Two-dimensional Van der Waals materials have emerged as a very attractive class of optoelectronic material due to the unprecedented strength in its interaction with light. In this talk I will discuss approaches to realize quantum photonic devices by integrating these 2D materials with microcavities, and metamaterials. I will first discuss the formation of strongly coupled half-light half-matter quasiparticles (microcavity polaritons) and their optical and electrical control in the 2D transition metal dichacogenide (TMD) systems. Prospects of realizing condensation and few photon nonlinear switches using Rydberg states in TMDs will also be discussed. Following this, I will discuss the broadband enhancement of light-matter interaction in these 2D materials using photonic hypercrystals and chiral metasurfaces. Finally, I will talk about room temperature single photon emission from hexagonal boron nitride and the prospects of developing deterministic quantum emitters using them through strain engineering. The realization of room temperature single photon emitters and few photon
nonlinear switches using 2D materials presents an attractive direction for robust next generation quantum photonic technologies.​

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​Dr. Ken-Tye Yong
Director of the Bio Devices and Signal Analysis (VALENS)
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Nanomaterials have been applied in healthcare applications such as cancer imaging, lymph node mapping and brain diseases therapy. These nanomaterials can be engineered to serve as a platform for challenges in highly sensitive optical diagnostic tools, biosensors, and guided imaging and therapy. The versatility of nanomaterials may provide the keys to improve diagnostics and therapy of human diseases. In this talk, we will highlight the use of nanomaterials with different sizes, compositions, and shapes for nanomedicine applications. This talk is intended to promote the awareness of past and present developments of nanomaterials in biomedical fields, the potential toxicity of nanomaterials, and the approaches to engineer new types of safe nanomaterials, whereby encouraging researchers to think about exciting and promising biophotonic and nanomedicine applications with nanomaterials in the future.

​The past decade has seen accelerated progress in III-V semiconductor infrared photodetector technology. The advent of the unipolar barrier infrared detector device architecture has in many instances greatly alleviated generation-recombination (G-R) and surface-leakage dark current issues that had been problematic for many III-V photodiodes.   Meanwhile advances in a variety type-II superlattices (T2SLs) such as InGaAs/GaAsSb, InAs/GaSb, and InAs/InAsSb, as well as in bulk III-V material such as InGaAsSb and metamorphic InAsSb, have provided continuously adjustable detector cutoff wavelength coverage from the short wavelength infrared (SWIR) to the very long wavelength infrared (VLWIR).   The confluence of these developments has led to a new generation of versatile, cost-effective, high-performance infrared detectors and focal plane arrays based on robust III-V semiconductors, providing a viable alternative to HgCdTe (MCT).

​​Prof.Brian Cunningham
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Department of Bioengineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

​Circulating exosomal miRNA represents a potentially useful class of bloodborne biomarkers for cancer. We present the initial proof-of-concept of an approach in which gold nanoparticle tags are prepared with thermodynamically optimized nucleic acid toehold probes that displace a oligonucleotide and reveal a capture sequence that is used to selectively pull down the target-probe-nanoparticle complex to a photonic crystal (PC) biosensor surface. By matching the surface plasmon resonant wavelength of the nanoparticle tag to the resonant wavelength of the PC nanostructure, the reflected light intensity from the PC is dramatically and locally quenched by the presence of each nanoparticle. 

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​ The talk described the optical operating principles of Photonic Resonator Absorption Microscopy (PRAM), the thermodynamic design of DNA toehold probes, and our first results demonstrating the detection limits, selectivity, and dynamic range of the assay.

Communications networks and systems are seeing extreme increases in network traffic which is growing at the tremendous rate of 30% per year. It is estimated that the energy and cost requirements will increase tenfold in coming year. But this progress is not sustainable from an ecological and economic point of view. However, this information explosion can be dealt with, using the integration of very  small photonic components on very high density Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). The technolgoical advancements in PICs have made them a popular choice for components of next generation networks. Silicon being the evident choice due to its high availability, mature fabrication technology, and low cost has attracted components on a chip. At the same time, the unique, material properties and direct bandgap of group III-V materials have huge potential in applications like laser amplifiers, modulators, and detectors. Due to robustness, flexibility, reliability, and performance of PICs, many commercial solutions are now available for a variety of applications.