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Mohamed A. Swillam
Assistant professor, Department of Physics, AUC

Mohamed Swillam received his BS degree with honors in electronics and  communications engineering, and an MS degree from the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, in 2000 and 2004, respectively. He received his PhD from McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada in December 2008. In October 2009, he joined the Department of Physics and the Institute of Optical Sciences at the University of Toronto where he worked as a post doctoral fellow. In September 2011, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the physics department in The American University in Cairo. His research interests include design optimization and sensitivity analysis of active and passive nanophotonic and plasmonic devices, silicon photonics, ultrafast characteristics of photonic devices, nano-antenna, and solar cells.

Dr. Swillam is a recipient of the Nortel Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (OGSST), as well as the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), in May 2007 and April 2008, respectively. He is also the recipient of best student paper award from IEEE/LEOS Ottawa section for Photonics North 2007 and from ACES 2009 and the Dean’s Graduate Student Award of Knowledge Translation and Innovation from McMaster University in 2009.  He recently won the competition for Ontario Ministry of Research (MRI) fellowship round 5 for 2011.He is also a senior member of the IEEE Photonic Society.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
  • Design of surface plasmon waveguide for biomedical and optical interconnects.
  • Fabrication of optoelectronics and nanoplasmonic structures for sensing and telecommunication applications.
  • Design and fabrication of optical nanoantenna for biomedical and energy harvesting.
  • Silicon photonics.  
  • Time domain spectroscopy techniques in THz.
  • Efficient techniques for microwave imaging.
  • Optical coherent control of nanophotonic devices and its application.
  • Novel gain assisted metamaterial.
  • Signal processing techniques for Electromagnetics.
  • Smart optimization methods for microwave and optical components.
  • Sensitivity analysis and design optimization of microwave and nanophotonics components.
  • Modeling and simulation of optical fiber communication systems.
  • Fabrication and characterization of integrated nano components.
  • CAD tools for modeling active and passive photonic devices.
  • CAD tools for modeling nanostructures and quantum semiconductors.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
  • Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Post Doctoral Fellowship (2011).
  • Dean’s award for graduate student knowledge translation and innovation from McMaster University (2009).
  • PhD thesis is chosen as the best thesis in the ECE Dept. and nominated by the department and the Faculty of Engineering for the general governor gold medal award.
  • Postdoctoral fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (2009). “Ranked 2nd over 257 applicants nation wide”
  • Research in Motion (RIM) Ontario graduate award (2009).
  • Best student paper award from Computational electromagnetics society, for ACES (2009).
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) (2008).
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (NORTEL OGSST) (2007).
  • Best student paper award from the IEEE Ottawa section for Photonics North 2007.
  • McMaster University internal PhD scholarship, electrical and computer engineering department (2005- 2007).
  • NATO  Advanced Research Program Award (2004).
  • Ain shams University (MS), scholarship, electrical and computer engineering department (2001-2004)
  • Egyptian Government Excellence Award (1995- 2000).

PUBLICATIONS

Refereed Journal Papers
1. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Generalized approach for designing plasmonic slot waveguide networks,”  JOSA B, submitted.

2. M. Khorasaninjead, M. A. Swillam, K. Pillai, and S. S. Saini, “Silicon Nanowire Arrays with Enhanced Optical Properties,”  submitted.

3. C. Lin, M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy,” Analytical Modeling of Plasmonic Slot Waveguide Mesh Structures,”  submitted.

4. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Feedback effect in plasmonic slot waveguides examined usnng closed form,” Photonics Technology lett., vol.19,no. 24, pp 497-499, March 2012.

5. M. A. Swillam, O. A. Mohamed, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Filter design using multiple coupled microcavities,” Photonics Technology lett., vol. 23, no. 16, Aug.15th , 2011.

6. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “efficient design optimization of ring resonator-based optical filters,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 29, no.18, Sept. 15th 2011.

7. M.A. Swillam, and N. Rotenberg, H. M. van Driel, “All-optical control of ultrafast beaming through single sub-wavelength aperture in planner metal,” Optics Express, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 7856-7864, April 2011.

8. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Analysis and applications of 3D rectangular metallic waveguides,” Optics Express, vol. 18, no. 19, pp. 19831-19843, Sept. 2010.

9. B. Lau, M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Hybrid orthogonal junctions: wideband plasmonic slot - silicon wire couplers,” Optics Express, vol. 18, no. 26 , pp. 27048-27059, Dec. 2010.

10. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient design for wideband integrated polarization splitters/combiner,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol.28 , no.8, pp. 1176-1183, April 2010.

11. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Modeling and design of nanoplasmonics using transmission line modelling,” Optics Express, vol. 18, no. 21, pp. 21784- 21797, October 2010.

12. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient approach for accurate parameter extraction with terahertz time domain spectroscopy,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol.28 , no.11, pp. 1685 - 1692, June 2010.

13. M. A. Swillam, R. H. Gohary, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient approach for sensitivity analysis of lossy and leaky structures using FDTD,” J. Progress in Electromagnetic Research (PIER), vol. 94, pp. 197-212, 2009.

14. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Design optimization of compact wideband optical switch exploiting stair case index MMI,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 27, no.2,  pp 80 – 87, Jan. 15th 2009.

15. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient 3D sensitivity analysis of surface plasmon waveguide structures,” Optics Express, vol. 16, no. 21, pp. 16371-16381, Oct. 2008.

16. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, X. Li and J. Deen, “Efficient sensitivity analysis of time independent Schrödinger equation with application to quantum lasers,” Optics Communication, vol. 281, no. 17, pp 4169-4554, Sep. 2008.

17. M. A. Swillam, D. Khalil and A. H. Morshed " Effect of the fabrication and design parameters on the performance of MMI devices made by ion exchange: a detailed study," J. Optics A: pure and applied optics, vol. 10, 125301, Dec. 2008.

18. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Full vectorial 3D  sensitivity analysis and design optimization using BPM,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 26, no. 5, pp 528 – 536, Mar.. 2008.

19. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, "Full wave sensitivity analysis of guided wave structures using FDTD,” J. Electromagnitcs Waves and Applications., vol. 22, no. 16, pp 2135-2145, 2008.

20. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient adjoint sensitivity analysis exploiting the FD-BPM,” IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 1861 – 1869, July 2007.

21. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “The design of multilayer optical coatings using convex optimization,” IEEE  J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 25 , no. 4, pp. 1078 – 1085, April 2007.

22. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Accurate sensitivity analysis of photonic devices exploiting the finite- difference time-domain central adjoint variable method,” J. Applied Optics, vol. 46 , no. 9, pp. 1492 – 1499, March 2007.

23. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, N. K. Nikolova, and X. Li, “Adjoint sensitivity analysis of dielectric discontinuities using FDTD,” J. Electromagnetics, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 123 – 140, Feb. 2007.

Invited  Papers
24. M. A. Swillam, O.A. Mohamed, M. H. Bakr, “Efficient design of coupled microcavities at optical frequencies,” Invited review, Journal of micromachines, 2012,Accepted.

25. M. A. Swillam B. Lua, C. Lin and A. S. Helmy, “Design, fabrication, characterization of Nano-scale plasmonic networks," Photonics North, Ottawa 2011.

26. M. A. Swillam, B. Lua,, C. Lin, and A. S. Helmy, "Feedback effect in plasmonic networks," International Conference on Advanced Infocomm Technology 2011, Wuhan, China.

27. M. A. Swillam, C. Lin, and A. S. Helmy, "Fabrication and application of silicon-plasmonic networks," Workshop on Metamaterials and Plasmonics: Novel Materials, Designs, and Applications, Buffalo, NY.

28. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient sensitivity analysis and design optimization of photonic devices” J. Modeling and Simulations, invited review paper, submitted.

29. M. H. Bakr, N. K. Nikolova, M. A. Swillam, and Y. Song, ” Recent advances in time domain adjoint variable sensitivity analysis” International workshop on Computational Electromagnetics in Time-Domain (CEM-TD), Perugia, Italy, 2007.

Conference Papers
30. M. A. Swillam, O. A. Mohamed, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Highly Efficient Design methodology for Very Large Scale Coupled Microcavities,” Photonics North, Ottawa Canada 2012.

31. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient sensitivity analysis of photonic structures with transmission line modeling, ” Photonics North, Ottawa Canada 2012.

32. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “A perturbation approach for the design of coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs),”Photonics West, 2012.

33. M. A. Swillam, O. A. Mohamed, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Novel approach for filter design using multiple coupled microcavities,” Integrated photonics, silicon and nanophotonics, Toronto 2011.

34. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy “Filter response of plasmonic feedback junction” Integrated photonics, silicon and nanophotonics, Toronto 2011.

35. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Transmission line modeling of nanoplsmonics,” Integrated photonics, silicon and nanophotonics, Toronto 2011.

36. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Accurate Characterization of Doped Semiconductors with Terahertz Spectroscopy,” SPIE Photonic North, Ottawa 2011.

37. M. A. Swillam, and M. H. Bakr, “Graded index MMI and its applications in optical communications,” SPIE Photonic North, Ottawa 2011.

38. M. A. Swillam, and N. Rotenberg, H. M. van Driel, “Optically controlled ultrafast enhanced transmission from a sub-wavelength hole in a planar metal film,” Conference of laser and electro-optics (CLEO), Baltimore 2011.

39. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Analysis of guided modes in rectangular plasmonic waveguides and its applications,” Conference of laser and electro-optics (CLEO), Baltimore 2011.

40. B. Lau, M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy, “Wideband coupler between plasmonic slot  and silicon nanowires,” Conference of laser and electro-optics (CLEO), Baltimore 2011.

41. M. A. Swillam, and A. S. Helmy “Characteristics and applications of rectangular waveguide in sensing, slow light and negative refraction,” SPIE Photonic West, San  Francisco,.2011.

42. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Wideband integrated polarization splitters/combiner,” SPIE Photonic West, San  Francisco, 2011.

43. O. A. Mohamed, M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient and accurate parameter extraction approach for terahertz time domain spectroscopy,” SPIE Photonic West, San  Francisco 2011.

44. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li,” Efficient approaches for dispersion engineering of guided wave components,” SPIE Photonic North, Niagara Falls, 2010.

45. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li,” Ultra wideband integrated 2x2 optical router using novel MMI design,” SPIE Photonic West, San  Francisco 2010.

46. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li,” Efficient sensitivity analysis of surface plasmon waveguide structures,” SPIE Photonic West, San Francisco 2010.

47. M. A. Swillam, R. H. Gohary, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient sensitivity analysis of modal parameters of lossy structure using FDTD,” IEEE/Antenna and propagation international symposium, Toronto 2010.

48. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Modal sensitivity analysis of guided wave structures using one FDTD simulation,” The 25th  International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES). Monterey, CA, 2009. Best Paper award

49. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, X. Li and J. Deen, “Efficient sensitivity analysis of Hermitian and non Hermitian optical quantum structures,” The 25th  International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES). Monterey, CA, 2009.

50. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Wide band optical switch using stair case MMI,” LEOS Annual Meeting, Newport Beach, CA, 2008.

51. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Efficient approach for 3D full vectorial sensitivity analysis using ADI-BPM,” Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics Research and Applications (IPNRA), Boston, Massachusetts, 2008.

52. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Accurate and efficient sensitivity analysis using the beam propagation method,” SPIE Photonics North, Proceedings of SPIE 7099: 70991C-1–70991C-8. Montreal, 2008.

53. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, N. K. Nikolova, and X. Li, “Second order accurate sensitivities of dielectric discontinuities using FDTD,” The 24th  International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES): 1034–1039. ACES, Niagara Falls,  2008.

54. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “A novel design approach for multilayer dielectric filters exploiting linear programming”, IEEE/Antenna and propagation international symposium 3940 – 3943, Hawaii, 2007.

55.  M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Accurate and efficient sensitivity extraction of complex structures using FDTD”, IEEE –SPIE Photonics North, Proceedings of SPIE 6796: 67963A-1– 67963A-8. Ottawa, 2007.  Best student paper award.

56. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “BPM based efficient sensitivity analysis exploiting the adjoint variable method,” Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics Research and Applications (IPNRA), paper IWB4, , Salt Lake City, 2007.

57. M. A. Swillam, M. H. Bakr, and X. Li, “Design of multilayer optical filters using linear programming based on autocorrelation sequences,” Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics Research and Applications (IPNRA), paper ITuA6., Salt Lake City, 2007.

58. M. A. Swillam, A. H. Morshed, and D. Khalil "Optimized 3D design of an MMI splitter with ion exchange technology,” SPIE Photonic North, Proceedings of SPIE vol. 5970, Article CID 59701G, Toronto, 2005.

59. M. A. Swillam, A. H. Morshed, and D. Khalil "Optimization of optical wide band 3-dB MMI splitter with graded-index side diffusions," IEEE International Conf. on Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering ICEEC’04, no. 173, pp. 633 – 636, Cairo, 2004.

60.  M. A. Swillam, A. Yehia, A. H. Morshed, and D. Khalil "Self-imaging in graded index MMI devices," Mediterranean Microwave Symposium MMS’2003, pp 61-64, Cairo, 2003.

Workshops
61. M. A. Swillam, A. H. Morshed and D. Khalil, " Graded index MMI on a glass substrate,"  NATO Advanced research workshop on Frontiers in Planar Lightwave Circuit Technology: Design, Simulation and Fabrication,  Ottawa, Canada (21-25 Sep. 2004).

Invited Talks
• M. A. Swillam B. Lua, C. Lin and A. S. Helmy, “Design, fabrication, characterization of Nano-scale plasmonic networks,” Photonics North, Ottawa 2011.

• M. A. Swillam, B. Lua,, C. Lin, and A. S. Helmy, "Feedback effect in plasmonic networks," International Conference on Advanced Infocomm Technology 2011, Wuhan, China.

• M. A. Swillam, C. Lin, and A. S. Helmy, "Fabrication and application of silicon-plasmonic networks," Workshop on Metamaterials and Plasmonics: Novel Materials, Designs, and Applications, Buffalo, NY.

• M. H. Bakr, and M. A. Swillam, “Advances in adjoint sensitivity analysis,“ Dalhousie University,” 2010.

• M. A. Swillam, “Design and Modelling of Plasmonics and its potential application in Solar cells,” IBM, 2009.

• M. A. Swillam,” Efficient techniques for design optimization of nanophotonics,“ University of Michigan, Ann Arber, 2008.

• M. A. Swillam,” Application of 3D Plasmonic Structures,“ University of Toronto, 2009.

Selected Projects
• M. A. Swillam, "Modeling of three energy level Erbium doped optical fiber amplifier,"  ECE 756, McMaster University, (April 2005).

• M. A. Swillam, "Comparison of nonlinear optimization software packages for microwave and photonics applications,” 6TE3, McMaster University, (April 2005).

Theses
• M. A. Swillam,” Sensitivity Analysis and Design Optimization of Photonic Devices,” Ph. D, Elect. and Compt. Engineering Dept., McMaster University.

• M. A. Swillam," Self Imaging in Multimode Interference Device Made on Glass Substrates," Electron. and Comm. Engineering Dept., Ain Shams University.

Current and Former Students
Mohamed Ragab (AUC), Mohamed Nasr, (Cairo University), Inas Ramsis (AUC), Marina Ayad (AUC), Sara Ahmed  (AUC), Charlis Lin (University of Toronto), Yang Yang (University of Toronto), Osman Ahmed (McMaster University), Mohamed Elsherif (McMaster University), Bendict Lau (University of Toronto), Mirjam  Schurmann (University of Toronto), Jia Tan (McMaster University)

Contact Information
Postal Address   
Department of Physics, School of Science and Engineering, SSE 1105.
The American University in Cairo.
AUC avenue, 5th District, New Cairo, P.O. Box 74, Cairo 11835, Egypt.
 
Telephone:  +202 2615 2612  
E-mail:  m.swillam(at)aucegypt(dot)edu