Anuradha (Anu) Agarwal, TWG & PEG Leaders

Dr. Anuradha (Anu) Agarwal is Co-Chair of the IPSR Photonics Sensors Technology Working Group (TWG).
 
As a Principal Research Scientist in the Microphotonics Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she is developing integrated Si-CMOS compatible linear and non-linear materials for photonic devices, both at near infrared (NIR) wavelengths for telecommunications; and in the mid-infrared (MIR) regime, for hyperspectral imaging and chem-bio sensing, where most chemical and biological toxins have their fingerprints.
Her recent focus has been on chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) because they can be compositionally tuned, have a large refractive index, high Kerr nonlinearity and wide infrared transparency, making them superior for linear and nonlinear optics and sensing. 
 
Her major technical contributions in the area of silicon microphotonics include: polysilicon waveguides, erbium-doped silicon LEDs, on-chip fiber-to-waveguide couplers, ultra-low-loss chalcogenide waveguides, MIR imaging and sensing. 
 
Dr. Agarwal received her doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University, where she investigated the spatial extent of point defect interactions in silicon. She has been at MIT’s Microphotonics Center since 1994, except for a short (2001-2004) stint at Clarendon Photonics, where she was part of a team of engineers developing a novel optical filter. She has authored more than 100 journal and refereed conference publications, and has six awarded patents and five pending patents. Her work on MIR materials and devices is creating a planar, integrated, Si-CMOS-compatible microphotonics platform that will enable on-chip imaging and sensing applications.
 
Co-Chair, Integrated Photonic Sensors TWG
MIT Microphotonics Center