optoelectronics
- Thermal radiation
- Nanoscale science
- Spectroscopy
- Semiconductor science
- Quantum engineering
Zhenqiang Ma
Position title: Lynn H. Matthias Professor in Engineering and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Lattice mis-matched semiconductor heterostructures: materials, physics and related various device applications
- Flexible/stretchable/wearable electronics/optoelectronics
- Bioelectronics (ECG/ECoG), neural and neuron interface engineering
- High-speed RF devices, optoelectronic devices and nanophotonics
- Semiconductor materials processing and heterogeneous integration
- Flexible electronics, flexible optoelectronics and flexible photonics
- Energy conversion semiconductor devices
- Bioelectronics and biomimetics
- Semiconductor device physics
- Power electronics
Luke Mawst
Position title: Grainger STAR Professor Emeritus in Engineering
- Semiconductor lasers
- Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth of semiconductors
- III/V compound semiconductor materials and devices
Shubhra Pasayat
Position title: Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- MOCVD growth of Group III-nitrides and Oxides
- Optoelectronics: Micro-LEDs, LASERs
- RF and Power Electronics: HEMTs and MOSFETs
- Bio-Photonics
- Lattice Engineering
- Quantum Materials
- Porous and flexible materials
Thevamaran Ramathesan
Position title: Bernard A. and Frances M. Weideman Associate Professor
- Mechanical behavior of structured materials
- Dynamic properties
- Hierarchical materials
- Nanomaterials
- Metamaterials
- Wave propagation
- Experimental techniques
Scott Sanders
Position title: Professor
- Quadcopter-based hydrogen plume imager for hydrogen leak detection
- Optical sensor for monitoring hydrogen concentration in blended-fuel pipelines
- Cell-phone-size optical sensor for measuring liquid fuel properties on board air- or ground-based vehicles
- Diamond-windowed sensors for monitoring the purity of molten sodium and molten salts in nuclear and solar applications
- Distributed temperature sensing inside batteries using fiber optics
- Optical sensing and imaging to advance 3-D printer capabilities
Eric Tervo
Position title: Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Semiconductor materials and devices
- Thermal and luminescent electromagnetic radiation
- Solid-state thermal energy conversion devices
- Solar energy conversion
- Energy policy and economics
Dakotah Thompson
Position title: Assistant Professor
- Soft robotics & bioinspired design
- Smart materials for actuation and sensing
- Multifunctional structures with embedded intelligence
- Additive manufacturing for soft systems
- Human-machine interfaces and wearable technologies
Andreas Velten
Position title: Associate Professor
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Computational imaging
- Single photon imaging
- Quanta imaging
- Ultra-fast and hyperspectral Imaging
- Biomedical imaging
- 3D and non-line-of-sight imaging
- Imaging in scattering environments
- Fluorescence lifetime
Ying Wang
Position title: Dugald C. Jackson Assistant Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- 2D quantum materials & heterostructures
- Nano-devices for energy, sensing, and information
- Exotic orders (e.g., domain walls, filaments) for data processing
- Magnon-based information carriers
- Multimodal characterization under extreme conditions
Jun Xiao
Position title: Assistant Professor
Materials Science & Engineering
- Photo-induced nonequilibrium phenomena, ferroelectric, magnetic, correlated, and topological transitions in quantum materials
- THz optoelectronic materials and devices for 6G communications
- 2D quantum materials and topological heterostructures for next-generation computing and sensing
- Ultrafast and nonlinear spectroscopy, THz circuits, Magneto-optics, phase engineering, 2D materials
Zongfu Yu
Position title: Grainger Professor
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Optical computing & quantum electrodynamics
- Multimodal visual sensors for autonomous systems
- Radiative cooling & sustainable water harvesting
- Machine learning-enhanced photonics
- Simulation tools for hybrid quantum-classical systems
Latest News
2025 Nobel Prize Laureate John Martinis’s Connections to UW–Madison
Wisconsin CHIPS congratulates the 2025 laureates of The Nobel Prize in Physics—John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis—for observation of quantum-mechanical tunneling in an electrical circuit based on superconductors! Excitingly, Martinis has connections to UW–Madison through shared research and his co-founded company Qolab.
UW fostering closer research ties with federal defense, cybersecurity agencies
UW–Madison is building stronger research partnerships with federal defense and cybersecurity agencies to advance technologies that serve the public good. A recent campus visit from Department of Defense and NSA leaders highlighted shared priorities in AI, quantum computing, and secure systems.
With NSF CAREER Award, Chirag Gupta is using next-gen materials to engineer high performance power semiconductor transistors
Chirag Gupta earned an NSF CAREER Award to advance power semiconductor transistors using next-gen materials. His research could lead to more efficient, compact, and reliable electronics for energy, transportation, and communication systems.
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