Robert Magnusson received a Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. After working several years in industry, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington where he established instructional and research programs in optics and developed major experimental facilities in photonics and nanotechnology. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington during 1998-2001 and Professor and Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut 2001-2006 where he is presently Professor. Since 2005, he has also been Chief Technology Officer of Resonant Sensors Incorporated, a small Texas company commercializing his inventions in sensor technology. He has served as associate editor of Applied Optics and Optical Engineering and as general chair for the Diffractive Optics and Micro Optics topical meeting. Current research interests include nanophotonics, periodic nanostructures, diffractive optics, waveguide optics, thin-film optics, integrated optics, nanolithography, and optical bio- and chemical sensors. With his students and colleagues, Prof. Magnusson has authored approximately 250 journal articles and conference papers. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering). He is a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.

Resonance effects in nanopatterned photonic-crystal films and their application in biosensors, tunable filters, and displays

Leaky waveguide modes arise on photonic-crystal films when an incident light beam couples to the layer system. This results in generation of a guided-mode resonance (GMR) field response in the spectrum. The resonance effect leads to dramatic redistribution of the diffracted energy and may manifest as sharp reflection and transmission peaks radiating from the structure. The operative physical processes are understood in terms of the photonic band structure and associated leaky-wave effects near the second stop band.

This effect is the basis for a host of new applications in the field of photonics and sensor technology. In particular, highly accurate biosensors can be implemented using this operational principle. The sensors are broadly applicable in terms of materials, operating spectral regions, and design configurations. They are multifunctional as only the sensitizing surface layer needs to be chemically altered to detect different species. As no foreign chemical tags are required in operation, unperturbed biochemical processes can be quantified in real time. Due to predicted low cost, high integratability, flexible designs, and high performance, this technology can significantly impact the pharmaceutical and homeland security marketplace.

Another functionality associated with the GMR concept is spectral tunability achievable by perturbing the structural parameters (layer thickness, refractive index distribution, symmetry). Advances in nanoscale fabrication processes enable tuning of GMR devices using nano/microelectromechanical methods. Applications such as tunable filters, variable reflectors, modulators, and tunable pixels appear feasible with wide potential utility. It is envisioned that these devices will be useful as pixels in new, planar, ultra thin spatial light modulators for display applications as well as in other systems including tunable multispectral detectors, multispectral analysis systems, polarization discrimination and analysis systems, and tunable lasers.