Myles B. T. Osenton

About

Hello! I'm a graduate student in physics at McGill University in the group of Dr. Kai Wang and am currently working at ETH Zürich in the Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory with Dr. David Norris.

I received my BSc in physics from the University of British Columbia, completing my thesis on integrated photonic modulators under Dr. Lukas Chrostowski and Dr. Jeff Young. During my undergraduate degree, I also was a visiting researcher with Dr. Andrea Alù at the Photonics Initiative at the City University of New York. Additionally, I've held other positions at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.

Outside of physics, I perform music on a few different instruments, try to learn some languages and occasionally do a bit of graphic design. I've included some of my more interesting endeavours in Projects.

If you'd like to discuss my research or otherwise have a chat, please reach out in Contact and I'd be happy to talk!

Research

My research focuses on photonics and metamaterials, allowing us to better understand and apply interactions between light and matter. I currently work with Dr. David Norris in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zürich and with Dr. Kai Wang in the Department of Physics at McGill University.

I currently explore photonics in optical wavelengths, mainly in simulating, fabricating and characterising metamaterials - structures with engineered properties that largely arise from their sub-wavelength synthetic structures. My current research examines Fourier surfaces, wavy surfaces created by the sum of sinusoidal components that trap light into surface waves on the material. These surfaces can be engineered to alter the behaviour of the confined light allowing for the creation of novel devices, such as bidirectional pixels and 3D free-space holograms. My work at McGill focuses on using metasurfaces (2D metamaterials using planar arrays of subwavelength nanostructures) for hyperspectral imaging, or creating sensors that captures detailed wavelength information for every pixel instead of the standard RGB colour channels.

My other experiences in photonics include examining time-varying optical metamaterials in pump-probe spectroscopy experiments. By altering the spatial and temporal profiles of ultrafast laser pulses, we can observe changes in the response of these metamaterials. I have also investigated RF metamaterials for exploring other electromagnetic phenomena, such as negative refraction, complex frequencies and plasmonic cloaking. One of my other projects focused on the design and fabrication of devices on BTO-enhanced integrated photonics for the next generation of photonic chips.

While I am now an experimental physicist, I did not begin research in physics. I began academic research in my first year of university, joining a microbiology lab to explore genetic engineering. I then worked in biomedical engineering on virology and COVID-19 projects. Simultaneously, I began to explore molecular detection, particularly in analytical and interstellar chemistry. These experiences introduced me to laser physics, causing me to pivot to physics and photonics. Please see below for a history of my research, with publications below. If you are interested in a full CV, please contact me.

Research Labs

Internships and Volunteer Positions

Publications

• Torres-Boy, A.Y.; Ghosh, A.; Osenton, M.B.T.; Behera, A. C.; Gewinner, S.; De Pas, M.; Junkes, H.; Sch ̈ollkopf, W.; Paarmann, A.; von Helden, G.; Meijer, G. (2026). Controlling isomer population using a dual-oscillator infrared free-electron laser. Physical Review Letters, 137(1), 013001.DOI: 10.1103/2hy7-w3qb.

• Torres-Boy, A.Y.; Taccone, M.I.; Ober, K.; Osenton, M.B.T.; Meijer, G.; von Helden, G.; Martínez-Haya, B. (2025). Spectroscopic investigation of proton bonding at sub-kelvin temperatures. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 27(4), 1990-2000. DOI: 10.1039/D4CP04058A

Projects

Construction underway.

Contact

• Google Scholar
• LinkedIn
• Orcid ID

Attributions

• Jai Parhar and Romain Tirole, amongst others for providing website inspiration
• Sephai Nagareboshi and Dhruv Rawat for being my personal stack exchange
• HTML5 UP for code foundations
• Formspree for form hosting