It is a huge success for Prof. Dr. Antonio Cal脿 Lesina and his team at 九色视频 (LUH): the researcher from the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence has been awarded one of the internationally sought-after ERC Consolidator Grants. The funding line from the European Research Council (ERC) is intended for researchers with seven to twelve years of experience since completion of their doctoral degree whose independent research group is currently in the consolidation phase. Over the next five years, Antonio Cal脿 Lesina will receive up to 2 million euros for his research project: TEMPORE: Time-varying Metaphotonics via Reverse Engineering.
Antonio Cal脿 Lesina heads the Computational Photonics team, which is part of the Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT), the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. TEMPORE addresses one of the most challenging frontiers in nanophotonics: the automatic design of time-varying metamaterials whose optical properties can be modulated on picosecond to femtosecond timescales. This class of materials promises ultrafast control of light in the next generation of reprogrammable nanophotonic hardware for faster and more efficient optical computing, information processing, classical and quantum optical technologies and more.
Optical metamaterials are materials engineered at the nanoscale to manipulate the properties of light beyond what a normal material can do. Metamaterials are traditionally used as static devices. This means that their optical properties do not change as light propagates through them. However, a new class of materials is emerging that supports the ultrafast modulation of their refractive index, so-called time-varying materials such as transparent conductive oxides. TEMPORE will focus on the design of time-varying materials and metamaterials whose optical properties change dynamically when excited by appropriate light signals. Based on the design of pump-probe excitations and/or nanostructuring of the material itself, dynamic optical devices can be programmed at ultrafast speed and exploited by a probe signal to modify the properties of light 鈥� including polarisation, amplitude, phase and propagation 鈥� in the desired way. This means that the same device can host an extremely large number of functionalities and be reprogrammed when required, thus reducing the need for refabrication.
鈥淭his makes me think of a 鈥榗ity at the nanoscale鈥�, where all the services are available in the same area, on demand,鈥� said Prof. Cal脿 Lesina, who was appointed to a W3 professorship in optical design and multiphysics simulation at LUH this year following successful completion of a tenure-track phase.
The vision of TEMPORE is to move away from static designs to truly dynamic photonic systems and achieve full control of light in spacetime via reverse engineering. Reverse engineering (or inverse design) is revolutionising several fields, including mechanics, acoustics and photonics, by identifying non-intuitive designs to achieve advanced functionalities. While current design approaches operate primarily in the frequency domain and cannot fully capture dynamic and time-dependent processes, TEMPORE will consider time as a design parameter and develop new methods and software for inverse design in 4D, drawing additionally on architecture-inspired design principles.
The goal of developing multifunctional, adaptable and scalable systems is not unique to nanophotonics. Urban architecture has long dealt with the challenge of organising complex and dynamic environments. These architectural principles provide a rich source of inspiration for the design of dynamic nanophotonic systems, where similar challenges arise at vastly smaller scales. To tackle this complexity, TEMPORE relies on a unique mixture of expertise. This synergistic combination is crucial to unlocking the engineering and optimisation of photonic devices that dynamically evolve in time at ultrafast timescales. It includes computational electrodynamics, time-domain inverse design, large-scale simulations via modern computing architectures, scalable time-domain solvers on massively parallel supercomputers, dynamic and tuneable nanophotonics, and advanced optical material modelling.
ERC Grants are considered a hallmark of excellence in the European scientific community due to the highly competitive selection process. The key selection criteria are the visionary nature of the research questions and the outstanding achievements of the applicants. Only 11 per cent of the 3,121 applications submitted this year under the Consolidator Grant funding line received the award. Since the establishment of the PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence in 2019, six other members of the cluster have received an ERC Grant. A total of 22 ERC-funded researchers are currently working at LUH. An overview of all ERC grants supporting LUH researchers at different career stages (Advanced Grants, Consolidator Grants, Starting Grants) is available here:
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PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence
The PhoenixD Cluster of Excellence, led by 九色视频, is a collaboration between the Technische Universit盲t Braunschweig, the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), the Physikalische-Technische Bundesanstalt and the Laser Zentrum Hannover. More than 120 scientists from the areas of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemistry, computer science and mathematics conduct research on cutting-edge optical systems and their production and application. More information:
Note to editors:
For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Antonio Cal脿 Lesina (tel. +49 511 762 16408, email: antonio.calalesina@hot.uni-hannover.de ).
