Projects

OPTIcal liMiting and SwiTching with nanoscale photonic structures (OPTIMIST), in collaboration with Prof. Dragomir Neshev of the Australian National University in Canberra.

The METAFAST project aims to develop a novel class of synthetic nonlinear optical materials, or metamaterials, as a disruptive platform enabling unprecedented ultrafast dynamical control over polarization and wavefront of light. In particular, we will develop ultracompact all-optical modulators capable of faster than ever structuring of the spin and orbital angular momentum (SOAM) of light beams. Such ultrafast optical modulation offers an exceptionally robust method for the encoding of digital information in free space optical links, being also resistant to eavesdropping thanks to topological protection. The project is coordinated by Prof. Giuseppe Della Valle (Politecnico of Milano) in collaboration with Prof. Costantino De Angelis (University of Brescia), Prof. Giuseppe Leo (University of Paris), Prof. Thomas Pertsch (Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena), Prof. Ivan Buchvarov (John Atanasoff Center for Bio and Nano Photonics).

PI of the NOMEN project. NOMEN is about exploiting a new concept that has been recently introduced, first theoretically and then experimentally, namely the efficient use of second order nonlinear optics in metal-less nanoantennas and metasurfaces. The key idea is to demonstrate for the first time non-homogeneous all-dielectric metasurfaces for frequency conversion with complete tunable control of the spatial, polarization and frequency properties of the emitted photons exploiting second order nonlinear processes. This huge leap forward in the field will be a real breakthrough. Both classical and quantum frequency conversion processes driven by second order nonlinearities in all-dielectric metasurfaces will be addressed, since they offer many opportunities not yet exploited in several branches of basic and applied science. The project is coordinated by the University of Brescia in collaboration with: Prof. Michele Celebrano (Politecnico of Milano), Dott.ssa Monica Bollani (CNR-IFN), Prof. Lucio Andreani (University of Pavia).

PI of the OMEN project. OMEN capitalises on a newly developed scheme for enhanced second order optical nonlinearities to design, fabricate and test new classical and quantum platforms based on all-dielectric nanoantennas and metasurfaces. OMEN will fulfil its ambitious goals by engineering near and far field patterns of nanoantennas and by demonstrating all-dielectric metasurfaces featuring control over the spatial, polarization and frequency properties of the nonlinearly-generated photons. We intend to prove that in these dielectric metasurfaces sum and difference frequency generation and spontaneous parametric down conversion can all be efficiently achieved. OMEN is designed to establish a framework for our researchers to access both fabrication and characterization facilities in an integrated fashion, fostering new research activities that will in the end spur applications for nanoscale photonic devices. The Project OMEN is in collaboration with the University Paris Diderot.

PI for the University of Brescia of the "Erasmus Mundus on Innovative Microwave Electronics and Optics" (EMIMEO) project.

The project’s partners are the University of Limoges (UNILIM, France), the University of Brescia (UNIBS, Italy), the Aston University (UK), and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU, Spain). The associate partner University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) will also contribute to the learning programme. A panel of 15 industrial Associated Partners, including SMEs, large accompanies and associations, will support the EMIMEO programme through concrete contributions and will constitute an effective network for Master’s theses with the prospect for future career development. In a context of an increasing demand of research and industrial applications around these topics, EMIMEO Masters is a concrete solution to improve the number of highly qualified students for feeding the research labs and for meeting the demand of the industrial sector. EMIMEO is a thoroughly integrated programme with a jointly developed curriculum. Areas covered range from the fundamentals of microwave electronics and photonics to their implementations with new technologies in wired and wireless communications, moving from components to system architectures for communication systems and networks.