Optics Research Ideas for Simons Summer Program

[Wolfram13]

Hi, I'm a high school junior and was recently accepted into the Simons Summer Research Program at Stony Brook University. I have seven weeks during the summer to select a project and carry out experiments, possibly entering my research in the Intel Science Talent Search. I will be working in the laser teaching center with optics.

This is my first real research project, so I don't really know how to go about selecting a project. My mentor has given me some advice and I'll work with him in the final selection process, but at this point I'm just brainstorming ideas. I would be grateful if anyone could help me think of project ideas.

My current ideas include:
-Some exploration of gravitational lensing
-Something involving metamaterials with negative indexes of refraction (I have no idea what)
-Exploration of some properties of optical vortices

As you can see, these are rather vague, and any refinement would be greatly appreciated, as would any new ideas.

Thanks in advance for your help. :)

 

[Andy Resnick]

What ideas has your mentor suggested? If you are picking a topic outside of your mentor's experience, you are making the project much more difficult for yourself.

That said, your list is pretty much what popped into my head when I read the subject line. Are you interested in constructing/fabricating something, modeling behavior of a system, or something else?

 

[Wolfram13]

My instructor has been running the Laser Teaching Center for eleven years, and has seen many optics projects, so I'm not too worried about being outside of his comfort zone, and he has suggested all sorts of things from lens properties to interference patterns to modeling the amount of light given off by glow-in-the-dark stars.

As to your second question I think that at this point I would be most interested in modeling a system.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Modeling metamaterials (i.e. photonic bandgaps) could be interesting. So would optical vortices- those are experimentally accessible, so you'd have a nice hook in case you wanted to do some follow-up work in the lab.

 

[rezeew]

Hi there! Congratulations on being accepted into the Simons Summer Research Program and for having the opportunity to work in the laser teaching center with optics. Your current ideas are definitely interesting and have a lot of potential. Here are some additional suggestions for optics research ideas that you could consider:

1. Investigating the properties of light polarization and its applications in communication and imaging technologies.
2. Studying the phenomenon of total internal reflection and its applications in fiber optics and optical devices.
3. Exploring the concept of optical coherence tomography and its use in medical imaging.
4. Investigating the properties of diffraction and its application in the design of diffraction gratings.
5. Studying the properties of photonic crystals and their potential use in optical devices.
6. Investigating the concept of quantum optics and its applications in quantum computing and cryptography.
7. Exploring the use of lasers in holography and its potential applications in security and data storage.
8. Studying the optical properties of nanoparticles and their potential use in biomedical imaging and drug delivery.
9. Investigating the concept of nonlinear optics and its applications in ultrafast laser technology.
10. Exploring the use of optical tweezers for manipulating and studying microscopic objects.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. It's important to choose a project that interests you and aligns with your mentor's expertise. I would recommend discussing your ideas with your mentor and seeing which one they think would be the most feasible and impactful. Good luck with your research project!