Metasurfaces for ultrafast light structuring

Objective

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 state-of-the-art of SOAM modulation technology to date is largely based on liquid crystals or digital micromirrors, which suffer from intrinsic limits in terms of speed (of the order of thousands bit per second) and prevent real-world telecom applications (demanding billions bit per second data rate). Thanks to our novel approach to ultrafast light structuring via nonlinear optical metasurfaces we will tackle the formidable challenge of increasing by 6 orders of magnitude the speed of SOAM modulators. Such a result could provide the metropolitan optical network with the kind of speed, robustness and security requested to support the 5G radio technology, thus underpinning the forthcoming fourth industrial revolution with fast communications for the so-called internet of things.

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › materials engineering › liquid crystal
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › information engineering › telecommunications › telecommunications network › optical network
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › information engineering › telecommunications › radio technology

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.2.1. - FET Open

Topic(s)

• FETOPEN-01-2018-2019-2020 - FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking

Call for proposal

H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

POLITECNICO DI MILANO

Address

Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32
20133 Milano
Italy

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

EU contribution

€ 788 416,25

Participants (4)

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI BRESCIA

Italy

EU contribution

€ 364 387,50

Address

Piazza Mercato 15
25121 Brescia

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

UNIVERSITE DE PARIS

France

EU contribution

€ 463 592,50

Address

85 Bd Saint Germain
75006 Paris

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

FRIEDRICH-SCHILLER-UNIVERSITAT JENA

Germany

EU contribution

€ 523 422,50

Address

Furstengraben 1
07743 Jena

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

JOHN ATANASOFF CENTER FOR BIO AND NANO PHOTONICS

Bulgaria

EU contribution

€ 359 012,50

Address

Car Kaloyan 8
1000 Sofia

Activity type

Research Organisations