Research interests: silicon photonics for agile optical data communications systems with 100Gb/s bandwidth. Sample to answer point of care diagnostic tools for rapid and fully automated disease detection. Implantable wireless health monitors. Wireless resistivity, temperature and pressure probes for oilfield environments. Nanostructure fabrication below 10nm and bandgap engineered structures in silicon. Plasmonic sensing of biomolecules. Miniaturization of vacuum tube technology. Optical strain gauges.
Professor Scherer's group focuses on the application of microfabrication to integrated microsystems. Recently, his group has specialized on developing sensors and diagnostic tools that can be used for low-cost point-of-care disease detection as well as precision health monitoring.
Professor Scherer has pioneered microcavity lasers and filters, and now his group works on integration of microfluidic chips with electronic, photonic and magnetic sensors. His group has also developed silicon nanophotonics and surface plasmon enhanced light emitting diodes, and has perfected the fabrication and characterization of ultra-small structures by lithography and electron microscopy.