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Optical Properties Engineering Lab
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The lab probes and controls the properties of matter using ultrafast light.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating with light, seeing with light: the new faces of matter.
The Optical Properties Engineering Lab develops new light-based methods of measurement and control, and uses them to study the properties and optical functions of materials.
The lab consists of the Toda Group and the Yoshikawa Group, and covers ultrafast spectroscopy, quantum materials and superconductivity, structured light (optical vortices), and terahertz spectroscopy.
Using ultrashort light pulses, the lab drives materials out of equilibrium and observes over time how electrons and spins move and return to their original state.
The lab aims to change the properties of materials with light itself and link this to new functions.
Key terms
- Pump-probe spectroscopy
- A method in which a short pulse of light shakes a material and a slightly delayed pulse measures the change. It can follow fast phenomena.
- Optical vortex
- Light with a helical phase that looks like a doughnut with a dark center. It carries orbital angular momentum.
- Terahertz light
- Light that lies between radio waves and infrared. It can directly drive the slow motions of electrons and the lattice inside a material.
NewsLab news
A paper on critical dynamics in single-layer Bi-based cuprates, from a collaboration with Slovenia, was published
Associate Professor Naotaka Yoshikawa joined the lab, and the Yoshikawa Group was launched
A paper on layer-number-dependent dynamics in Bi-based cuprate high-temperature superconductors was published
A paper on spatiotemporally resolved spectroscopy of cuprate superconductors was published
An undergraduate student received an Encouragement Award at the Hokkaido Chapter Academic Lecture Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics
ResearchResearch themes
The lab develops new light-based methods of measurement and control and uses them to investigate the properties of materials. The Toda Group works on ultrafast spectroscopy and optical vortices, while the Yoshikawa Group works on controlling material properties with mid-infrared and terahertz light.
*Illustrative imageWatching Electron Motion with Ultrashort Pulses
Using pump-probe spectroscopy with ultrashort pulse lasers, the lab observes, with time resolution, how electrons driven out of equilibrium return to their original state. In high-temperature superconductors, it is investigating how the superconducting component and the pseudogap component relax differently.
*Illustrative imageFollowing Phase Transitions with Three Beams of Light
Intense light is used to temporarily destroy order such as superconductivity, and the electronic states recovering from it are measured with pump-probe spectroscopy. This makes it possible to follow how metastable states evolve over time.
*Illustrative imageCreating New Electronic States with Light
Circularly polarized mid-infrared light is used to drive a Dirac semimetal, and the lab studies the electronic state (Floquet state) that appears only while the light is applied. Time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy captures the Hall conduction that changes with the polarization of the light.
*Illustrative imageSwitching Magnetization Direction with Light
This research applies circularly polarized mid-infrared light to a magnetic Weyl semimetal to reverse its magnetization without a magnetic field. The lab is extending its technique of writing magnetic domain patterns by choosing where the light is applied to research on devices that control terahertz waves.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Optical Properties Engineering Lab are faculty, master's students, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorYasunori Toda
- Associate ProfessorNaotaka Yoshikawa
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “FemtosecondLaserAction” Шмелёв Артемий Геннадьевич / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Watching Electron Motion with Ultrashort Pulses: “Femtosecond Laser and Pulse Compressor - Optics Lab - INRIM” Giorgio Brida from Torino, Italy / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Following Phase Transitions with Three Beams of Light: “Cooling superconductor by liquid nitrogen” Ainur physicist / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Creating New Electronic States with Light: “Electronic band structure of graphene” Ponor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Switching Magnetization Direction with Light: “Ferrofluid close” Opoterser / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Quantum Functional Engineering Lab): “Optical Therapeutics and Medical Nanophotonics Laboratory ( )” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Extreme Quantum Optics Lab): “405nm” Netweb01 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Semiconductor Quantum Engineering Lab): “Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) 2" wafer” La2O3 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Superfluid Physics Lab): “Helium-glow” Jurii / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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