PI: Juejun Hu, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
In this proposal combines the core competences of the Skoltech (nonlinear optics, metamaterial design) and MIT (material engineering, metasurface device fabrication and testing) groups to advance state-of-the-art in nonlinear metamaterial devices. Our proposal uniquely leverages the exceptional nonlinearity and phase change characteristic of broadband transparent chalcogenide alloys to enable reconfigurable nonlinear metasurfaces as nanophotonic frequency mixers. Upon success, the project will lead to broadband tunable infrared laser sources as well as efficient infrared detectors and imagers. The significant SWaP-C (size, weight, power, and cost) benefits of these devices over their traditional counterparts will allow them to broadly impact applications including spectroscopic sensing, medical imaging, optical communications, and industrial process monitoring.