He is known, among other things, for his work on quasiperiodic superlattices, squeezed phonons, and, most recently, for the discovery of "superfocusing", a method for creating lenses that can surpass the diffraction limit without using negative refraction materials.
In 2000, he received a joint appointment to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
In 2006 he received the Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids from the American Physical Society.
[3] Merlin does a variety of interdisciplinary work, mostly related to condensed matter physics.
He has done research on Raman spectroscopy, rare-earth magnet semiconductors, superconductors, superlattices, ultrafast lasers, intercalated graphite, and negative refraction.