Murat Yessenov Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow · Capasso Group, Harvard SEAS
I work on flat optics and structured light — from high-NA metalenses to space-time wave packets with propagation properties that challenge classical limits. I did my Ph.D. at CREOL, UCF, where I developed the theoretical and experimental foundations of space-time structured light.
30+ peer-reviewed papers · 2,500+ citations · Google Scholar
News
Paper on the spatially structured Montgomery effect published in Optica. Read →
Joined the Capasso Group at Harvard SEAS as Postdoctoral Fellow.
Paper on ultra-compact synthesis of space-time wave packets published in Optics Letters. Read →
Invited review of space-time wave packets published in Advances in Optics and Photonics. Read →
Research
My work develops the physics and devices that give light new forms — from metalenses that reshape wavefronts at the nanoscale to space-time wave packets with propagation properties that have no classical counterpart.
Flat Optics & Metalenses
Design and fabrication of high-NA metalenses (NA > 0.8) operating across the visible spectrum. Current focus: metalenses for precision metrology and diffraction-limited imaging at the wafer scale.
Active · Harvard 2025–Space-Time Structured Light
Spatio-temporally structured wave packets — light with tightly correlated spatial and spectral degrees of freedom — exhibit anomalous propagation, refraction, and diffraction that have no counterpart in conventional optics.
5 selected papers below →Quantum & Atom Optics
Meta-optics for reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays with >10,000 trap sites, in collaboration with the Lukin Group (Harvard) and QuEra Computing.
Active · Harvard 2025–Selected Publications
30+ peer-reviewed articles in optics and photonics · 2,500+ citations. Full list on Google Scholar →
Curriculum Vitae
Positions
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences · PI: Federico Capasso
College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) · PI: Ayman F. Abouraddy
Education
Dissertation: Physics and applications of space-time wave packets
Magna cum Laude · Minor in Mathematics
Selected Awards
Contact
Get in Touch
Email:
yessenov@seas.harvard.edu
Office:
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences
11 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Currently
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Capasso Group, working on high-NA metalenses and meta-optics for reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays — in collaboration with the Lukin Group and QuEra Computing.
Happy to discuss flat optics, space-time structured light, or any intersection of nanophotonics and quantum technologies.