I spent a while punching author names from Photonics West 2010 into google today. I soon realized that I was likely not alone in this pursuit and would be well advised to update this website to be relevant to the new potential visitors here over the course of the next week.

If you are in San Francisco, and attending the conference, and have found this page, I’d like to invite you to attend my talk on Thursday at 11:20 in room 234 (Mezzanine). My talk is entitled “Photonic Crystal Switching by the electrophoretic movement of dye ions” and is part of the session on “Novel effects and Applications in Photonic Crystal Structures” within the “Photonic and Phononic Crystal Materials and Devices IX“. Relevant information is on pages 238-240 of the Technical Program.

Now that I’ve located all this spatially, temporally, and categorically I’d probably be wise to briefly outline the paper:

ABSTRACT: Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) facilitates the fabrication of nanostructured thin films with varying density, using a motion control algorithm governing substrate movements during film growth, which engineerings the film structure. Film architectures for specific optical applications including photonic crystals are easily produced with GLAD. A challenge in the photonic crystal field has been the realization of in-situ control of optical characteristics. We have demonstrated partial control of stopband optical characteristics using an electric field in a GLAD 1D photonic crystal by the electrophoretic movement of absorbing dye ions.

Authors: Joshua D. Krabbe, Univ. of Alberta (Canada); Michael J. Brett, Univ. of Alberta (Canada) and National Institute for Nanotechnology (Canada)

With a bit more elaboration:

The basic premise of this work is that the movement of absorbing dye ions into and out of a porous photonic crystal yields a means by which the optical properties of the stopband of the photonic crystal may be modified. The device structure (shown below) is probed for reflectance optical properties from the top surface within the operating region (delimited by dashed lines). The photonic crystal is deposited on a transparent conducting oxide film and when the sandwich structure is completed with an identical counter electrode the device becomes electrically addressable. A dissociating dye (Methylene Blue) is used and when a positive voltage (top with respect to bottom) is applied the cations of the dye (absorbing species) are driven out of the photonic crystal. Reversal of the voltage attracts these cations and absorbing dye species accumulate in the photonic crystal.

Note: this image is (very!) not to scale.

As you likely have already anticipated, the presence of absorbing species within the photonic crystal has an inhibiting effect on the reflectance. Changing the dye concentration affects the probability of photon-dye interaction. The response of reflectance properties with addressing voltage, and an examination of the time response of optical properties to electrical switching of the device will be presented; along with an elaboration of the GLAD technique used to fabricate the porous photonic crystal that forms the basis of the device.

If you can’t attend, the proceedings will be published in 2-4 weeks.

So I’m stuck in the lab at 8:30 pm on a Monday night. It’s not like I could be swimming anyways due to the roadrash on my hand so it’s not the end of the world… But I decided to film a bit of a video of the process I’m working with right now. Captions on the video itself tall what the different controls are… so there’s no description here.

I admit I crammed a lot of annotations on the tiny little video but that’s what the pause button is for I guess. Or the replay button if you’re interested. Or the back-button on your browser after you realized what this actually was a video of.

Convocation was Wednesday in Edmonton. I at first thought it was a pretty outrageous idea to travel all the way up the QEII highway just to walk across a stage and get 3 seconds of fame. Indeed it was as expected, three seconds of walking across a stage, but everything else was pretty good and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Dean Lynch bought all of the grads lunch and we has a chance to catch up with a few classmates. Then we did a few photos in the gowns and headed over to the Jubilee Auditorium for a few speeches and a parade across the stage.

I have to say that I thought the speeches were a ton better than expected, I wondered sometimes as an undergrad how out of touch the administration was with what actually went on on campus. While I’m probably still justified in thinking that to a certain extent what everyone had to say was particularly relevant to the occasion and as a whole rather well presented.

So as Dr. Zemp would say “I’m running out of things to say so let’s look at some pictures”

Quotes from EEBE 540 Digital Image Processing, Winter Semester 2008

• Man I’m brain dead today < pause > let me show you a picture
• Can I tell you that that is true? < pause > never trust a prof!
• Some people can whip it out fairly quickly
  
  < Followed almost inevitably by the distasteful comment from the back row >
  What? their Weiner Functions?

Quotes from EE 456 Introduction to Nanoelectronics, Winter Semester 2008

• Who can tell me what we’re going to get when we take this integral?
  
  <My response:> -13.6 eV!
  
  <pause> … right
• It’s not that Physicists don’t do useful things. They just do different things.
• There is no reality behind phenomenon, merely more phenomenon
• I’m not prepared to make any statements today, geometrically I’m a bit slow.
• To implement periodic boundary conditions, boundary conditions, to implement periodic boundary conditions, the system is modified, system is modified, modified, the system is modified by adding a term of -t_o, of -t_o, -t_o to the corners, corners where they otherwise would have been zero, the corner elements would have been zero but we modified them by adding a term of -t_o. This modification makes the matrix invertible, the matrix becomes invertible and that makes the system solvable or the equations linearly independent, the system becomes solvable because the equations are now linearly independent.
• Just trust me and you’ll be alright.
• If you do what I say you’ll be fine
• Don’t freak out on me; I’m not trying to psyche you out.

Dad called on the phone last Sunday, realizing he probably should back out of a half marathon he’s registered for at the end of the month in Calgary. That means there is an open spot to run in the race. I’m currently assessing whether or not I can actually do that without embarrassing myself. It looks like, based on today’s run, that I should be in OK shape and will probably give it a try. Managed quite easily 7min50sec miles for an hour. I’d like to try ten miles tomorrow and then make the final call on whether or not I’ll try for the full 21.1km in two weeks.

Finding time to get on the bike outside has been rough. I was forced to skip out on the Triathlon club’s first ride of the year… boohoo. I decided to write the accreditation exam to practice engineering in the United States (at some point in my career way down the road). That meant 10 hours were holed up in an exam room on day. That meant the next day when everyone else was out enjoying the beautiful weather I needed to put together a presentation about my research project for the semester. So as the rays beat down and some people managed their first sunburn of the year on their pasty thighs, I was only absorbing the radiation coming out of the LCDisplay in front of my face.

Cross Country racing starts this Wednesday evening, that’s always a highlight of my September and October so I’m going to give it a try this week. It’s short so I can probably manage OK but I’m sure Pat will once again destroy me. That does mean however that it will probably be a few more days yet until I get outside on that bike.

September 21, 2007 – Edmonton — (borrowed or stolen from the UofA Expressnews

Soft-spoken, unassuming, and a little uncomfortable in the spotlight, Michael Brett doesn’t come across as someone who’s launched countless engineering careers and a world-class research facility.

But he has done that and more. His work as a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta is just the foundation of an energetic career that shows no sign of slowing, even after 22 years.

Brett was honoured today as the U of A celebrated its 12^th anniversary of teaching and learning excellence Sept. 21.

The celebration, held at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium and led by U of A President Indira Samarasekera, recognized the high standard reached by the university’s faculty and students. Brett was awarded the University Cup for a dynamic career of excellence in teaching and research.

“We are absolutely delighted to award professor Brett the University Cup,” said Samarasekera. “Professor Brett has had a most prolific academic career and his discoveries have made a tremendous impact upon a variety of industry sectors. He is internationally known for his work in electrical and computer engineering and is currently at the forefront of breakthrough research in nanotechnology. The U of A is extremely proud of professor Brett and we feel honoured to celebrate his numerous achievements.”

Brett’s work with thin-film engineering has been recognized around the globe in the form of numerous research titles, publications in 200 scientific journals, creative collaborations with multinational corporations, and a software system that was successfully commercialized and sold to major players such as IBM, Intel and Toshiba.

Despite a towering list of achievements, Brett uses the word ’serendipity’ when describing the start of his career at the U of A.

“I came along at the right time,” he said.

As a newly-minted professor, Brett worked tirelessly to help pioneer the Micromachining and Nanofabrication Facility, an entity that was instrumental in having the cutting-edge National Research Council’s National Institute for Nanotechnology’s constructed on campus. Today Bret is a Senior Research Officer at NINT, a facility that shines in the U of A’s research crown.

“The Nanofab is the core facility that seeded the incredibly high level of materials and nanotechnology research now ongoing at the University of Alberta,” said David Lynch, dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “Professor Brett has made enormous contributions to research, service and teaching.”

Brett’s other titles include an iCORE professorship in Nanoengineered ICT Devices, holder of the Micralyne/NSERC/iCORE Senior Industrial Chair in Thin Film Engineering and the Canada Research Chair in Nanoengineered Thin Films.

Brett’s success also translates to the classroom where, as an enthusiastic director of engineering physics, he transformed the program from a group of 10 students to one with an enrolment that has exceeded 30, with many applicants turned away in some years. Brett has helped his students realize their dreams by lending an ear to those who have come to his door seeking career advice. By helping them focus their choices with questions as simple as where they’d like to live, Brett has steered students to rewarding worldwide posts as university academics, with NASA, Intel and here at home, with research centres like the Cross Cancer Institute.

Brett believes his job doesn’t end when a degree is awarded.

“We should care about students and their careers,” he said. And students, in turn, care about Brett. His computer is filled with ‘where are they now’ photos from grateful grads, and he has received the highest possible rating on teaching evaluations from almost every student, in classes of up to 132 people.

But when asked about his secret to meaningful teaching, Brett deflects the glory onto his students, who are already top-notch, in his view.

“I just go there and deliver the goods. I have a very talented group.”

Brett’s deep respect and patience for his students plays a large part in that success, said Andy van Popta, who has spent eight years as an undergrad and graduate student in Brett’s lab.

“He always keeps the student’s best interests in mind. He makes sure they get to conferences, helps them focus thesis work, creates worthwhile lab projects and provides as much or as little leadership as a person needs.”

Brett has a gift for making each student feel special. In this case, Brett met van Popta’s parents, gave van Popta’s younger brother some work experience in the lab, even attended van Popta’s wedding.

“He knows my whole family.”

It instills self-confidence and the idea that any goal is reachable, van Popta said

“I can only imagine if the supervisor never showed interest in anyone as an individual – it would be hard to deal with.”

Looking to the future, Brett still has a dream of his own – to reward his many research funders by creating a product that is a commercial hit within Alberta. “There’s been a lot invested in my work, and I want to pay back some of that investment.”

It could be in the form of just about anything in a lab that has no boundaries.

As for being awarded the University Cup, Brett is honoured. “I like to think of the University Cup as recognition for the great students that I have been associated with.”

I finished the logo for the Engineering Physics summer clothing order 2007.

Piranha is a 3:1 mixture of sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) and Hydrogen Peroxide (H₂O₂), used for cleaning organic deposits in the nanofab, the UofA’s microfabrication facility. It is also , of course, the name of a flesh eating fish found in the Amazon river basin. For more information or to order clothing check out this document.

As the EE 323 grades finally made their way out of the Dean’s office (where Rob and I both agree they must have been tied up) semester 6 of 8 officially draws to a close. While it was not the most successful one to date, it was good enough to leave me in what I consider good shape coming out of 3 years of this thing they call undergrad.

Luckily last semester carried a few more labs that boosted the total credit earned up by 0.8 engineering course units over the second semester of third year. That combined with last semester’s almost spotless set of numbers… well let’s just say it keeps me just above that beautiful threshold they call 0.05 which allows me to round up instead of down when calculating the GPA. I’ll admit it’s a pretty sad tale when I’m figuring out those kinds of things but you need something to try and calculate when you’re biking in the rain. What else did I calculate you might ask? Well… I’m still above a 4.0 if I do the calculations factoring all the “+” marks as a bonus 0.3 grade points.

I was well pleased by the stellar lab report mark I sucked out of the last 397 project. While the system is designed to wreak havoc on the self esteem of everyone in engineering physics and honors physics programs, I feel like I won a tiny battle with the last project. Isn’t that what it’s about? I won the battle even though they won the war?? Oh well, so it isn’t quite that way but when you deal with “a personality” such as the one we all had to deal with it’s enough to leave me feeling alright about it.

Jeremy Sit jumps ship on his beloved EE 350 class the week before the final exam leaving us to fend for ourselves up here is freezing cold northern Alberta. And what is he doing?? “Spring Conference of the Materials Research Society” my arse. What Sit was actually doing down there in San Fransisco doesn’t seem to be studious at all.