Dr. Michaeli’s research explores how optical forces interact with nanostructured matter, and how light can be harnessed to actively control and reconfigure micro- and nanoscale systems. The Meta-Optomechanics Lab studies platforms where light and motion are strongly coupled, leading to nonlinear dynamics and collective behaviors such as synchronization and light-mediated long-range coupling. These effects reveal new regimes of light–matter interaction while enabling light-actuated modulators and reconfigurable optical architectures. The lab also investigates how optomechanical dynamics can perform visual data processing, linking collective mechanical motion with photonic information flow. Together, these directions bridge fundamental optomechanical physics and photonic engineering, advancing all-optical computation, adaptive photonic systems, and light-propelled spacecraft concepts, including collaborations related to the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative.
