Next GoLP VIP seminar by Marco Piccardo
On Friday, 19th of May at 11:00 am, there will be a GoLP VIP Seminar by Marco Picardo (Instituto Superior Técnico). The event will take place at Anfiteatro Abreu Faro – Complexo I at IST.
Title: Structured light solutions in search of a (plasma) problem
Abstract: Our ability to generate new light distributions has improved remarkably in recent years. At the most fundamental level, these light patterns are obtained by cleverly combining different electromagnetic modes. Optical modes define the spatial, temporal, frequency and polarization structure of an electromagnetic wave. All these modes correspond to distinct degrees of freedom of a photon allowing to structure light in many dimensions. The field of highly multimode photonics [1,2] is rapidly evolving but in some cases the development of complex structured light distributions in free space may appear as an exercise in style, presenting sophisticated electromagnetic solutions [3] still in search of a problem. In this seminar I will present some key elements of my personal structured light toolbox—in particular, a special class of nanostructured flat metamaterials known as metasurfaces [4,5], as well as advanced holography schemes for the synthesis of spatiotemporal beams [6] carrying orbital angular momentum [7]—and describe how I plan to connect them with research on laser-plasma interactions.
[2] L.G. Wright et al., Nonlinear multimode photonics: nonlinear optics with many degrees of freedom. Optica 9, 824 (2022)
[3] A. Forbes, Structured Light: Tailored for Purpose, Optics and Photonics News 31, 24 (2020)
[4] N, Yu et al., Light Propagation with Phase Discontinuities: Generalized Laws of Reflection and Refraction, Science 334, 333 (2011)
[5] M. Piccardo et al., Vortex laser arrays with topological charge control and self-healing of defects, Nature Photonics 16, 359 (2022)
[6] M. Yessenov et al., Space-time wave packets, Advances in Optics and Photonics 14, 455 (2022)
[7] M. Piccardo et al., “Broadband control of topological-spectral correlations in space-time beams”, under review in Nature Photonics; preprint available upon request
Short bio: Marco Piccardo is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Técnico Lisboa, a Principal Investigator at INESC Microsystems and Nanotechnologies, and an Associate Researcher at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Harvard University. He received his BSc. in Physics from Università degli Studi di Torino, and a MSc. in Physics from Ecole Normale Superieure and Ecole Polytechnique. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Ecole Polytechnique in 2016 working on the fundamental electronic processes responsible for the efficiency drop of blue light-emitting diodes at high-current operation, such as Anderson localization and Auger recombination. His postdoctoral research in the group of Federico Capasso at Harvard University focused on integrated laser frequency combs, while his subsequent activity as Researcher and Team Leader at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia studied metasurface-enhanced active and passive photonic cavities.
He is the recipient of the Young Physicist Award “G. F. Bassani” of the Italian Physical Society, and laureate of the PhD Award “Innovative Materials and Applications” of the Université Paris-Saclay. He holds around 40 publications, in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, PNAS, Nature Communications and Physical Review Letters, and holds 5 patent applications in photonics.
