Research axes

Photonic systems and microsystems

High-performance photonic systems are essential to the most ambitious projects of our time. How to make the internet green despite an explosive increase in the volume of data? How to realize the promises of quantum computing? How to monitor mental health without interrupting normal life? How to harness electronics and photonics in tandem to create a sustainable AI-powered society?

To address these scientific and societal challenges, we examine new photonic and electronic functions at the nanometer and micrometer scale on a wide range of hardware platforms. We are developing new integrated photonic technologies for systems and microsystems that will enable significant applications in areas such as optical communications, metrology, biomedicine and remote sensing.

We propose three research themes that will address the following four interrelated questions:

How to break the bottleneck of microprocessors and data center networks to enable the development of sustainable artificial intelligence applications?
How can we continually push the boundaries of imaging and sensing systems to enable emerging applications ranging from unprecedented space missions to the ultimate level of autonomous driving?
How can we interface silicon intelligence with physical environments and human bodies by incorporating advanced optical probes with multiple modalities?
How can we integrate seemingly incompatible materials and exploit their best properties to reduce the size, weight and power (SWaP) of photonic systems as well as their cost?