LAB DIRECTOR | Nanoscale Optics Lab

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Principal Investigator and Lab Director, Behrad Gholipour is Assistant Professor of Photonics at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Canada. He is an expert in chalcogenide semiconductors, multimaterial optical fibres, high throughput material discovery and all-dielectric as well as plasmonic metamaterials. In all the above cases, he is most interested in light-matter interaction with a particular focus on optoelectronic switching phenomena as well as laser, plasma and thermal based fabrication techniques for reconfigurable nanoscale optics applications.

He has pioneered ground breaking new techniques and technologies which are being pursued by a range of researchers around the world. Most notably he is known for the first all-optical phase change meta-switch, chalcogenide photonic synapse, lithography assisted fibre drawing and colour tunable perovskite metasurfaces.

His work has resulted in >100 peer reviewed journal and conference publications including notable publications in Science, Nature Materials, Nature Photonics, Nature Communications and Advanced Materials journals (See more >>). He is a referee for >10 leading publications in optoelectronics, material science and physics.

His main current activities lie in the area of reconfigurable nanophotonic devices in particular free-space and integrated chalcogenide plasmonic and all-dielectric photonic metasurfaces, phase change materials and devices, topological insulators, plasmonic and photonic multimaterial fibers including soft glass and plasmonic metal cored fibers, combinatorial high-throughput material discovery as well as neuromorphic optics. See more >>

Selected Publications

Photoionic driven movement of metallic ions as a nonvolatile reconfiguration mechanism in amorphous chalcogenide metasurfaces

L. McRae, Y. Xie and B. Gholipour

Advanced Optical Materials, issue 9, 2101046 (2021)

The promise of phase-change material

B. Gholipour

Science, issue 6462 (2019)

Reconfigurable ultraviolet and high-energy visible dielectric metamaterials
B. Gholipour, D. Piccinotti, A. Karvounis, K. F. MacDonald , N. I. Zheludev.
Nano Letters, issue 19 (2019)

Stoichiometric engineering of chalcogenide semiconductor alloys for nanophotonic applications

D. Piccinotti, B. Gholipour, J. Yao, K. F. MacDonald, B. Hayden, N. I. Zheludev.

Advanced Materials, issue 31 (2019)

Phase-change driven dielectric-plasmonic transitions in chalcogenide metasurfaces
B. Gholipour, A. Karvounis, J. Yin, C. Soci, K. F. MacDonald , N. I. Zheludev.
Nature Asia Materials, issue 10 (2018)

Organometallic perovskite metasurfaces

B. Gholipour, G. Adamo, D. Cortecchia, H. N. S. Krishnamoorthy, M. D. Birowosuto, N. I. Zheludev, C. Soci
Advanced Materials, issue 9 (2017)

Lithography assisted fiber-drawing nanomanufacturing

B. Gholipour, P. Bastock, L. Cui, C. Craig, K. Khan, D. Hewak, C. Soci
Nature: Scientific Reports, Vol.6(35409) pp.1-8 (2016)

Optically reconfigurable metasurfaces and photonic devices based on phase change materials

Q. Wang, E. Rogers, B. Gholipour, C. H. Wang, G. H. Yuan, J. H. Teng, N. I. Zheludev
Nature Photonics, Vol.10 pp.60-65 (2016)

Amorphous metal-sulphide microfibers enable photonic synapses for brain-like computing

B. Gholipour, P. Bastock, C. Craig, K. Khan, D. Hewak, C. Soci
Advanced Optical Materials, Vol.3(5) pp.635-641 (2015)

N-type chalcogenides by ion implantation

M. A. Hughes, Y. Fedorenko, B. Gholipour, J. Yao, T. H. Lee, R. M. Gwilliam, K. P. Homewood, S. Hinder, D. W. Hewak, S. R. Elliott, R. J. Curry
Nature Communications, Vol.5 pp.5346 (2014)

An all optical, non-volatile, bidirectional, phase change meta-switch

B. Gholipour, J. Zhang, K.F. Macdonald, D.W. Hewak and N. I. Zheludev
Advanced Materials, Vol.25, pp.3050-3054 (2013)

Primed to remember

D. W. Hewak and B. Gholipour
Science, Vol.336, pp.1515–1516 (2012)

Characterization of supercooled liquid Ge2Sb2Te5 and its crystallization by ultra-fast-heating calorimetry

J. Orava, A. L. Greer, B. Gholipour, D. W. Hewak and C. E. Smith
Nature Materials, Vol.11, pp.279–283 (2012)

Research Experience

Assistant Professor of Photonics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada (2019-Present)
Senior Research Fellow, ORC Centre for Photonic Metamaterials & School of Chemistry, University of Southampton (UoS), UK, working with Prof Nikolay Zheludev and Prof Brian Hayden. (2016-2018)

Visitor, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton (UoS), 2015.

Project Leader, "Fiber drawing nanomanufacturing", Centre For Disruptive Photonic Technologies (CDPT), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, working with Prof Cesare Soci. (2013-2016)

Research Fellow, "Ion implantation into amorphous semiconductors", ORC, UoS, UK (2012-2013)

Education

PhD in Optoelectronics, Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton, UK

Thesis: “Novel Chalcogenide Optoelectronic and Nanophotonic Information processing devices” Supervisor : Prof Dan Hewak.

MSc in Nanoelectronics (With Distinction), Electronics and Computer Science Department, UoS

Thesis: Autonomous propulsion of multi walled carbon nanotubes using enzymatic functionalisation for directed drug delivery

Bachelor of Engineering (BEng with Hons), in Electronics. Electronics and Computer Science Department, UoS

Dissertation: Feasibility study and Prototyping wireless sensor networks for the purpose of specific environmental sensing of variables inside continental oil pipelines.

Centre for Photonic Metamaterials

2016

Teaching

ECE 210: Introduction to Digital Logic Design

ECE 457: Microfabrication and Devices

ECE 770: Advanced Topics in Nanoscale Optics

Awards

Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award 2020

Shortlisted for University of Southampton Vice-Chancellors award for contributions to the

university as an early career researcher (2017).

Paper "Organometallic perovskite metasurfaces", chosen as back cover of Advanced Materials

journal (2017)

Paper “All-dielectric phase change metasurface”, chosen as Editos Pick in Appled Physics

Letters journal. Also widely covered in other sources including Physics World (2016).

Paper “Amorphous metal sulphide microfibers enable photonic synapses” selected as

Frontispeice cover of Advanced Optical Materials and selected as “Best of 2015” in the

journal (2015).

Prestigious UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council ICT Pioneer Award Winner, 2011.

Invited to present my work at the UK Times Cheltenham International Science Festival, 2011. (one

of only 3 PhD students nationwide).

Winner of Second Year PhD Talks, ORC, University of Southampton, 2011.

Shortlisted for Set for Britain Young Scientist Award (now called STEM for Britain) in Physics and

Engineering, 2010.

University of Southampton ECS Academic Excellence and Achievement Award, 2006.

Other services

Editorial Board Member: Institute of Physics (IOP) Journal of Optics & Wiley Advanced Photonics Research
Program Committee Member: SPIE Nanoscience - Metamaterials & Metadevices 2019.
Journal Referee: Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Nature Communications, Nature Scientific reports, Optical materials express, Journal of Applied Physics D: Applied Physics, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Optics express, IEEE Photonic Technology Letters, Applied Optics, Materials Research Express, Journal of lightwave technologies amongst others.