About Me

I am currently a postdoc working with Prof. Sylvain Gigan at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel. Previously, I worked with Prof. Francesco Monticone in Cornell ECE. I completed my Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Cornell University in Dec. 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Gennady Shvets. I received my bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).

News

  • [Jan. 2026] I will present my research on the spatial complexity of optics and optimization and pruning for space-efficient optics in Les Houches, France.

Selected Publications

The Spatial Complexity of Optical Computing

The spatial complexity of optical computing: toward space-efficient design

Yandong Li and Francesco Monticone

Nature Communications, 2025 | code

Metamaterial optical computational advantage

Exploring the role of metamaterials in achieving advantage in optical computing

Yandong Li and Francesco Monticone

Nature Computational Science, 2024

Topology-enabled photonic cavity

Topology-Controlled Photonic Cavity Based on the Near-Conservation of the Valley Degree of Freedom

Yandong Li, Yang Yu, Fengyu Liu, Baile Zhang, and Gennady Shvets

Physical Review Letters (Editors' Suggestion), 2020 | arXiv

broadband light localization

Broadband localization of light at the termination of a topological photonic waveguide

Daniël Muis*, Yandong Li*, René Barczyk, Sonakshi Arora, Gennady Shvets, Laurens Kuipers, and Ewold Verhagen

Science Advances, 2025 | arXiv

hyperbolic topological state

Deep subwavelength topological edge state in a hyperbolic medium

Lorenzo Orsini, Hanan Herzig Sheinfux, Yandong Li, Seojoo Lee, Gian Marcello Andolina, Orazio Scarlatella, Matteo Ceccanti, Karuppasamy Soundarapandian, Eli Janzen, James H. Edgar, Gennady Shvets, and Frank H. L. Koppens

Nature Nanotechnology, 2024 | arXiv

Publication Image 6

Topological Directional Coupler

Yandong Li, Minwoo Jung, Yang Yu, Yuchen Han, Baile Zhang, and Gennady Shvets

Laser & Photonics Reviews, 2024 | arXiv

Publication Image 5

Mode-selective single-dipole excitation and controlled routing of guided waves in a multi-mode topological waveguide

Yandong Li, Yang Yu, Kueifu Lai, Yuchen Han, Fei Gao, Baile Zhang, and Gennady Shvets

Applied Physics Letters (Featured on the Cover), 2022 | arXiv

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