Peter Rakich

Peter Rakich's picture
Associate Professor of Applied Physics
BCT 407
203-432-9256
Research Areas: 
Condensed Matter Physics
Research Type: 
Experimentalist
Current Projects: 

Radiation Pressure Induced Photon-Phonon Coupling at Nanoscales, Self-Adaptive Optomechanical Systems and Open-System Energetics, Novel Laser Sources Based on Photon-Phonon Interactions

Research : 

The Rakich group focuses on experimental nonlinear optics and spectroscopy. Research areas include: the study of natural and artificial forms of optical nonlinearity in nanostructured effective media; the dynamics and evolution of nonlinear systems at new time and length scales; optical forces and energetics in nanoscale systems; nonlinear nano-optomechanical interactions.

Education: 
Ph.D. MIT
Selected Publications: 
  • P. Rakich, C. Reinke, R. Camacho, P. Davids, and Z. Wang, “Giant Enhancement of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in the Subwavelength Limit,” Physical Review X, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 011008, Jan. 2012.

  • P. T. Rakich, Z. Wang, and P. Davids, “Scaling of optical forces in dielectric waveguides: rigorous connection between radiation pressure and dispersion.,” Optics letters, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 217–9, Jan. 2011.

  • P. T. Rakich, P. Davids, and Z. Wang, “Tailoring optical forces in waveguides through radiation pressure and electrostrictive forces.,” Optics express, vol. 18, no. 14, pp. 14439–53, Jul. 2010.

  • P. T. Rakich, M. a. Popović, M. Soljačić, and E. P. Ippen, “Trapping, corralling and spectral bonding of optical resonances through optically induced potentials,” Nature Photonics, vol. 1, no. 11, pp. 658–665, Nov. 2007.

  • P. T. Rakich, Y. Fink, and M. Soljacić, “Efficient mid-IR spectral generation via spontaneous fifth-order cascaded-Raman amplification in silica fibers.,” Optics letters, vol. 33, no. 15, pp. 1690–2, Aug. 2008.

  • P. T. Rakich, M. S. Dahlem, S. Tandon, M. Ibanescu, M. Soljacic, G. S. Petrich, J. D. Joannopoulos, L. A. Kolodziejski, and E. P. Ippen, “Achieving centimetre-scale supercollimation in a large-area two-dimensional photonic crystal,” Nature Materials, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 93–96, Feb. 2006.

Patents: 
  • P. Rakich and M. Popovic, “Controlling optical resonances via optically induced potentials,” US Patent 7,583,874, 2009.
  • P. Rakich, M. Soljacic, and Y. Fink, “Optimized cascaded raman fiber-based laser source for high efficiency mid-infrared spectral generation,” US Patent 8,189,257, 2012.
  • M. Ibanescu, E. Reed, P.T. Rakich, S.G. Johnson, E.P. Ippen, J.D. Joannopoulos, M. Soljacic, R.E. Hamam, Efficient terahertz sources by optical rectification in photonic crystals and metamaterials exploiting tailored transverse dispersion relations, 2007, US Patent Number - US 7421171 B2.
  • P.T. Rakich, P. Davids, Z. Wang, R. Camacho, I. El-kady, R.H. Olsson, C.M. Reinke, Nano-Optomechanical Transducer, 2010, US Patent Number - US8600200 B1.
  • P.T. Rakich, Ultralow loss cavities and waveguides via radiation cancellation, 2011, US Patent Number -US 8625939 B1.