E-MRS Spring 2012 - Symposium N

Control of light at the nanoscale: materials, techniques and applications

 Full Program Sympo N 861.54 Kb

Our control of light over truly nanoscopic dimensions has dramatically increased over the last two decades, largely thanks to the use of metal in nanophotonics – which is often called plasmonics. It is believed that once mature, this field of research will revolutionize the way computers are built, leaving electronics behind for unprecedentedly faster devices and with larger bandwidths. It has already revolutionized many other areas of science: imaging, remote sensing, telecommunications and these developments are also used for a novel class of biosensors, which combine highest sensitivity and ultraminiaturization.

Scope

This symposium aims to gather researchers interested in improving the control over light at a truly nanoscale level. Many exciting proof of principle have recently demonstrated that the use of metal in nanophotonics could bridge the gap between photonics and electronics, opening the door to devices able to operate at tens of GHz – or more, with unprecedented bandwidths, and of truly nanoscale dimensions. While investigating the benefits of using metals for nanophotonics, a few commercial applications blossomed: SERS, biosensing… However, much remains to be done to bring all the promising ideas proposed in the wake of these investigations into the real world – major issues have to be addressed, such as the lossy character of the nanophotonic materials using metals.

Discussions will be focused on presenting the recent breakthroughs in the ability to control, concentrate, and produce light at the nanoscale – evolving towards quantum optics / computing on the nanoscale. Emphasis will be put on the methods to fabricate and characterize the materials enabling these abilities: advanced fabrication methods (e-beam, FIB, self-assembly…) and deeply sub-wavelength and/or time resolved microscopic methods applied to nanophotonics (SNOM, EELS, PEEM…). Moreover, the effort towards nanophotonic devices will be developed via the discussion of active components (ultrafast modulators, switches, etc…) and strategies to guide and concentrate light on a subwavelength scale. The symposium will also address the question of how the community tackles the problem of attenuation in plasmonic structures. Eventually, progress on all these fronts is fostered by the development of computational or theoretical models – this will be touched upon by this symposium as well.  

Hot topics to be covered by the symposium

• Control of emission properties at the nanoscale, optical antennas
• Nanosources of light, nanolasers 
• Overcoming losses in metal-based nanophotonic systems
• Quantum optics in nanostructures
• Plasmonics, from devices to exotic applications
• Active nanophotonic materials and devices
• Nanomaterials for light to electricity conversion
• Nanomaterials for bioanalytics and surface enhanced spectroscopies (SERS, LSPR-sensors, SEIRA...)
• Fabrication techniques for nanophotonic structures
• Characterisation techniques for nanophotonics: SNOM, EELS, PEEM, time resolved, near-field induced photopolymerisation...
• Advances in computational techniques and theory for nanophotonics

Invited speakers

Martin Aeschlimann (Kaiserlautern), Mario Agio (ETH Zürich), Harry Atwater (Caltec), Erik Dujardin (CNRS, Toulouse), Chris Geddes (University of Maryland), Serge Huant (CNRS Grenoble), Mikhail Lukin (Harvard), Albert Polman (AMOLF Amsterdam), Ding Ping Tsai (National Taiwan University), Niek van Hulst (ICFO Barcelona), Anatoly Zayats (King’s College London), Nikolay Zheludev (University of Southampton)

Sponsors:

Symposium organizers

Yannick Sonnefraud
Imperial College London
Blackett Laboratory
Experimental Solid State Group
Department of Physics
Prince Consort Rd
London SW7 2AZ, UK
Phone: +44 (0)75 8029 6083
Fax: +44 (0)20 759 42077
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Ai Leen Koh
Stanford University
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials
McCullough Building Rm 315
Stanford CA 94305, USA
Phone: +1.650.723.1686
Fax: +1.650.723.4034
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Wolfgang Fritzsche
Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT)
Nanobiophotonics Department
PO Box 100 239, 07702 Jena, Germany
Phone: +49-(0)3641-206304
Fax: +49-(0)3641-206344
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Pol van Dorpe
IMEC
Kapeldreef 75
B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Phone: +32 16 28 10 26
Fax: +32 16 22 94 00
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G. Colas des Francs
ICB (CNRS/Univ. Bourgogne)
9, av. Savary
21078 Dijon, France
Phone: +33 (0)380 39 90 67
Fax: +33 (0)380 39 60 24
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