Lior Michaeli

Dr. Lior Michaeli is a Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology, affiliated with the Atwater group. His research focuses on optical dynamic control of macroscopic objects through radiation pressure, contributing to the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative's goal of laser-driven lightsails for space exploration.

• Education: BSc, MSc, and PhD in Physics from Tel Aviv University.
• Supervisors: Prof. Tal Ellenbogen and Prof. Haim Suchowski (PhD).

Research Interests include metasurfaces, nonlinear optical effects, and light-matter interactions. His work extends collective dynamics formalism to nonlinear optical regimes and explores radiation pressure applications for spacecraft propulsion. Current projects involve silicon nitride metagratings and self-stabilizing lightsails.

Scientific Trends from his publications highlight advancements in third harmonic generation, coherence-aware diffractive networks, and high-quality factor metasurfaces, bridging photonic manipulation with aerospace engineering. Key subfields include optical bistability, surface lattice resonances, and tunable topological singularities.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Fulbright Scholar

Labs & Teams: Works at Caltech's Atwater group, collaborating on the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative for space exploration through photonic propulsion.