EE Distinguished Speakers Seminar: Nano-optics gets practical

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Date 25.09.2020
Hour 13:0014:00
Speaker Romain Quidant received a PhD in Physics (2002) from the University of Dijon, in France. After defending his thesis, he joined ICFO as a postdoctoral researcher, where he got actively involved into the early developments of this newly created and now renowned research Institute. In 2006, he was appointed junior Professor (tenure-track) and group leader of the Plasmon NanoOptics group at ICFO. In 2009, he became tenure Professor both at ICFO and ICREA. Starting from June 1st 2020, he joined the Department of Mechanical and Process engineering at ETHZ as the director of the Nanophotonic System Laboratory. While his core expertise is in fundamental nano-optics, he is very much interested in multidisciplinary research, interfacing physics with other disciplines of science, as well as in technology transfer. He is the recipient of 4 ERC grants (StG2010, PoC2011, PoC2015 and CoG2015) and several international and national prizes (Fresnel prize 2009, City of BCN 2010, ICO prize 2012, CAT2014, BS2017). Since 2019, he serves as the excecutive editor of ACSPhotonics (American Chemical Society). His group is at the origin of different technologies incubated, and one start-up created (Droplite).
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Category Conferences - Seminars

Abstract: Twenty years of extensive research in the field of nanooptics have enabled us to considerably advance light control on the nanometer scale. Beyond the original peak of inflated expectation, the assets of nanooptics over other technologies, along with its limitations, became clearer. More recently, the field has entered into the slope of enlightenment in which its actual contribution to both basic research and novel technologies has been better identified. In this talk, following a general introduction on the main assets of nano-optics, we will review different aspects of our research where nano-optical resonators are used as an enabling technology that can benefit a wide range of scientific disciplines, all the way from reconfigurable planar optics to biomedicine.

The first part of the talk focuses on our recent efforts towards reconfigurable metasurfaces. Our approach relies on dynamically controlling the refractive index in the close vicinity of a silicon metalens by means of a resistor embedded in a thermo-optical polymer. We demonstrate precise and continuous tuneability of the focal length, and achieve focal length variations larger than the Rayleigh length for voltage as low as 10V and time-response in the 10ms range. We also demonstrate that by solving the inverse problem, we are able to deterministically achieve any desired phase front. In the second part of the talk, we discuss the use of both dielectric and metallic nanoresonators in the context of biosensing and lab-on-a-chip technology. The sensors are integrated into a state-of-the-art PDMS microfluidic environment and their surface functionalized to achieve specific detection of the targeted biomarkers. We directly compare the performance of gold and silicon nanosensors and discuss their respective advantages. Finally, we discuss our latest advances in the field of thermoplasmonics, presenting two new application in additive manufacturing (3D printing) and disinfection of surgical implants.

Zoom link: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/97572543914