Jonathan Y. Suen, PhD
Dr. Jon Suen is a Senior Scientist at Oxford Defense. He is responsible for the design and management of research projects. His research interests are in electromagnetic systems, metamaterials and non-conventional communication and imaging systems. He is experienced in systems in the RF, microwave, millimeter-wave, terahertz and infrared.
Dr. Suen has a unique range of expertise in the microwave through infrared spectrum with most of his current research centered around metamaterials. He has developed several academic and a commercial imaging system in the microwave and terahertz spectrums.
He was a postdoctoral scholar at Duke University, a pioneer and expert in the field of metamaterials. Here, he developed several metamaterial-based imaging systems and worked extensively in the field of metamaterial-based infrared, terahertz and millimeter-wave modulators, detectors, and emitters.
Other current work includes the development of IR scene projection technologies, including ultra-high temperature metamaterials with tailored emission and graphene-based dynamic metasurface spatial light modulators. He additionally is working in all-dielectric microwave metamaterials as coherent perfect absorbers (2-port controllable devices) as well as terahertz metamaterial spatial light modulators with novel modulation schemes for imaging.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014, where his research centered around the development of biomedical and astronomical instrumentation in the infrared, terahertz and microwave frequency regime.
For his Master’s degree, Dr. Suen studied communication and control theory at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2005. He has over 30 research publications.
ORCID: 0000-0002-9803-5900
Selected Publications
- J. Y. Suen, K. Fan, J. Montoya, C. Bingham, V. Senger, S. Sriram and W. J. Padillia, “Multifunctional metamaterial pyroelectric infrared detectors,” Optica, Vol. 4, Issue 2, pp. 276-279, 2017.
- K. Fan, J. Suen, X. Wu and W. J. Padillia, “Graphene metamaterial modulator for free-space thermal radiation,” Optics Express, Vol. 24, No. 22, pp. 25189-25201, 2016.
- K. Fan, J. Y. Suen, X. Liu, and W. J. Padilla, “All-dielectric metasurface absorbers for uncooled terahertz imaging,” Optica, Vol. 4, Issue 6, pp. 601-604. 2017.
- J. Y. Suen and S. Navlakha, “Using Inspiration from Synaptic Plasticity Rules to Optimize Traffic Flow in Distributed Engineered Networks,” Neural Computation, Vol 29, Issue 5, pp 1204-1228. 2017.
- J. Y. Suen and S. Navlakha, “A feedback control principle common to several biological and engineered systems,” J. R. Soc. Interface, Vol. 19, Issue 188. March 2022.
- W. Hettel, P. Meinhold, J. Y. Suen, P. Srinivasan, P. Krogen, A. Writh, and P. Lubin, “Beam propagation simulation of phased laser arrays with atmospheric perturbations,” Applied Optics, Vol. 60, No. 17, pp. 5117-5123. 2021.
- K. P. Kelley, E. L. Runnerstrom, E. Sachet, et al., “Multiple Epsilon-Near-Zero Resonances in Multilayered Cadmium Oxide: Designing Metamaterial-Like Optical Properties in Monolithic Materials,” ACS Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 1139-1145. 2019.
Patents
- US Patent 11,027,028 “Imaging devices including dielectric metamaterial absorbers and related methods,” issued April 20, 2021
Benjamin Y. Suen
Ben Suen is a staff scientist at Oxford Defense. He is responsible for cleanroom process development, fabrication, and characterization of metamaterials and plasmonic devices in the infrared and visible spectrum. His specialty is in the incorporation of complex materials and chemicals in microfabricated electronic, mechanical, and optical devices, coupled with non-traditional optical and thermal interactions.
Mr. Suen’s expertise spans the development process from finite-element modeling and simulation, through prototype manufacturing and testing. He is an expert in spectrographic characterization techniques, including tip and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and microscale laser Doppler vibrometery.
Mr. Suen has extensive experience in near-field optical and thermo-optical phenomena, having extensive work in the development of carbon-based anti-wear coatings for heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which are currently being commercially deployed in next-generation hard disk drives. His research involves the complex coupled tribological interaction between thin-film surfaces and drive head aerodynamics, magnetic phenomena, high-temperature organic lubricants, and near-field concentrated IR laser light.
He also is conducting ongoing research in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), particularly in devices incorporated in biological systems (bio-MEMS). He is developing a passive bio-MEMS implant for the contactless monitoring of intraocular pressure which includes development of biocompatible MEMS materials, the in vivo environment, optical interaction with the human visual system, as well as medical device certification issues.
Ben Suen received his Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2019, and his Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the same in 2012.