Shulamit Edelstein defends her PhD thesis at ICMM and UAM reclaiming physics theoretical study: "Focusing on the application side and/or potential market exits is a cause for scientific decline"

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New thesis defense at Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), CSIC. On 13th September our Ph.D. student Shulamit Edelstein defends her thesis titled 'Optical Forces on Magneto-optical Particles'. The event is setted at 12.00 p.m. at Sala de Grados Módulo 8, at Science Faculty at Autonomus University of Madrid (UAM, in Spanish).

Edelstein, who did her master project with the photonics crystals group in the ICMM, has finished her thesis with the direction of Manuel I. Marqués from UAM and Pedro A. Serena, Senior Scientist at ICMM. 

She explains her work with these words: "Optical forces are used in a wide range of applications in photonics, biology and even space travel", and here she adds some interesting examples: "'Optical tweezers', which use a laser beam to trap viruses and tissues in order to study them under a microscope without damaging them; Solar sails, which are one of the few technologies that could be used for interstellar travel, use the optical force of sunlight instead of rocket fuel for propulsion". 

Besides the optical forces, she also studies the magneto-optical (MO) effect. "It is the ability to change the optical properties of certain materials with an external magnetic field", says the researcher. Again in her own words: "This effect is used for manipulation of light at the nanoscale and is of great interest due to its potential exploitation in applications such as energy harvesting and photovoltaics, wave-guiding and lasing, optoelectronics, biochemistry, and medicine".

Edelstein's thesis combines these two areas, being the first one to study theoretically the combination of the MO effect and optical forces. In fact, she has found that the MO effect "gives further control and more precision when it comes to optical forces".

"We have found that with the help of the MO effect, two nanoparticles could be held by a laser beam in close proximity equilibrium", explains Edelstein. But not only that, with her investigation she has also found "that the MO effect could be used to precisely control the scattering direction and the polarization state of a particle". And, why is that important? "This is a property which is a fundamental prerequisite for many nanophotonic devices and a precursor for future on-chip communication", adds.

Talking about this, she uses the opportunity to reclaim physics theoretical study: "The thesis is a fundamental physics theoretical study", explains, and she adds: "Focusing on the application side and/or potential market exits (due to limited funding), is a cause for scientific decline. Many important scientific and technology breakthroughs came from unexpected aspects of studies which were completely unrelated to the application".

At the end of her work, she has something clear: more investigation is required. "We need to continue investigating the fundamental aspects of physics in order to expand human knowledge, we need to get more public funding for scientific research and fight corporate control over scientific methodology and research directions".