Abstract: Fibers, objects having long lengths, large aspect ratios, and axially continuous internal geometries, are used in many applications across a wide range of industries. In optics we are most familiar with fibers for their use in telecommunications, but recent decades have seen incredible growth in research focused on advanced fibers having applications ranging from communications to optogenetics to textiles. In this talk, I will give an overview of the work I have done on fiber engineering and fiber-based technologies over the last 12 years at CREOL. The topics covered will be fiber-based nonlinear optics, fibers as a platform for particle fabrication, surface coatings for optical scattering, cables for underwater fiber optic communication, in-fiber semiconductor devices, and e-textiles.
Biography: Dr. Joshua J. Kaufman received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 2008 and his Ph.D. in Optics at the University of Central Florida in 2014. He is currently a Research Scientist at CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, UCF. He has pioneered a new method for fabricating micro- and nano-particles utilizing a fluid instability in multi-material fibers (published in Nature and PNAS). He has extensive experience in fiber fabrication, including fiber drawing from low-temperature materials, fiber drawing from high-temperature silicate materials, fiber spinning, fiber thread coating, and fiber extrusion with metal-core injection. Among the polymer-based fibers, he has fabricated numerous fiber structures that contain functional dopants, such as fluorescence, magnetic nanoparticles, antibiotics, titania nanoparticles, and thermochromic pigments. His current primary research functions include the design, fabrication, and materials characterization of novel fibers, cables, films, and particles for wearable technology, maritime fiber optic communications, surface treatments, and biomedical applications. His work on electrically controlled color-changing fabrics, for which he is the lead researcher and project manager, has been featured on CNET and CNBC.
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