The mission of the Center for Photonic Science and Engineering is to promote a transfer of the innovative research and development in area of photonics into real sector of economics. The areas of nowadays R&D topics are stipulated by demands and strategies of our industrial partner, domestic and international. The administrative structure of the Center is designed to be able to react promptly on new social challenges and emerging scientific fundamental achievements. Center for Photonic Science and Engineering strategy is in building of full-scale chains from fundamental research to applications and hence distribute own activity between fundamental and applied research with reasonable partition.
In respond to the main national wide initiative, Center focuses on the R&D mostly in areas related to optical communication and signal processing: fiber optic communication systems, free space communication, optical distributed sensor systems, optical simulators and optical computers, atomic clock systems, key distributed systems etc. We see our niche in the creation of an ecosystem for design and production of Photonic Integrated Circuits that are of great demand for any photonic applications.
In addition to that, Center hosts cutting edge activities in area of bio-photonics, producing and applications of carbon nanotubes and other new materials, and developing algorithms for future computing.
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Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis is an expert in advanced spectroscopy, optical computing and exciton-polariton physics . He is known as a pioneer in the field of polaritonics with the first demonstration of polariton lasing at room temperature and the first demonstration of an ultra-fast all-optical room-temperature transistor. His main research focuses are at present the study of exotic polariton lattices, vortices and spinor states, with an aim towards applications in non-conventional computing. Polariton Simulators Several platforms are currently being explored for simulating physical systems whose complexity increases faster than polynomially with the number of particles or degrees of freedom in the system. Many of these computationally intractable problems can be mapped into classical spin models such as the Ising and the XY models and simulated by a suitable physical system. We theoretically proposed and experimentally demonstrated that polariton condensate lattices are an efficient simulator for finding the global minimum of the classical XY Hamiltonian in inorganic InGaAs quantum well microcavities. By imprinting polariton condensate lattices of bespoke geometries, a large variety of systems undergoing the U(1) symmetry breaking transitions can be simulated. Such simulators provide a route to study unconventional superfluids, spin-liquids, Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition, classical magnetism among the many systems that are described by the XY Hamiltonian. This project focuses on exploring the potential of polariton lattices, printed either optically in the case of planar cavities or lithographically in the case of textured cavities, as an analogue simulator to solve non-deterministic polynomial complete and hard problems.Highlighted publications: [1] “Realizing the classical XY Hamiltonian in polariton simulators”, N.G. Berloff et al., Nature Materials 16, 1120–1126 (2017) [2] “Solving the max-3-cut problem using synchronized dissipative networks”, S. L. Harrison et al., Physical Review Applied 17, 024063 (2022) [3] “Polariton condensates for classical and quantum computing”, A. Kavokin et al., Nature Reviews Physics (2022) Polariton Neuromorphic Computing The relevance of this direction is emphasized by the rapid development of reservoir computation methods, i.e. classes of neural networks that provide a simple scheme for processing temporal data. Non-linearity in such systems is separated from network training, which allows for fast processing of information with low training costs. Many nonlinear dynamic systems have been used as potential reservoirs, including electronic, photonic, mechanical, and biological systems; and more recently – which is of relevance for this project – networks of polariton condensates have been employed as potential reservoirs. Combined with the potential for on-chip implementation at room temperature, polaritons become a compelling candidate for reservoir computing.Highlighted publications: [1] “Reservoir optics with exciton-polariton condensates”, Y. Wang et al., Phys. Rev. B 104 (23) 235306 (Dec 2021) Polariton Digital Logic & Circuits Current state-of-the-art CMOS transistors, although at single nanometre dimensions, typically require switching energies on the order of a few hundred attojoules. The energy consumption of our current CMOS electronics has become a major roadblock for further progress to satisfy Moore’s Law. Many more efficient concepts like single electron transistors, however, are incompatible with room temperature operation and are not compatible with established CMOS-like processing. Optical transistors could fill this gap and non-equilibrium exciton-polariton BECs have already demonstrated a great potential to develop into an integrable and scalable all-optical platform towards full scale polariton processors. The project aims to lay the foundations for a new technology by producing the first-ever optically integrated logic circuit – a universal set of logic gates – based on strong light-matter coupling in organic materials. The nonlinearity provided by stimulated scattering of polaritons can be exploited to realize transistor functionality, amplification and switching. In a remarkable breakthrough, the Hybrid Photonics Labs at Skoltech, in collaboration with international partners including IBM, succeeded in building the first ever all-optical transistor capable of operating at room temperature by exploiting an organic semiconducting polymer [1]. However, the all-optical transistor demonstrated required millions of photons in its operation, and thus relatively high switching power. In a recent devellopment, we could further demonstrate ultra-fast (THz) optical switching at the quantum limit with a single photon, corresponding to sub-attojoule switching energies [2].Highlighted publications: [1] “A room-temperature organic polariton transistor”, A. V. Zasedatelev et al., Nature Photonics 13, 378–383 (2019) [2] “Single-photon nonlinearity at room temperature”, A. Zasedatelev et al., Nature 597 (7877), 493-497 (2021) |
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Professor Albert Nasibulin specializes in the aerosol synthesis of nanomaterials (nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and tetrapods), investigation of their growth mechanism and their applications. At the moment his main recent research topic is devoted to transparent, flexible, stretchable and conductive single-walled CNT films and their applications. Solar sells on heterojunctions CNT/silica
Artificial nose on the basis of CNT matrix
Stretchable electronic components based on nanomaterials
Ultrasound generation using free-standing carbon nanotube films
Synthesis of single wall nanotubes with controlled chirality
Doping of the single wall nanotubes for improvement of transparent electronic devices
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Assistant professor Yuriy Gladush is working in the field of optical properties of nanomaterials and its applications in fiber and integrated optics. His research background includes theory of nonlinear waves, excitation dynamics and optoelectronic response of semiconductors. In present time his research is focused on the application of the carbon nanotubes for the ultra-fast lasers and nonlinear wavelength conversion. Ultrafast fiber laser at 920 nm Fiber lasers, emitting in the region between 1 and 2 μm, have proven to be excellent ultrafast laser source making use of soliton mode locking. At shorter wavelength the niche is dominated by titanium sapphire lasers with its huge gain bandwidth and excellent beam profile and pulse quality. Many applications are relying on Ti:Sa laser, however, its high cost, bulkiness and strict alignment requirements are limiting application of this laser out of laboratory conditions. In our group we are developing all-fiber ultra-fast laser working in the spectral domain of Ti:Sa, which will be alignment-free, much cheaper, more robust. This development will help promoting transfer of ultrafast laser technology into real life applications. ![]() [1] “Nd-Doped Polarization Maintaining All-Fiber Laser With Dissipative Soliton Resonance Mode-Locking at 905 nm“, A. A. Mkrtchyan et al., J. Lightwave Technol. 39, 5582-5588 (2021) Nanomaterials with tunable nonlinear response
It is known that nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes and graphene, demonstrate high nonlinear optical response. The relative simplicity of its integration on any surface opens opportunities for enhancement of the nonlinear response of various types of passive waveguides. One example is application of carbon nanotubes on a fiber tip or a polished side as a saturable absorber for passive mode locking of ultrafast lasers. The enhancement of a four wave mixing signal in integrated photonic waveguides, covered with graphene or carbon nanotubes, was also demonstrated. Moreover, high surface to volume ratio of these materials makes them very sensitive to local environment, opening opportunities for control of its nonlinear response. We have demonstrated control over saturable absorption of carbon nanotubes by electrochemical gating, and, by this, controlling the pulsing regime of the fiber laser. In this project we investigate the possibilities of control of nonlinear optical response in carbon nanomaterials by various methods including electrochemical gating and local fields enhancement on photonic crystals. ![]() Highlighted publications: [1] “Direct measurement of carbon nanotube temperature between fiber ferrules as a universal tool for saturable absorber stability investigation”, D. Galiakhmetova et al. , Carbon, 184, 941-948, (2021) [2] “Ionic liquid gated carbon nanotube saturable absorber for pulse generation regime switching”, Yu. Gladush et al., Nano Letters, 199, 5836-5843, (2019) |
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Prof. Dmitry Gorin concentrates on the application of a combination of material science approaches, acoustic and photonic tools in biomedicine. He is a coauthor of pioneer works related to optoacoustic probe based on hollow core microstructured waveguide, ultrasound sensitive layer by layer capsules, multimodal contrast agents, photonic based gas- and liquid sensors etc. New types of multimodal contrast and theranostic agents, optics-based sensors, optoacoustic probes have been already elaborated. Elaboration of optoacoustic probe for intravascular/endoscopic application for identification of atherosclerosis plug type ![]() “Optoacoustic Effect in a Hybrid Multilayered Membrane Deposited on a Hollow-Core Microstructured Optical Waveguide”, A. N. Kaydanov et al., ACS Photonics 8(11), 3346–3356 (2021) Gas/Liquid Sensors for diagnostics Gas/Liquid Sensors for diagnostics of a pathology state and transient processes from normal state to pathology as well as evaluation of medical treatment efficiency based on combination of Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) and microfluidics or a hollow core microstructured waveguides (in collaboration with G.Golzman’s Group and industrial, academic and clinical partners) ![]() “Hybrid nanophotonic–microfluidic sensor for highly sensitive liquid and gas analyses”, A. Kuzin et al. Optics Letters 47(9), 2358-2361 (2022) Optical methods for monitoring the growth of the diatom algae and their activity in the carbon dioxide capturing ![]() “Photoacoustic and fluorescence lifetime imaging of diatoms”, J. Cvjetinovic et al. Photoacoustics 18, 100171 (2020) |