Our group is interested in the future of optics and photonics, especially materials and structures that can enhance light-matter interaction, in order to target applications in optical communications, arbitrary optical wavefront generation and detection, quantum information processing, and holography. We are interested in fabrication with nonlinear optical materials and devices, and our group is actively engaged in industrially-relevant research in vertical cavity lasers, laser development for light/heat delivery in magnetic data storage applications, solar cells, and nonlinear optical materials useful for long distance optical fiber communications and on-chip quantum optics with lithium niobate-on-insulator. Materials such as lithium niobate are traditionally rather difficult to work with in terms of practical fabrication challenges, but overcoming some of these challenges would permit photonics-lab-on-chip applications, quantum-optics-on-chip applications, and allow miniaturization of traditionally large external optical modulators. This will be necessary not only for future optical datacom applications, but also for quantum optics applications where programmatic control of single photons will ultimately be required. Our group also hosts the undergraduate student NUS Solar Powered Helicopter Team.