Optical trapping is used to trap single nano to micron-sized particles in an optical field. Optical matter forms when multiple particles in the optical field interact with each other electodynamically and form organzied arrays. Optical matter exhibits novel non-equilibrium phenomenon such as nonreciprocal interactions and negative torque.
Plasmonics is the study of light-matter interactions in metals, especially metallic nanoparticles at visible or infrared frequencies. Specially designed plasmonic nanostructures can be created that have novel optical properties, such as optical magnetism. A long-standing goal is to create negative index meta-materials out of such plasmonic structures.
Granular materials are a large collection of objects that interact via hard collisions, such as sand or cereal. The complexity of granular systems comes from the large number of objects and the complex force networks that form, which causes novel dynamics such as pattern formation and jamming.
I write programs and software libraries to solve problems in the physical sciences. In my work flow, I utilize Python for data analysis and visualization. For optimal performance, I use C++ in conjuction with pybind11 to create a pure Python interface.