Kaushik Balakrishnan has researched microfabrication techniques to pattern polarizers using dichroic dyes with wavelengths ranging from visible to infrared. He has achieved control over linear and circular polarization through multi-layer patterning and developed cholesteric liquid crystals that allow tuning polarization wavelengths from 0.4 to 4 micrometers, as evidenced by his publications in Applied Optics, Journal of the Optical Society of America A, and Optics Express.