Integrated photonics promises to transform a wide range of applications including optical communication, quantum information processing, and biosensing. Integrated photonics combines photonic signal transmission, processing, and possible conversion to/from an electrical signal on a nanofabricated chip. These nanoscale photonic circuits are not only smaller, but also faster and more efficient compared to traditional electronic circuits. NanoES research in this area is geared towards large-scale integrated networks of photonic devices for cutting edge optical communication and quantum computing as well as single photonic devices for biosensing in health-related diagnostics.
A team led by UW Electrical & Computer Engineering professors Mo Li, Arka Majumdar and Karl Böhringer was selected to participate in the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator, a new initiative to accelerate use-inspired research addressing societal challenges. The team will be working to increase the capacity of quantum computing systems to retain and process information.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $3 million to establish a NSF Research Traineeship at the University of Washington for graduate students in quantum information science and technology. The new traineeship — known as Accelerating Quantum-Enabled Technologies, or AQET — will make the UW one of just a handful of universities with a formal, interdisciplinary QIST curriculum. NanoES member and professor of electrical & computer engineering and physics, Kai-Mei Fu, will direct this new traineeship.
Tunoptix, an optics startup co-founded by University of Washington (UW) electrical and computer engineering professors Karl Böhringer and Arka Majumdar, was awarded $223,000 in Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop metasurface lenses (or metalenses) for imaging in satellites at the UW Washington Nanofabrication Facility.
A team led by NanoES faculty member Arka Majumdar, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics, has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. As they report in a paper published October 4 in the journal Science Advances, their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern. Designing optical fields in three dimensions could enable creation of ultra-compact depth sensors for self-driving cars, as well as improved components for virtual- or augmented-reality headsets.
NanoES faculty member and professor of electrical engineering and physics recently sat down with APS Physics. Kai-Mei studies the properties of atomic defects in materials with the goal of using these normally unwanted flaws to create quantum technologies for secure communication. She is also the co-chair of QuantumX, a University of Washington initiative seeking to facilitate and support activities that will accelerate quantum discoveries and technologies
UW physicists David Cobden and Xiaodong Xu, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Warwick, developed a technique to measure the energy and momentum of electrons in operating microelectronic devices made of atomically thin — so-called 2D — materials. Their findings, published last week in the journal Nature could lead to new, finely tuned, high-performance electronic devices.
NanoES faculty member Peter Pauzauskie and his team discovered that they can use extremely high pressure and temperature to introduce other elements into nanodiamonds, making them potentially useful in cell and tissue imaging, as well as quantum communications and quantum sensing. This work was done in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and published in Science Advances on May 3.
Peter Pauzauskie, Materials Science & Engineering professor and NanoES faculty member, synthesizes nanoscale materials for potential applications in next-generation quantum sensors, biomedical devices, and solid-state laser refrigeration. The Pauzauskie Research Group maintains office space, a wet lab for nanocrystal synthesis, and a lab for laser spectroscopy experiments in the NanoES building.
In a paper published Oct. 8 in the journal Nano Letters, a team from the University of Washington and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan announced that it has constructed functional metalenses that are one-tenth to one-half the thickness of the wavelengths of light that they focus. Their metalenses, which were constructed out of layered 2D materials, were as thin as 190 nanometers — less than 1/100,000ths of an inch thick.
Supercapacitors are an aptly named type of device that can store and deliver energy faster than conventional batteries. They are in high demand for applications including electric cars, wireless telecommunications and high-powered lasers.