I am an optical physicist and engineer. I have over 50 patents issued and pending, all having to do with the interaction of light and matter in some way. During my 24 years at Polaroid Corporation, I became focused on near field optics for metrology, microscopy, and optical data storage. In the 80's and 90's I made several pioneering contributions to this budding field, building of course on the acknowledged work of many before me going back to even the 1600's, as well as my contemporary colleagues at Polaroid. These contributions include photon tunneling microscopy (PTM, 1986), the first published demonstration of super-resolution structured light microscopy (1995), super-resolution with phase-shifted evanescent light (1995), and super-resolution with annular pupils having radially polarized light (1990).
I continued making contributions to this field through presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and the patent literature while at Calimetrics Inc. (2000-2002), putting concepts into practice for high density optical data storage.
My work in near field optics facilitated my discovery of using nanostructure-induced strain to engineer the bandgap of semiconductors such as titania for more efficient photocatalytic, photovoltaic, and photolytic activity in sunlight. I founded Nanoptek Corporation (2002) to develop and commercialize this technology for producing carbon-free hydrogen from sunlight and water.
My full bio can be seen at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnguerra1
