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NanoLight

Nanophotonics and Optoelectronics Laboratory at Penn State

Professor Xingjie Ni receives Faculty Scholar Medal for outstanding scholarly, creative achievement

Professor Xingjie Ni receives Faculty Scholar Medal for outstanding scholarly, creative achievement

Professor Xingjie Ni is one of six University faculty members who received a 2026 Faculty Scholar Medals for Outstanding Achievement. This prestigious ...

Nonlinear optical computing powers next-generation artificial intelligence

Nonlinear optical computing powers next-generation artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has brought remarkable advances across science and engineering, but the growing computational and energy demands of modern AI systems have ...

Four NanoLight group members receive scholarship and awards for excellence in research and graduate studies.

Four NanoLight group members receive scholarship and awards for excellence in research and graduate studies.

On April 20th, 2026, the Department of Electrical Engineering held the 2026 Electrical Engineering Undergraduate & Graduate Spring Awards Ceremony in Robb Hall ...

Building a micro citadel for imaging at trillions of frames per second

Building a micro citadel for imaging at trillions of frames per second

In this year's annual scientific and artistic visual competition (MVC 15), Lidan Zhang, senior Ph.D student of NanoLight Group, won the third ...

Senior group members of NanoLight awarded with recognition of outstanding doctoral research and dissertation excellence

Senior group members of NanoLight awarded with recognition of outstanding doctoral research and dissertation excellence

On April 19th, 2023, the Penn State Department of Electrical Engineering hosted the annual Spring Award Ceremony in the Robb Hall at ...

Creating Bright Single Photon Sources with Metasurfaces for Quantum Information Technology

Creating Bright Single Photon Sources with Metasurfaces for Quantum Information Technology

Recently, quantum information technologies (QIT) have been developing very actively and quickly. The epitaxial quantum dot (EQD) is a promising candidate as ...

Unprecedented 80-mm metalens images the Moon, marking a milestone towards mass production and industrial applications

Unprecedented 80-mm metalens images the Moon, marking a milestone towards mass production and industrial applications

Metasurfaces-based lenses, a.k.a. metalenses, has been considered a promising platform for next-generation imaging systems. However, a major challenge for current metalenses is ...

Marriage between quantum symmetry and spatiotemporal modulation innovates the laser design beyond monochromatic emission

Marriage between quantum symmetry and spatiotemporal modulation innovates the laser design beyond monochromatic emission

Quantum symmetry, especially parity-time (PT) symmetry, has been widely explored in nanostructures and waveguides for developing a new generation of photonic devices, ...

When metasurface meets integrated photonics: guided wave-driven metasurface for flexible control of free-space light

When metasurface meets integrated photonics: guided wave-driven metasurface for flexible control of free-space light

A new technology that can allow for better light control without requiring large, difficult-to-integrate materials and structures has been developed by Penn ...

Metasurface with Space-Time Phase Modulation Enables Nonreciprocal Light Reflection

Metasurface with Space-Time Phase Modulation Enables Nonreciprocal Light Reflection

Our group developed a new type of time-variant optical metasurface with which phase modulation in both space and time is imposed on ...

Professor Xingjie Ni selected as one of eight NASA Early Career Faculty for Space Technology Research

Professor Xingjie Ni selected as one of eight NASA Early Career Faculty for Space Technology Research

NASA has selected Prof. Xingjie Ni as one of eight Early Career Faculty for Space Technology Research in 2017 for the study ...

Professor Xingjie Ni named one of five inaugural Moore Inventor Fellows

Professor Xingjie Ni named one of five inaugural Moore Inventor Fellows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtGuRm2h7ZE   Prof. Xingjie Ni has been named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This is the first year ...

Metasurface Holograms Reconstruct High-Resolution 3D images

Metasurface Holograms Reconstruct High-Resolution 3D images

Holography, a revolutionary 3D imaging technique, has been developed for storing and recovering the amplitude and phase of light scattered by objects. ...

Metasurface Creates Ultrathin Tiny Planar Lenses

Metasurface Creates Ultrathin Tiny Planar Lenses

We experimentally demonstrate the focusing of visible light with ultra-thin, planar metasurfaces made of concentrically perforated, 30-nm-thick gold films. The perforated nano-voids ...

Metasurface Bends Broadband Light into Arbitrary Directions

Metasurface Bends Broadband Light into Arbitrary Directions

The precise manipulation of a propagating wave using phase control is a fundamental building block of optical systems. The wavefront of a ...

Professor Xingjie Ni receives Faculty Scholar Medal for outstanding scholarly, creative achievement

Professor Xingjie Ni receives Faculty Scholar

Apr 24, 2026 1
Nonlinear optical computing powers next-generation artificial intelligence

Nonlinear optical computing powers next-generation artificial

Apr 23, 2026 2
Four NanoLight group members receive scholarship and awards for excellence in research and graduate studies.

Four NanoLight group members receive scholarship

Apr 22, 2026 3
Building a micro citadel for imaging at trillions of frames per second

Building a micro citadel for imaging

Jul 25, 2023 4
Senior group members of NanoLight awarded with recognition of outstanding doctoral research and dissertation excellence

Senior group members of NanoLight awarded

Jul 25, 2023 5
Creating Bright Single Photon Sources with Metasurfaces for Quantum Information Technology

Creating Bright Single Photon Sources with

Jun 1, 2023 6
Unprecedented 80-mm metalens images the Moon, marking a milestone towards mass production and industrial applications

Unprecedented 80-mm metalens images the Moon,

Apr 27, 2023 7
Marriage between quantum symmetry and spatiotemporal modulation innovates the laser design beyond monochromatic emission

Marriage between quantum symmetry and spatiotemporal

Nov 9, 2021 8
When metasurface meets integrated photonics: guided wave-driven metasurface for flexible control of free-space light

When metasurface meets integrated photonics: guided

Oct 14, 2021 9
Metasurface with Space-Time Phase Modulation Enables Nonreciprocal Light Reflection

Metasurface with Space-Time Phase Modulation Enables

May 12, 2020 10
Professor Xingjie Ni selected as one of eight NASA Early Career Faculty for Space Technology Research

Professor Xingjie Ni selected as one

Oct 24, 2017 11
Professor Xingjie Ni named one of five inaugural Moore Inventor Fellows

Professor Xingjie Ni named one of

Nov 8, 2016 12
Metasurface Holograms Reconstruct High-Resolution 3D images

Metasurface Holograms Reconstruct High-Resolution 3D images

Dec 7, 2015 13
Metasurface Creates Ultrathin Tiny Planar Lenses

Metasurface Creates Ultrathin Tiny Planar Lenses

Dec 7, 2015 14
Metasurface Bends Broadband Light into Arbitrary Directions

Metasurface Bends Broadband Light into Arbitrary

Dec 7, 2015 15

About Us

The prime goal of our laboratory is to explore the frontiers of science and technology in tailoring and manipulating light-matter interactions. We strive to pursue solid experimental work in addition to theoretical modeling. Our research focuses on the interaction of light with nanostructures and nanomaterials that leads to exotic electromagnetic properties, which could be applied to the field of photonics, metamaterials, plasmonics, quantum optics, optoelectronics, imaging, sensing, and biology.