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Aaswath P. Raman
Ph.D. Candidate, Applied Physics, Fan Group, Stanford University, 2007 -
S.M., Computer Science, Harvard University, 2006
A.B. cum laude, Physics and Astronomy
& Astrophysics, Harvard University, 2006
Research Interests | Publications | Awards & Fellowships | Work Experience
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| Research Interests
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Shanhui Fan's group, at the Ginzton Lab at Stanford. My general research interests include nanophotonics, photovoltaics, the theory and simulation of plasmonic structures and metamaterials, and quantum optics.
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My primary research goal is to apply ideas and techniques from nanoscale optics to making solar cells better and cheaper, from a fundamental physical perspective. This entails understanding and developing physical models of absorption enhancement in
thin solar cells, and using them to design optically nanostructured solar cell layers that are much better absorbers of light. I'm particularly motivated by considerations in thin-film and organic solar cells and am affiliated with the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics here at Stanford. Our recent paper established that conventional light trapping limits can be greatly exceeded in the nanophotonic regime (see below), and received some press.
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I also have a research program on probing loss mechanisms and energy behavior in metamaterials and metallic nanostructures, a topic that is of broad interest in communications, computing and imaging. Our publications in this area describe a way to get a complete modal picture of electromagnetic behavior in dispersive (in particular, metallic) nanostructures by solving for both EM and mechanical fields associated with electron motion in the dispersive material. We believe this formulation and its extensions will be of utility in studying and designing active plasmonic and metamaterial devices, in addition to more rigrously understanding optical loss in metamaterials.
I am also deeply interested in policy and design issues surrounding renewable energy and infrastructure development in both the developing and developed world; in particular, the potential for distributed energy technologies like photovoltaics to leapfrog over the paucity of traditional power/grid infrastructure in developing countries. Meeting our energy needs in a minimally-polluting, financially sound and inequity-reducing way is one of the great challenges of our time; I hope to contribute in some small way to this endeavor, scientifically and otherwise. Related to this interest, I've greatly enjoyed doing taking classes at the d.school (Institute of Design) and ME dept. here at Stanford and am pursuing a Ph.D. minor in Mechanical Engineering - Design Methodology.
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| Journal Publications
(9) Zongfu Yu, Aaswath Raman and Shanhui Fan, "Nanophotonic light-trapping theory for solar cells", Applied Physics A (2011).
(8) Aaswath Raman, Zongfu Yu and Shanhui Fan, "Dielectric nanostructures for broadband light trapping in organic solar cells", Optics Express, 19, 20, 19015 (2011).
(7) Aaswath Raman and Shanhui Fan, "Perturbation theory for plasmonic modulation and sensing", Physical Review B, 83, 205131 (2011).
(6) Zongfu Yu, Aaswath Raman, and Shanhui Fan, "Fundamental limit of nanophotonic light trapping in solar cells", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (41), 17491-17496 (2010).
(5) Zongfu Yu, Aaswath Raman, and Shanhui Fan, "Fundamental limit of light trapping in grating structures", Optics Express, 18, 103, A366 (2010).
(4) Aaswath
Raman and Shanhui Fan,
"Photonic band structure of dispersive metamaterials formulated as a Hermitian eigenvalue problem",
Physical Review Letters, 104, 087401 (2010). [pdf]
(3) A.
Raman, M. Lisanti, D.J. Wilner, C. Qi, and M. Hogerheijde,
"A Keplerian Disk around the Herbig Ae star HD169142"
,The Astronomical Journal, April 2006.
[pdf]
(2) K.M. Svore, Q. Wu, C.J.C. Burges, and A. Raman, "Improving Web Spam Classification using Rank-time Features", Proceedings of Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web (AIRWeb), January 2007.
(1) L.
Peshkin and A. Raman.
"Intelligent Summarization of Text Documents" ,
Proceedings of the International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems (ICCNS), 2003.
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| Awards & Fellowships
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| Work Experience
- Microsoft, Redmond, WA, Program Manager, Live Search (Bing) Webspam Team, August 2006 - August 2007.
- Capasso Group, Harvard University, Research Assistant, Nanophotonics (experimental optomechanics) research, 2005 - 2006.
- Endeca Technologies, Cambridge, MA, Research & Product Management Intern, Guided Search (Enterprise), June - September 2005.
- Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, Research Assistant, Observations and analysis of a protoplanetary disk with Dr. David Wilner, January - June 2005.
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| Old Writings
"Social
Justice and the Migration of Highly Skilled Elites"
2005.
Final Paper for Philosophy 277 - Social Justice and Cultural
Diversity, taught by Amartya Sen and Phillippe van Parijis.
"Minorities
among Minorities: Identity and Existence in Modern India"
2003. An early attempt to be a Social Anthropologist. Later
published in The Harvard South Asian Journal.
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| Favourite Short Stories
The
Last Question by
Isaac Asimov
Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto
The Third
and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri
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