POB Seminar - Silicon subwavelength devices for efficient Brillouin scattering **Join EPC at General Assembly**

The EPFL Photonics Chapter (EPC) is very pleased to announce and cordially invite you to our monthly ‘Pizza-Optics-Beer’ (POB) seminar on February 19th, at 18:15 in room DIA 003. 

This month we will have the pleasure to host Paula Nuño Ruano - postdoctoral researcher in the Photonic Systems Laboratory (PHOSL) with the presentation entitled:

"Silicon subwavelength devices for efficient Brillouin scattering"

The talk will be followed by the General Assembly of our association, and the apéro (pizza&beer).

For organizational purposes (if you want to eat pizza!), please confirm your participation using this Doodle.
Don’t hesitate to extend the invitation to any colleague!

Hope to see you there,
The team of the EPFL Photonics Chapter



Abstract:
Silicon photonics attracts immense interest in fundamental research and technological and commercial development in a wide variety of fields, such as on-chip signal processing, sensing, on-chip to free-space communications, and even quantum information and computing. In this context, Brillouin scattering emerges as a promising tool for the next generation of integrated circuits. This nonlinear interaction between light and mechanical modes of a structure couples optical photons (in the THz regime) with MHz- and GHz-phonons, allowing a very efficient frequency conversion. This property is critical for microwave signal processing and quantum transduction between superconducting qubits and optical fibres, for instance. Novel integrated designs yielding strong optomechanical coupling have been an active research field since the early 2000s. Due to their small size, tight light confinement, and large optical interaction with the structure boundaries, these new geometries promise an exceptional optomechanical response. In this talk, I present some of our results on subwavelength engineering for enhancing Brillouin scattering in silicon devices. Subwavelength structures, i.e., periodic geometries with a pitch smaller than half the optical wavelength, offer unique control of light propagation, anisotropy, and optical mode engineering. Thanks to recent developments in fabrication facilities, these structures promise a new generation of silicon-on-insulator compact devices with novel capabilities without incorporating new materials. I will show how these devices offer new solutions to some of the main challenges of the field. 



You don't know POBs?
POBs (Pizza-Optics-Beer) are monthly seminars organized by the student association EPFL Photonics Chapter.
A PhD or a postdoc gives a 20-minutes presentation about his/her research in photonics. Discussions continue informally around pizza and beers!
The event is free and open to anyone.


Join us at General Assembly!
The General Assembly is open to everyone. Joining EPC as a committee member is a great chance to have closer connections to your peers in academia and industry. As a member, you will have funding to invite speakers from around the world and organize social activities. You may also benefit from travel grants and registration fee waivers. 

We thank the Doctoral Program in Photonics (EPDO), the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE.), Optica and SwissPhotonics for their support.