Alejandro Rodriguez

Position
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Role
Director of Education Program MIRTHE+
Office Phone
Assistant
Office
B318 Engineering Quadrangle
Education
  • Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010
  • B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006
Advisee(s):
Bio/Description
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associated Faculty in the Princeton Materials Institute (PMI)

Advances in nano-fabrication over the past few decades have enabled the study of material structures with features at the scale or smaller than the electromagnetic wavelength. These engineered materials (photonic crystals, plasmonic nanoresonators, and metamaterials) can lead to a wide range of unusual optical behaviors (photonic bandgaps, ballistic transport, ultra-slow propagation, and negative refraction) which allow unprecedented control and tunability over the properties of light.

Our group's focus is on applying and developing theoretical and computational techniques to explore the ways in which complex nanostructures can lead to new optical phenomena and devices. Current and past research interests include:

  • Fluctuation phenomena (Casimir and van der Waals forces, thermal radiation, spontaneous emission)
  • Nonlinear optics
  • Fundamental limits on optical phenomena
  • Large-scale photonic optimization (inverse design)
  • Topological photonics

 

 

Selected Publications
  1. Prashanth Venkataram, Jan Hermann, Alexander Tkatchenko, and Alejandro W. Rodriguez. Unifying microscopic and continuum treatments of van der Waals and Casimir interactions. Physical Review Letters, 118:266802, 2017

  2. L. Tang, M. Wang, C. Y. Ng, M. Nikolic, C. T. Chan, A. W. Rodriguez, and H. B. Chan. Measurement of non-monotonic Casimir forces between silicon nanostructures. Nature Photonics (Advanced Online Publication), 11:97-101, 2017.

  3. Zin Lin, Marco Loncar, and Alejandro W. Rodriguez. Topology optimization of multitrack ring resonators and 2d microcavities for nonlinear frequency conversion. Optics Letters, 42(14):2818-2822, 2017.

  4. Chinmay Khandekar and Alejandro W. Rodriguez. Near-field thermal upconversion through a Kerr medium. Optics Express, 25(19):23164-23180, 2017.

  5. Konstantin Klopstech, Nils Konne, Svend-Age Biehs, Alejandro W. Rodriguez, Ludwig Worbes, David Hellmann, and Achim Kittel. Giant heat transfer in the crossover regime between conduction and radiation. Nature Communications, 8(14475), 2017.

Google Scholar Profile

Honors and Awards:

  • Presidential Early Career Award, 2019
  • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Young Investigator Award, 2016
  • Princeton SEAS E. Lawrence Keys, Jr./Emerson Electric Co. Faculty Award, 2016
  • National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, 2015
  • National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, 2014
  • MIT Infinite Kilometer Award, 2012
  • World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shaper, 2011
  • Fredrick A. Howes Scholar in Computational Science, 2011
Research Areas
Applied Physics
Materials & Devices
Photonics