Press release -
Controlling light with light
Milan – (20th October, 2020) – Researchers have discovered a novel technique to control light with light. The study, published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Photonics, paves the way to the development of new optical communication technologies. With this safer and more reliable approach, information could be encoded in the intrinsic structure of light itself, at a speed millions of times faster than current state-of-the-art technologies.
The novel technology, discovered by researchers from Politecnico di Milano, along with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT, Genoa) and Rice University (Houston, TX), exploits artificial ultrathin materials – so-called metasurfaces. Such metasurfaces, which are artificially designed with unique properties that are not exhibited by any naturally occurring materials, have been manufactured with advanced nanofabrication techniques by the Clean Room Facility team from IIT.
The metasurface is an ultrathin gold layer, a thousand times thinner than a human hair, where minuscule cross-shaped structures (billions per square centimetre) are crafted. When the metasurface is hit with laser pulses, its optical properties are altered significantly for a brief period of about 1 picosecond (a millionth of a millionth of a second).
During this short time window it is possible to modulate a second light beam “imprinting” bits of information in its intrinsic structure (its polarization). Such an unprecedented approach may trigger a revolution in the telecommunication systems, since it would make it possible to encode information in a light beam at ultrahigh frequencies (up to a trillion hertz) as well as to transmit it in free space in a robust and reliable fashion.
“Our discovery may allow us to send huge amounts of information over long distances with no need to install optical fibres and in a utterly safe manner with regards to both atmospheric perturbations and interceptions” – said Giuseppe Della Valle, Associate Professor at the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano and coordinator of the Horizon 2020 METAFAST Project.
These findings are the result of an international consortium led by Italian researchers, which involved the research groups of nanophotonics and ultrafast spectroscopy led by Professors Giuseppe Della Valle and Giulio Cerullo from the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano, along with the teams led by Andrea Toma and Remo Proietti at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and those at Rice University in Houston (Texas, USA).
The paper “Transient optical symmetry breaking for ultrafast broadband dichroism in plasmonic metasurfaces” is available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-020-00702-w
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Politecnico di Milano is a scientific-technological university which trains engineers, architects and industrial designers.
The University has always focused on the quality and innovation of its teaching and research, developing a fruitful relationship with business and productive world by means of experimental research and technological transfer.
Research has always been linked to didactics and it is a priority commitment which has allowed Politecnico Milano to achieve high quality results at an international level as to join the university to the business world. Research constitutes a parallel path to that formed by cooperation and alliances with the industrial system.
Knowing the world in which you are going to work is a vital requirement for training students. By referring back to the needs of the industrial world and public administration, research is facilitated in following new paths and dealing with the need for constant and rapid innovation. The alliance with the industrial world, in many cases favored by Fondazione Politecnico and by consortiums to which Politecnico belong, allows the university to follow the vocation of the territories in which it operates and to be a stimulus for their development.
The challenge which is being met today projects this tradition which is strongly rooted in the territory beyond the borders of the country, in a relationship which is developing first of all at the European level with the objective of contributing to the creation of a single professional training market. Politecnico takes part in several research, sites and training projects collaborating with the most qualified European universities. Politecnico's contribution is increasingly being extended to other countries: from North America to Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe. Today the drive to internationalization sees Politecnico Milano taking part into the European and world network of leading technical universities and it offers several courses beside many which are entirely taught in English.
