Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Nonreciprocal nanophotonics: a new disruptive way to control light with nanotechnology

Project description

Novel photon control paves the way for nanoscale nonreciprocal photonics

Active control of light has the potential to significantly enhance the capabilities of nanophotonics and enable far more robust circuits harnessing photons as information carriers. One promising way of controlling light is with so-called nonreciprocal effects. However, most studies of nonreciprocal control of light have focused on magnetoelectric materials and strong magnets not compatible with nanophotonics. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Nanophotonics project is building on studies of nonlinear light generation in topological nanostructures with the goal of demonstrating world-first nanoscale nonreciprocal photonic components.

Objective

The project aims to introduce new ways to control photons, elementary particles of light, similar to ways we control electrons with semiconductor diodes and transistors. Nonreciprocal control of light underpins several vital evolving technologies, including information and communications technologies. Expected outcomes include demonstrations of world-first nanoscale nonreciprocal photonic components.

We live in an information-driven society. Our exponentially growing data exchange has well-surpassed a zetta-byte per year, that’s a number with 21 zeros. The revolution in information and communications technologies started from miniaturisation of nonreciprocal electronics, semiconductor diodes and transistors. The pathway to cope with the increasing demand for data transfer is to replace electronics with photonics. We are progressing through this transition by first replacing copper wires transmitting electrons with optical fibres transmitting photons in communication networks, then photonics replaces electronics inside devices, their integrated circuits, and ultimately microchips. This creates an increasing demand for miniaturisation of photonic elements, with nonreciprocal components being among the most challenging. The dominant pathway to nonreciprocity relies on magneto-electric materials and strong magnets that are incompatible with nanotechnology. Another approach uses time-modulated systems that cannot be foreseen nanoscaled with existing technology.

Nonreciprocal photonics today is bulky.

A conceptually different pathway is required to bring nonreciprocal optics to the nanoscale, and I recently made a preliminary demonstration (Kruk et al., Nature Nanotechnology 2019 acknowledged with 2019 IUPAP Young Scientist Award). To take nonreciprocal components to the nanoscale, I propose to merge fields of nonlinear and topological photonics and I seek for an opportunity to build up on the gained momentum and to establish a dedicated research in this direction.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET PADERBORN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 174 806,40
Address
WARBURGER STRASSE 100
33098 Paderborn
Germany

See on map

Region
Nordrhein-Westfalen Detmold Paderborn
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 174 806,40
My booklet 0 0