Our group research focuses on the fundamental study of light-matter interaction and its applications in information processing, optical sensing, and energy conversion. Three main research directions are:

• engineering of thermal radiation
• quantum plasmonics and nanophotonics
• time modulation and nonlinear optics

1. Engineering of thermal radiation

Thermal radiation is a ubiquitous and fundamental process by which all objects at non-zero temperatures radiate energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. Even though thermal radiation has been well known since the century-old Planck's law, its applications in energy harvesting, radiative cooling, and sensing have led to recently renewed research interest on this topic (see our review article: "Nanophotonic engineering of far-field thermal emitters." Nat. Materials (2019)). We are interested in exploring the physics of thermal radiation from nanostructured objects and developing new thermal-radiation-based technologies for advanced sensing, material characterization, and mid-infrared light sources.

Related publication:

• Y. Xiao, et al., "Super-Planckian emission can't really be "thermal"", Nat. Photonics 16, 397-401 (2022)
• Y. Xiao, et al., "Planck spectroscopy", Laser Photonics Rev. 15 (10) 2170051 (2021) (cover article)
• Y. Xiao, et al., "Precision measurements of temperature-dependent and nonequilibrium thermal emitters", Laser Photonics Rev. 14 (8) 1900443 (2020)
• Y. Xiao, et al., "Depth thermography: non-invasive 3D temperature profiling using infrared thermal emission", ACS Photonics 7, 853 (2020) (covered by Optics & Photonics News; Phys.org; Science Daily)
• D. G. Baranov*, Y. Xiao*, et al., "Nanophotonic engineering of far-field thermal emitters", Nat. Mater. 18, 920 (2019) (*equal contribution)
• Y. Xiao, et al., "Nanosecond mid-infrared pulse generation via modulated emissivity", Light: Sci. Appl. 8, 51 (2019) (cover article)
• Y. Xiao, et al., "Measuring thermal emission near room temperature using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy", Phys. Rev. Appl. 11, 014026 (2019)