Vendredi 16 Mai 2008 à 14h00
Titre :
dans l’amphi ARAGO
“The bright future of nanophotonics”
Séminaire général du Département de Physique de l’Ecole Polytechnique
Federico Capasso
Federico Capasso
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138
Vendredi 16 Mai 2008 à 14h00 dans l’amphi ARAGO
Nanophotonics, i.e. the science and technology of manipulating light at sub-wavelength scales, is emerging as one the most
exciting and potentially useful areas of physical optics. I will highlight recent research in my group aimed at inventing and
investigating a new class of light-sources with unique near field and far-field properties. Using surface plasmons (i.e. surface
electromagnetic waves) interacting with metallic nanostructures built on the facets of semiconductor lasers, we have
demonstrated new infrared light sources that can create extremely intense ( ~ 1 GW/cm2) nanoscale size light-spots of
dimensions much smaller than the wavelength. These sources have revolutionary applications in areas such high density
DVD’s (1 Tb disks) and high resolution chem/bio imaging for example to peer into the interior of cells.
Monolithically integrated metallic nanostructures have also been used to achieve beam shaping of quantum cascade laser and
in particular to dramatically reduce (by a ~ factor of 30) their divergence down to ~ 2 degrees, opening up exciting new
applications in laser ranging, chemical sensing and optical wireless. Research on lasers with built-in polarization control (i.e.
with arbitrary and well defined polarization) and with super-focusing capabilities (i.e. the ability to focus radiation down to
well below diffraction limits) using metamaterial over-layers will also be presented.
Biography:
Federico Capasso is the Robert Wallace of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in
Electrical Engineering at Harvard University, which he joined in 2003. He received the doctor of Physics degree,
summa cum laude, from the University of Rome, Italy, in 1973.He was at Bell Labs for 27 years starting as a
postdoc in 1976 and finishing as Vice President for Physical Research (2000-2002).
He is internationally known for his basic and applied research on the quantum design of artificial materials,
nanostructures and devices, known as band-structure engineering, for his investigations of the Casimir effect and
for his recent work on surface plasmon nanophotonics. Among his inventions is the quantum cascade laser, a
fundamentally new light source, which has now been commercialized. He has co-authored over 300 papers, edited
four volumes, and holds 60 US patents.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His awards include the King Faisal International Prize for Science, the IEEE Edison Medal, the American Physical
Society Arthur Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, the Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Wood prize of
the Optical Society of America (OSA), the William Streifer Award of the Laser and Electro-optic Society (IEEE),
the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics (UK), the IEEE David Sarnoff Award in Electronics, the Duddell Medal of the
Institute of Physics (UK), the Willis Lamb Medal for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, the Materials Research
Society Medal, the "Vinci of Excellence" Prize (France), the Welker Memorial Medal (Germany), the New York
Academy of Sciences Award, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the International
Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).