Ertugrul Cubukcu's Webpage

I am currently a postdoctoral scholar in Zhang Lab (aka XLab) at University of California, Berkeley. I have recently obtained my PhD degree in applied physics from Harvard. There, I was in Federico Capasso's group. Before US I was at Bilkent University in Turkey. Back home I did my MS research on photonic crystals and left-handed materials, where we experimentally demonstrated for the first time the superlens, a lens that can focus light beyond the diffraction limit, with a photonic crystal that exhibits negative refraction at certain frequencies. At Harvard my research was in the field of nanooptics, in particular plasmonics,  where I developed a novel plasmonic device, namely plasmonic laser antenna, that can focus light down to a 20 nm intense spot. MIT Technology Review announced our invention as one of the 10 emerging technologies of 2007. 

Selected Publications:

1)  Plasmonic laser antenna
      E. Cubukcu, E. A. Kort, K. B. Crozier, and F. Capasso,
      Appl. Phys. Lett., 89, 093120 (2006).
2)  Differential near-field scanning optical microscopy
       A. Ozcan, E. Cubukcu, A. Bilenca, K. B. Crozier, B. E. Bouma,
       F. Capasso, and G. J. Tearney, Nano Lett., 6, 2609 (2006).
3)  Photonic crystals as negative refractive materials
       E. Cubukcu, K. Aydin, S. Foteinopoulou, C. M. Soukoulis,
       and E. Ozbay, Nature, 423, 604 (2003).
4)  Subwavelength resolution in a two-dimensional photonic
       crystal based superlens
       E. Cubukcu, K. Aydin, S. Foteinopoulou, C. M. Soukoulis,
       and E. Ozbay, Phys. Rev. Lett., 91, 207401 (2003).
5)  Raman injection laser
       M. Troccoli, A. Belyanin, F. Capasso, E. Cubukcu,
       D. L. Sivco, and A. Y. Cho, Nature, 433, 845 (2005).

Some press highlights featuring my work:

1) MIT Technology Review, New Lasers Peer into Cells
2) Applied Physics Letters Cover Feature, Plasmonic quantum cascade laser antenna
3) EEtimes.com, Optical antenna helps QC laser hit the spot
4) Photonics.com, QC Nanoantenna Demo'd
5) Nature Photonics News&Views, Optical antennas for sensing
6) MIT Technology Review, How to Burn a Three Terabyte CD
7) Newsweek, A Library on a Disc?
8) Science Daily, New Laser Could Lead To Higher Density DVDs, More Powerful Microscopes
9) Laser Focus World, MICROSCOPY: Plasmonic laser antenna sharpens nanovision
10) Physics News Update, Laser Optical Antenna
11) Advanced Nanotechnology, Nanoantennas and superlens : both could focus light 20+ times better
12) Laser Focus World, Photonic crystals produce negative refraction
13) Optics and Photonics News, New Possibilities Through Negative Refraction
14) Harvard Gazette, Harvard scientists develop 'plug and play' laser

Contact Info:

University of California
3112 Etcheverry Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740