MIT MRSEC Seed funding supports discovery of the principle of omnidirectional reflectivity :

1. Fundamental Science Materials Development Professors Fink, Joannopoulos and Thomas start OmniGuide, Inc. in 2000 MIT MRSEC Seed funding supports discovery of the principle of omnidirectional reflectivity: simple multilayer dielectric film structures can be designed to exhibit perfect reflectivity for any incident angle and polarization of light Researchers in IRG-I develop a paradigm-breaking class of multi-material photonic band gap fibers: hollow optical/electronic fibers for CO2 laser transmission Fundamental MIT MRSEC research enables life-saving technologyMichael F. Rubner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, DMR 0819762 “External reflection from omnidirectional dielectric mirror fibers” S.D. Hart et al., Science 296 (2002) “A dielectric omnidirectional reflector” Y. Fink et al., Science 282 (1998) Technological Impact Life-saving Tools IRG-Iresearch reveals wide range of applications for hollow fibers, including high power laser transport for noninvasive surgery OmniGuide develops tool for invasive surgery November 2004: minimally invasive procedure performed on a patient with near-total obstruction of the larynx and trachea “Wavelength-scalable hollow optical fibers with large photonic bandgaps for CO2 laser transmission” B.Temelkuran et al., Nature 420 (2002) “Metal insulator semiconductor optoelectronic fibers” M. Bayindir et al., Nature 431 (2004) December 2008: surgeon uses the OmniGuide BeamPath CO2 Laser-Fiber System to remove a previously inoperable brain tumor and save the life of a 19 year old patient. Story profiled by Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s “Vital Signs” on Jan. 29, 2009 This research was partially funded by the NSF MRSEC Program (awards DMR-98-08941and DMR-02-13282) at the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT