University of California-Irvine has received $2 million from the W.M. Keck Foundation in Los Angeles to build a “photonic” microscope that can detect and examine “dark states in matter.”
This matter can’t be seen with ordinary light. Photonic microscopy uses a laser to overcome that obstacle.
UCI electrical engineers Filippo Capolino and Kumar Wickramasinghe and UCI chemists Ara Apkarian and Eric Potma plan to use the grant money to build a photonic microscope.
The microscope would let researchers study material properties previously inaccessible to them. Possible areas of application include solar energy and electricity, data storage, and pharmaceutical research, the school said.
The Keck Foundation was started more than 60 years ago by the late founder of the Superior Oil Co. It grants money for medical, science, and engineering research.
