PECASE-Award-Winning Research Likely to Improve Light Published July 8, 2010 By Jeannette Romero Office of Scientific Research ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Dr. Rashid Zia is working to enhance higher-order emission processes in lanthanide ions, which are currently the leading light emitters in applications ranging from color television and fluorescent lighting to solid-state laser systems. As such, the lab-sponsored Dr. Zia's cutting-edge research stands to address not only commercial interests, but also the Air Force mission--primarily by furthering the development of superior information processing and communication technologies enabling the energetic, spatial, and temporal scaling of optoelectronic circuits. Recent developments in the area of artificial metamaterials are prompting Dr. Zia and other scientists to reexamine the magnetic dipole transitions in lanthanide ions. His work in this field has been so successful that he received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers award as a result of his contributions. These awards recognize outstanding young scientists and engineers at the outset of their respective careers. Dr. Zia intends to use this award, which for him represents the culmination of two separate research projects, to help fund his ongoing efforts to enhance and direct light emissions via nanoscale fabrication and characterization techniques for engineering those emissions.