He received his M.S. from the
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, in 1981, and received his Ph.D. degree from the
A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg, in 1986. At this institution he had accomplished a career as a research scientist, rising through the ranks from staff member (1981–1992), group leader (1992–1997), to senior member of staff in 1997. In 1997–2001 he worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the
University of Sheffield where he developed novel surface coupling techniques for studying photonic crystal waveguides and semiconductor microcavities.
Research
Prof. V. N. Astratov joined
UNC-Charlotte in 2002. His current research is devoted to microspherical
photonics including applications of photonic nanojets, coupled-cavity arrays[2] and waveguides[3][4] resonant
light pressure effects[5] and
super-resolution microscopy.[6] He was a topical editor for the journal Optics Express[7] in 2005–2011 and an editor and co-editor for two Focus Issues of this journal. He has served as a technical committee member for major international conferences including CLEO[8] 2006–07 and 2012–14, IEEE Photonics[9] 2014–17, Photonics West 2017, ICTON 2009–17, and
OECC/ACOFT 2008 and 2014. He co-/authored 15 patents in the US and Russia, and about 180 research publications which eventually brought him an h-index of 44.[10]
Jason Franchak, MS, 2004; Current – Orthodox Priest, Holy Trinity Church, St. Basil Church Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania.[11] Jason did his MS in Physics and was integral in establishing the lab. His research, under the guidance of Dr. Astratov on optical transportation in chains of microresonators is considered as one of the early papers in the field.[3]
Dr. Andrey Kanaev, Postdoc, 2005; Current – Staff Member, Naval Research Laboratory. Primarily a theoretical scientist, Andrey explored optical coupling between un-even and size dependent resonators.[12]
Dr. Andrey Kapitonov, Postdoc, 2007; Current – in Belarus.
Shashaanka Ashili, PhD, 2007; Current – Founder, Smart Drivinc,[13] CEO of CureScience.[14] Along with Jason, Shashaanka was integral in establishing the lab and further improving the understanding of optical transport and coupling within meso and micro structures.[15]
Yangcheng Li, PhD, 2015; Current – Staff Engineer, Western Digital.[20]
Farzaneh Abolmaali, PhD, 2018; Current – Research Scientist, Synrad.[21]
Awards
He is a recipient of a number of awards including International Visitor Award in France by Triangle de la Physique in 2011, Senior Visiting
EPSRC Fellow Award in the UK in 2006, Award of the Exchange Program adopted between
Royal Society and
Russian Academy of Sciences in 1996, and the Award in the Annual Competition from
A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute in 1985.
References
^Astratov, V. N.; Bogomolov, V. N.; Kaplyanskii, A. A.; Prokofiev, A. V.; Samoilovich, L. A.; Samoilovich, S. M.; Vlasov, Yu. A. (1995). "Optical spectroscopy of opal matrices with CdS embedded in its pores: Quantum confinement and photonic band gap effects". Il Nuovo Cimento D. 17 (11–12). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 1349–1354.
Bibcode:
1995NCimD..17.1349A.
doi:
10.1007/bf02457208.
ISSN0392-6737.
S2CID121167426.
^
abAstratov, V. N.; Franchak, J. P.; Ashili, S. P. (2004-12-06). "Optical coupling and transport phenomena in chains of spherical dielectric microresonators with size disorder". Applied Physics Letters. 85 (23). AIP Publishing: 5508–5510.
Bibcode:
2004ApPhL..85.5508A.
doi:
10.1063/1.1832737.
ISSN0003-6951.