Research

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.

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

Polariton Neuromorphic Computing

Polariton Digital Logic & Circuits

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

Details	The efficiency of 1.5% obtained by us for this kind of a structure is state of the art till date [(1.) Solid State Commun. 150 561–3, (2) Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 183113].
Objectives for 2016	Optimization of interface between CNT/a-Si layers, and device architecture for higher conversion efficiency. Fabrication of SWCNT/a-Si heterostructures. Extending SWCNT as front contact replacing the traditional TCO/metal owing to its very promising opto-electrical properties. Preparation and paper publication of the research results in an international scientific journal indexed in the Scopus data base, or in “WEB of science”.
Results/current status	The current status is as follows: Dry and chemical etching of thick native oxide layer on a-Si. Surface treatment of a-Si. Interface engineering between a-Si and SWCNT for optimizing the energy levels. Doping of SWCNT for higher conductivity retaining the transparency. Modifying SWCNT for exploring the possibility to replace traditional metal grids as front contacts.
Team and Collaborations	Dr. Sergei Bereznev, Tallinn University of Technology.Department of Materials Science Dr. Oleg Sergeev, R&D Manager New Technologies, Division Photovoltaics, NEXT ENERGY
External funding	H2020 program – ERA-NET
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Adinath M. Funde, Albert G. Nasibulin, Hashmi Gufran Syed, Anton S. Anisimov, Alexey Tsapenko, Peter Lund, J. D. Santos, I. Torres, J. J. Gandía, J. Cárabe, and A. D. Rozenberg, Igor A. Levitsky (2016) Carbon nanotube – amorphous silicon hybrid solar cell with improved conversion efficiency. Nanotechnology. 27(18) 185401 (6pp)
Potential Impact	The efficiency of 1.5% obtained by us for this kind of a structure is state of the art till date [(1.) Solid State Commun. 150 561–3, (2) Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 183113]. The fabrication of the proposed solar cell partially eliminates the complex, expensive vacuum techniques and replace with very simple dry transfer technique [ACS Nano 5 3214–21] of high quality pristine SWCNT. Moreover, these SWCNT owing to its opto-electrical properties are very promising to replace the conventional TCO/ITO as front and back contacts. This leads the way to extending CNT for exploring the possibility of an ‘All Carbon solar cell’. Thus, making the structure very economical, environmentally stable and less hazardous.

Artificial nose on the basis of CNT matrix

Details	Development of high-precision compact gas sensor based on carbon nanotubes using the features of artificial neural networks for processing signals from various gas mixtures with different concentrations. The main idea based on the fact that pristine and chemically processed carbon nanotubes (CNT:) are very sensitive to different gas concentrations. The electrical properties of these structures strongly depend on the surrounding atmosphere. The artificial neural networks are proposed to be used for processing combination of electrical signals from CNT sensors treated in a different way.
Objectives for 2016	Start experiments on electrical engineering and chemical treatment of carbon nanotubes. Launch of equipment and start measurements.
Results/current status	In progress (starts in the end of 2016), funded by Skoltech. Under going search and hire of a postdoc and PhD stidents. Almost all of the necessary equipment has already been purchased: gas distribution system for creation of different gas mixtures, temperature controlled stage Linkam for electrical measurements in different temperatures and surrounding gases, commutator Keysight. Purchasing of plasma treater for CNT processing is planned in the nearest future.
Team and Collaborations	Albert Nasibulin (PI); Postdoc (electrical engineering, general management) – to be hired; Ph.D. student (chemical processing); MS Student (experiments for neural network learning)
External funding	Additional funding provided to Res3arch package
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Not yet
Potential Impact	Artificial nose is very promising technology which can be applied in different R&D and technical areas such as quality control (detection of contamination and spoilage; monitoring of storage conditions), process and production (comparison with a reference product, measurement and comparison of the effects of manufacturing process on product, scale-up monitoring), health and security (quality control of food products, detection of dangerous and harmful contamination, detect odourless chemicals) etc.

Stretchable electronic components based on nanomaterials

Details	Developed a prototype of transparent supercapacitor with a specific capacitance of 17.5 F g-1, which can be stretched up to 120% with practically no variation in the electrochemical performance after 1000 stretching cycles and 1000 charging-discharging cycles.
Objectives for 2016	Develop working prototype of stretchable device based on piezo-generator film (PVDF) and supercapacitors. Study of optical, electrical and mechanical properties of stretchable electrodes made of CNT films. Apply to STRIP Skoltech contest 2016 with the project on piezo-supercap device. Patent submission on piezo-supercap device.
Results/current status	Almost in progress (in 2015). All the necessary equipment is purchased and delivered (tensile testing mechanical device, tensile stage for SEM measurements and investigation), delivery of Test Cell (Japan) by the end of 2016 is expected. STRIP proposal was submitted in 2015 and passed to a final stage of the contest, proposal was one of the finalist of “Green Chip” contest by ROSNANO.
Team@Collaborations	Albert Nasibulin (Principal Inviestigator)Team: Evgenia Gilshteyn, Daler Amanbaev, Vladislav Tkachuk; Collaborators: Tania Kallio, Research Group of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University; Ekaterina Fedorovskaya, Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences; Maxim Silibin, MIET (National Research University of Electronic Technology).
External funding	N/A
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Evgenia P. Gilshteyn, Tanja Kallio, Petri Kanninen, Ekaterina Fedorovskaya, Anton S. Anisimov, Albert G. Nasibulin (2016) Stretchable and transparent supercapacitors based on aerosol synthesized single-walled carbon nanotube films. RSC Advances 2016, Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1039/C6RA20319A
Potential Impact	Transparent energy conversion and storage devices have recently attracted increasing attention due to their great potential as integrated power sources for displays and windows in buildings, automobiles and aerospace vehicles. On the other hand, mechanical stretchability coupled with optical transparency of the energy storage devices is required for many other applications, ranging from self-powered rolled-up displays to self-powered wearable optoelectronics. The design of highly stretchable devices is an essential element in the development of many unprecedented applications such as electronic skin and smart energy storage clothes. Portable and wearable supercapacitors, coupled with either self-healability or stretchability, have particularly become a mainstream in the personalized electronics. In addition, aerosol synthesized and collected on a filter SWCNTs can be effectively transferred to any substrate, including stretchable substrate materials such as PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane). They fulfil all the requirements for low-cost, stretchable and transparent electronics.

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

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

Nanomaterials with tunable nonlinear response

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

Gas/Liquid Sensors for diagnostics

Optical methods for monitoring the growth of the diatom algae and their activity in the carbon dioxide capturing

Assistant Prof. Sakellaris Mailis‘ expertise lies in the area of laser-matter interaction, optical waveguide fabrication and characterization, direct laser writing, ferroelectric domain engineering and nonlinear optics. In particular his research activity focuses on the laser-synthesis of two dimensional semiconductor materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides, spanning from the dynamics of material growth through to materials characterization (optical and electrical) and device demonstration. Further subjects of research in his group include the development of photonic circuits based on nano-porous silicon as well as laser processing of the novel thin film lithium niobate photonic platform.

Laser synthesis of 2D materials

Micro/nano structuring of photonic materials