"We can focus coherent x-ray beams and discover the structure and composition of matter nanometer by nanometer."

 

I am a physicist who develops instrumentation to measure and control light for science. Specifically, I focus on x-ray and short-wavelength beamlines and optical systems, and optical techniques that reveal the nanometer-scale structure of materials, including elemental and chemical compositions, and the electronic and magnetic properties that give rise to physical characteristics. 

In my role as the Photon Science Development Group Lead at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron radiation facility, I oversee a team of nearly 40 scientists, engineers, and technicians developing experimental systems, tools, techniques, computation, and infrastructure that supports a great diversity of users and programs.

Since 1993, my research has been dedicated to short-wavelength extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and x-ray light. This light cannot be seen by the naked eye, yet it is so strongly reactive that it does not propagate more than a few millimeters through the air before becoming extinguished. That extreme reactivity makes it possible to create fantastic probes of material and chemical properties.

All of the conventional elements associated with visible-light optics (lenses, mirrors, prisms, etc.) have to be re-envisioned, re-engineered, and re-designed for highly specialized applications at short wavelengths. That is what I do.

My personal research expands the tools and methods for sensing and controlling coherent short-wavelength light. In particular, adaptive x-ray optics (AXO), wavefront-sensing interferometry techniques, diffractive optics, photon diagnostics, metrology, and the fundamentals of beamline optical elements and systems.