Category: Photonic & Quantum Devices

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.

Lasers trigger magnetism in atomically thin quantum materials

Researchers have discovered that light — from a laser — can trigger a form of magnetism in a normally nonmagnetic material. This magnetism centers on the behavior of electrons “spins,” which have a potential applications in quantum computing. Scientists discovered that electrons within the material became oriented in the same direction when illuminated by photons from a laser. By controlling and aligning electron spins at this level of detail and accuracy, this platform could have applications in quantum computing, quantum simulation and other fields. The experiment, led by scientists at the University of Washington, the University of Hong Kong and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was published April 20 in Nature.

Harnessing noise in optical computing for AI

UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li and his research team have developed a way to use stray photons generated by optical computing lasers (“noise”) to help enhance the creativity of artificial intelligence. This line of research holds huge potential for computing speed and efficiency, as well as the promise of reducing environmental impacts of AI and machine learning.

UW researchers developing miniaturized imaging device to treat heart attack, stroke

An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Washington, led by Arka Majumdar, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics, was awarded $3.6 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to use meta-optics to develop a dramatically smaller endoscope that can image previously inaccessible areas of the heart and brain.

Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain

Researchers at the UW and Princeton University have developed an ultracompact camera the size of a coarse grain of salt. The system relies on metasurfaces fabricated at Washington Nanofabrication Facility to produce crisp, full-color images on par with a conventional camera lens 500,000 times larger in volume, the researchers reported in Nature Communications.

Small Business awards from DARPA and NASA fuel growth of UW spinout Tunoptix

Tunoptix, a Seattle-based optics startup co-founded by University of Washington electrical and computer engineering professors Karl Böhringer and Arka Majumdar, received a $1,500,000 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award from NASA to advance their meta-optics imaging systems.

UW-led team receives $5M award to help bring quantum computing into the real world

A multi-institutional research team led by NanoES faculty members Mo Li, Arka Majumdar and Karl Böhringer is developing a powerful, miniaturized optical control engine, called PEAQUE, which will greatly increase capacity and speed of quantum computers.

NSF to fund revolutionary center for optoelectronic, quantum technologies

The National Science Foundation has announced it will fund a new endeavor to bring atomic-level precision to the devices and technologies that underpin much of modern life, and will transform fields like information technology in the decades to come. The five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center grant will found the Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand — or IMOD — a collaboration of scientists and engineers at 11 universities led by the University of Washington.

Matthew Yankowitz wins NSF CAREER Award

The five-year award will provide $650,000 of funding to support Yankowitz’s research investigating and controlling novel topological states of matter in twisted van der Waals heterostructures.

Bringing light into computers to accelerate AI and machine learning

NanoES faculty member and ECE Professor Mo Li is part of a multi-institutional research team, which has received a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new type of computer chip that uses laser light for AI and machine learning computation.

A new kind of lens for tiny cameras

A UW team led by Karl Böhringer and Arka Majumdar has developed a tunable lens made of metasurfaces and actuated by microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).