Zhenyu Li

Research in Professor Zhenyu Li's Nanophotonics and Microfluidics Lab focuses on the integration of nanophotonics and microfluidics, i.e. optofluidics, for biomedical applications. In optofluidic devices, nano-scale fluidic structures not only enable the on-chip integration of photonic and microfluidic functions, but also give rise to novel, reconfigurable nanophotonic devices. Recent advancements in nanofabrication and micro/nanofluidics have made it possible to manipulate liquid at length scales comparable to or even smaller than the wavelength of light, allowing the realization of liquid-based adaptive nanophotonic devices. At the same time, there is a growing need to integrate photonic components with fluidic functions in the same microsystem to build miniature optical sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy devices for medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and bioterrorism detection. As a nascent field, optofluidics offers many opportunities awaiting exploration and holds great potential to help realize the long-sought dream of integrated lab-on-a-chip systems.