Alison Sweeney, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Physics , Yale University

 

2024 Experimental Physics Investigator

Alison Sweeney, Ph.D.
Image Credit: Dan Renzetti/Yale University
 

Research Description

Physics theory has recently described the possibility of an exotic new form of matter exhibiting a property called “stealthy hyperuniformity.” In these materials predicted by physics theory, particles are disordered on small, local length scales, but at longer length scales. This means the material is perfectly transparent at almost all wavelengths. Harnessing this property would allow perfect optics and photonics from soft, moldable, inexpensive constituents. There are currently no known examples of stealthy hyperuniform materials in nature. Alison Sweeney’s group has strong reasons to hypothesize that the lenses in squid eyes are stealthy hyperuniform. They plan to characterize the degree to which the squid lens is stealthy hyperuniform, and to characterize the physical rules of the protein-protein interactions which apparently give rise to natural stealthy hyperuniformity.

There will be two major thrusts in Dr. Sweeney’s research program. In the first, they will build a novel light-scattering instrument for characterizing the structure of materials at the length scales of visible light. In the second effort, they will dissect in detail the thermodynamics and geometric topology of protein-protein interactions that build the living squid lens that evidently give rise to stealthy hyperuniformity. The results from these biophysical experiments will be used to reverse-engineer the set of pairwise potentials that give rise to the stealthy hyperuniform character in the lens.

Research Impact

Dr. Sweeney is attempting to use natural squid proteins, a stealthy hyperuniformity material, to build optically active material structures that are currently only predicted by theory. Knowledge of the biophysics of such particle pairwise interactions in an evolved system could give rise to a new field of self-assembling photonics and waveguides made from polymeric or organic, inexpensive, biocompatible photonic materials.

 
 

related links

Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative Science Yale University, Department of Physics Back

Education

PhD, Duke University
BS, Illinois Wesleyan University

Affiliated Investigators