Prof. Giuseppe Leo, Laboratoire MPQ (Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques), Université Paris Cité & CNRS, France

Leuchs-Russell-Auditorium, A.1.500, Staudtstr. 2, Erlangen

Location Details

Abstract
For a long time since the birth of nonlinear optics, interactions between light waves in a nonlinear dielectric were designed to rely on momentum conservation both in bulk crystals and optical waveguides. Translational invariance was thus a key ingredient for frequency generation based on quadratic or cubic nonlinearities, and a sizeable propagation distance was also necessary to appreciate other nonlinear phenomena like optical Kerr effect. About fifteen years ago, this paradigm was changed by the advent of ultrathin optics, as abrupt phase discontinuities were demonstrated firstly in the linear and then in the nonlinear regime, firstly with plasmonic and then with dielectric metasurfaces. Today nonlinear meta-optics has become a flourishing field of research, where progress in both nanofabrication with several material platforms and physical understanding of sub-wavelength optics has revolutionized the venerable field of nonlinear optics. From Mie to guided-mode resonances and quasi-bound states in the continuum, the exploitation of local and non-local metasurface response has disclosed the possibility to fully structure light in all its degrees of freedom in the very rich nonlinear regime. The irruption of nonlinear wavefront shaping, chirality, and analog processing on the scene makes nonlinear meta-optics an ever more exciting theater to perform forefront research.