Optics and Photonics Research
CREOL faculty, scientists and students pioneer collaborative and multi-disciplinary research that enables impactful technologies for widespread and cross-cutting applications. Home to world-class research centers and cutting-edge facilities, CREOL is renowned as a global leader in optics and photonics. Research at the college is enriched by the high-tech industrial ecosystem in central Florida that provides synergistic partnership opportunities.
Laser Science and Technology
Once described as a “solution looking for a problem,” lasers have found themselves as a ubiquitous piece of technology found in a vast array of technologies. The ability to generate a single frequency beam of intense light with either a narrow spatial or temporal bandwidth has created new frontiers to be explored in every scientific field. Lasers have been one of the central technological developments responsible for revolutions in communications, defense, manufacturing, and medicine. Today, lasers are everywhere: from research laboratories to our personal vehicles; from Mars to the moons of Jupiter; from medical clinics to the places we shop, work, and live.
Research Groups
Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
Professor
21st Century Scholar Chair
Associate Professor
Research Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
UCF Trustee Chair
Pegasus Professor
Professor
Dean & Director
Emeritus Professor
Emeritus Dean and Professor
FPCE Research Professor
Research Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Fiber Optics
Fiber optics allows us to transport and distribute optically encoded information over long distances with low losses as well as to collect and manipulate optical signals. Advances in optical fiber have revolutionized the fields of communication and information processing and continued research in materials science and optical engineering will aid in the development of next generation devices. In addition to telecommunication, modern fibers can be found as an integral component in many applications such as lighting and display hardware, lasers, and sensors.
Research Groups
Professor
Professor
Pegasus Professor
Research Assistant Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
Professor
Nonlinear and Quantum Optics
Nonlinear optics deals with the behavior of intense light in media exhibiting nonlinear response to the applied optical field. It enables wavelength conversion and multiphoton absorption, and plays essential roles in optical telecommunication, nonlinear microscopy and spectroscopy, and attosecond science. Quantum optics is concerned with light-matter interaction phenomena requiring quantum-mechanical description. It includes processing of quantum information at the photon level, and supports applications ranging from ultrasensitive measurement and secure communication to computing.
Research Groups
Professor
Research Assistant Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
Dean & Director
Emeritus Professor
Emeritus Dean and Professor
Professor
Professor
Associate Professor
21st Century Scholar Chair
Professor, Associate Dean
Associate Professor
Research Professor
FPCE Endowed Professor
Research Professor
Integrated and Nano Photonics
Optoelectronics enables the bi-directional conversion of energy between photons and electrons to generate, absorb and manipulate light within the context of electronic systems. Example devices include LEDs, semiconductor lasers, modulators, photodetectors, and solar cells. Integrated photonics combines such passive and active devices to make optics seamlessly integrated with electronics to revolutionize communication, information processing, sensing and imaging systems.
Research Groups
UCF Trustee Chair
Research Associate Professor
Professor, Associate Dean
Professor
FPCE Research Professor
Research Associate Professor
FPCE Endowed Professor
Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
Professor
Associate Professor
Imaging and Display
Optical sensing, imaging, and display involve the acquisition, manipulation, and presentation of optical information by use of optical irradiance, phase, coherence, polarization, luminescence, in one or more dimensions. The research in this area synergizes device development and signal processing. Optical sensing and imaging have unique advantages in biomedical imaging and industrial metrology, due to the non-invasive and high-specific nature of the visible light; display technologies, including solid-state lighting and liquid crystal display, play an major role in today’s advancement in consumer electronics and entertainment industry.
Research Groups
Research Associate Professor
Research Associate Professor
21st Century Scholar Chair
Associate Professor
UCF Trustee Chair
UCF Trustee Chair
Professor
Associate Professor
UCF Distinguished Professor
Biophotonics
Biophotonics is a multidisciplinary research area where light-based methods are utilized to understand and manipulate biological processes. Research in this area involves development of novel techniques to diagnose and/or treat a variety of diseases.
Research Groups
Associate Professor
Membership Benefits
- Establishing a close association with this leading institute in optics, lasers, and photonics.
- Exposure to the latest research and developments in cutting edge technologies.
- Priority external access to CREOL’s nanofabrication facilities.
- Membership certificate or plaque for display in your facility.
- Availability of sophisticated measurement, test, and calibration facilities.
- Early notice of students approaching graduation (the next generation of experts in the field).
- Ability to post your job openings on our website (exclusive benefit for IA members).
- Close interactions with our faculty, each of whom are leaders in their fields.
- Opportunity to make presentations about your company and products to the faculty and students of the College.
- Opportunity to participate in our Industrial Advisory Board, a committee of our senior stakeholders that provides advice on the long-term direction of CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics.
- Copies of the College’s periodic newsletter, Highlights.
- Notification of seminars at the College.
- Opportunity for free presentation space at our annual Industrial Affiliates Symposium meeting (subject to availability).
- Several Web-based benefits, including linkage to your company’s web site from the College website.
- For companies who donate equipment, getting their hardware/software in the hands of some of the leading researchers – faculty and students– in the field provides visibility to future customer prospects and information on its impact in leading-edge research.
- Demonstration by the company of their support of The College Of Optics & Photonics, its research programs, and its effective corporate cooperation and partnership activities.
In addition, we use many mechanisms to give visibility to our Industrial Affiliates that can be valuable to them in marketing their products. Wherever possible, the level of the membership is indicated. Examples of current practices include:
- Special recognition at the annual Industrial Affiliates Symposium.
- Listing in other CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics publications, where appropriate, including on CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics website (with a link to the company’s website).
- Company name plaque prominently displayed in the entrance lobby of the CREOL building of CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics.
There are also many intangible benefits that accrue from association with this dynamic research and education institution. Among these are facilitated access to and collaboration with other specialized facilities within the University of Central Florida and the central Florida area. In addition to resources in the Center for Research & Education in Optics & Lasers (CREOL), and the Florida Photonics Center of Excellence (FPCE). UCF facilities include the following major research centers:
- Nano-Sciences & Technology Center (NSTC)
- Advanced Materials Characterization Facility (AMPAC)
- Materials Characterization Facility (MCF)
- Biomolecular Science Center
- Institute for Simulation and Training (IST)
- Center for Distributed Learning
- National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS)
- Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC)
- Florida Space Institute (FSI)
The College’s faculty and students play leading roles in both local and international professional associations and can provide effective introductions to the extensive network of industry and expertise to which CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics connects. Through the IA program, your company can also readily connect with other optics, photonics, and industrial organizations through local Florida organizations in which the College maintains an active participation, including the Florida Photonics Cluster (FPC), the Laser Institute of America (LIA), Florida High Technology Corridor Council (FHTCC), the UCF Technology Incubator — ranked #1 in the US in 2004 — and a large family of laser and optics companies in the Central Florida region.
Membership Levels
- Medallion Member. Any corporation or organization making a donation of $10,000 or more in cash annually.
- Corporate Member. Any corporation or organization that donates $5,000 in cash annually.
- Senior Member. Any corporation or organization of 200 employees or less that donates $3,000 in cash annually.
- Affiliate Member. Any corporation or organization of 100 employees or less that donates $1,500 in cash annually.
- Associate Member. Any corporation, or organization of 50 employees or less that donates $750 in cash annually.
To join the College of Optics and Photonics Industrial Affiliates Program, please fill out this Membership Application and you will be contacted with further information.
Membership in the Industrial Affiliates (IA) program provides to industrial corporations, organizations, and individuals many benefits, most of which are also of mutual benefit to The College of Optics and Photonics. One of these mutual benefits is the regular communication and contact the program provides between the research faculty and students at the College and the IA member company’s engineers and scientists who are developing new technologies and products for their business.