OSC Colloquium: Gregory Forcherio, "Advancing Infrared Vision with New Materials"

Title: Advancing Infrared Vision with New Materials 

Abstract: 

Naval operations in visually-degraded environments requires new approaches to the design of infrared electro-optic imagers, with particular emphasis on economical materials and/or architectures that potentiate room temperature operation with access to alternative sensing modalities and/or embedded processing. This talk with overview disruptive efforts at Crane to (i) develop smarter optics (e.g., with dielectric metasurfaces), (ii) search for Si-compatible focal plane array (FPA) materials for uncooled mid-wave sensing (e.g., with doped CdO or SiGeSn), and (iii) build multi-physics modeling & simulation infrastructure for rapid virtual prototyping and assessment of their imaging performance. Opportunities for faculty and student engagement with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane will be highlighted. 

Speaker Bio: 

Gregory T. Forcherio is a staff scientist in the Electro-Optic Technology Division of the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN. His research focuses on disruptive EO/IR technologies for multi-domain expeditionary operations based on resonant surface optics using plasmonics, metamaterials, and low-dimensional materials. He was formerly a Chemical Engineer in the Sensors & Electron Devices Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Forcherio has been awarded many academic/research distinctions, including an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He holds degrees from the University of Arkansas (Ph.D., 2017; M.S., 2014; MicroElectronics-Photonics) and Southeast Missouri State University (B.S., 2012; Engineering Physics; Applied Mathematics). He is an active member of ACS, MRS, SPIE, ECS, OSA, and the Network for Computational Nanotechnology while initiating outreach activities to enrich STEM participation (1.5k+ users of education resources). Forcherio has published 33 peer-reviewed papers (5 invited, 1 editorial), 30+ abstracts/proceedings, and authored 50+ presentations (7 invited) with research highlighted from 5 media outlets.