Lasers, photonics, and biophotonics

The UB Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics (ILPB) combines an outstanding group of engineering and science faculty with world-class facilities to perform research with a common focus on light.

At ILPB, faculty from engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine team up to address research opportunities in nanophotonics/ nanoelectronics, spintronics/spin photonics, nonlinear optics, and biophotonics. Following are a few examples of cutting-edge research and accompanying results.

Combining the expertise of Albert Titus, assistant professor of electrical engineering, in analog VLSI design and Alexander Cartwright, associate professor of electrical engineering, in photonic devices with that of Frank V. Bright, UB Distinguished Professor and A. Conger Goodyear Chair, in understanding fundamentals of molecular-based chemistry has led to the successful development of a suite of small, low-power biosensor prototypes.

A novel approach by the three researchers brings together Bright’s work in chemically responsive xerogels and Titus’s work with smart pixel detector technology to produce complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)–based detectors and data processing circuitry on a single integrated circuit. Cartwright makes his contribution through the development of new, addressable LED structures for improved optical excitation methods. Their initial device can detect and quantify the concentration of gaseous and dissolved oxygen. This success is the beginning of what is expected to become widely used biochemical detectors that are portable (about the size of a small cell phone) and require very little power.

Cartwright is also conducting research with Paras Prasad, SUNY Distinguished Professor of chemistry, electrical engineering, medicine, and physics. Together they are developing binary and ternary semiconductor nanoparticles with tunable opto-electronic properties. The benefits of semiconductor lasers and detectors, and high-speed digital integrated circuits are derived from the unique physical properties of compound semiconductors. Low-dimensional compound semiconductors are even more interesting because of size-dependent magnetic, optical, and electrical properties with respect to charge confinement; therefore, this research area has become the focus of many investigations seeking to produce semiconductor quantum dots, nanoparticles with the lowest possible polydispersity. Colloidal chemistry is a promising route to produce compound semiconductor nanoparticles of nearly uniform size. Cartwright and Prasad have successfully developed a process for the synthesis of GaP and InP semiconductor nanoparticles.

Funding sources for associated faculty include Corning, GE, Intel, Kodak, Motorola, Raytheon, Siemens, Xerox, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. Army Research Office, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.

To date, the collective effort of ILPB faculty has:

  • Attracted nearly $30 million in federal, state, and industrial support in the institute’s short existence

  • Won and implemented a National Science Foundation–Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship (IGERT) grant for Biophotonics: Materials and Applications

  • Spun off three companies

More than 25 professors, many of whom are UB Engineering faculty, participate in the institute’s research program. Paras N. Prasad, executive director, heads the institute. UB Engineering faculty members Alexander Cartwright, director of the lasers and photonics division, and Mark Swihart, deputy director of the materials division, assist in the institute’s administration.