February 27 seminar: Stavroula Foteinopoulou

February 27, 2026

Some extreme photonic effects with 1D structuring: transmission asymmetry, reconfigurable beam-steering and mid-infrared super-prisms

Stavroula Foteinopoulou, University of New Mexico

3:00 pm, UNM Centennial Engineering Center, Room 1026
Online Guests: Contact Prof. Santhanam <bsanthan@unm.edu> for a Zoom link

Abstract: Diffraction gratings are ubiquitous in optical set-ups for integrated photonics owing to their capability to transform the lateral momentum of light thus allowing to engineer the in-coupling and out-coupling of optical beams. Here, I will discuss the fundamental underlying principles that bring new exotic capabilities to these traditional components. In particular, I will show that a strongly asymmetric transmission can be obtained from a diffraction grating with pyramidal-shaped elements. Additionally, I will demonstrate on-off switching of negative beam-steering for MWIR light by incorporating into the diffraction grating a suitable non-volatile phase-change material. Finally, I will demonstrate how a prism made of a judiciously designed periodic multilayer, comprising a reststrahlen material, deflects MWIR light at large negative angles up to -90 deg.

Bio: Dr. Stavroula Foteinopoulou is a Research Professor (LAT) with the ECE Dept. at UNM. She received her Ph.D. from Iowa State U. and has held positions in U. of Namur (Belgium), FORTH (Greece), and U. of Exeter (UK). Her research focuses on theory and design of photonic platforms for extraordinary light control across the EM spectrum. She holds one US patent and has authored more than 40 journal publications and conference papers, which to-date received more than 3800 citations (source Google Scholar). She is a Fellow of SPIE and serves as the feature editor for the Optica (formerly OSA) Optical Materials Express Journal, as well as an associate editor for the Journal of the European Optical Society: Rapid Publications. Also, she has been the Chair of the annual SPIE conference on Active Photonic Platforms for more than 10 years. In 2016, she was honored by the American Physical Society (APS) as an outstanding referee, which is a lifetime recognition.