Category: Nonlinear Photonics

Flexible Organometal Random Lasers

Disorder is emerging as a strategy for fabricating random laser sources with very promising materials, like perovskites, for which standard laser cavities are not effective, or too expensive. We need however different fabrication protocols and technologies for reducing the laser threshold and controlling its emission. Here we demonstrate an effectively solvent-engineered method for high-quality perovskite thin films on the flexible polyimide substrate. The fractal perovskite thin films exhibit excellent optical properties at room temperature and easily achieve lasing action without any laser cavity above room temperature with a low pumping threshold. The lasing action is also observed in curved perovskite thin films on the flexible substrates. The lasing threshold can be further reduced by increasing the local curvature, which modifies the scattering strengths of the bent thin film. We also show that the curved perovskite lasers are extremely robust with respect to repeated deformations. Because of the low spatial coherence, these curved random laser devices are efficient and durable speckle-free light sources for applications in spectroscopy, bio-imaging, and illumination.

Wang et al. in ACS Nano (2019)

Graphene oxide photonics

The successful exfoliation of graphite initiated new science in any research field and is employing a huge number of scientists in the world investigating chemical, structural, mechanical and optoelectrical; properties of the atomic-thick sheets of graphene and graphene oxide. Similarly to other carbon-based materials, graphene family have shown exceptional optical responses; and nowadays it is engineered to produce efficient photonic components. In this review we aim to summarize the main results in nonlinear optical response and fluorescence of graphene oxide; moreover, its laser printing is reviewed as a novel promising lithographic technique.

Neda Ghofraniha and Claudio Conti in Journal of Optics

Biomimetic graphene oxide devices

Deep learning, living, random, optical, and – maybe – useful

In a recent paper, we demonstrated an optical deep neural network with a real living piece of brain tumor (a 3D “tumour model”). We think this is the first example of a hybrid living/photonic hardware: a sort of artificially intelligent device performing optical functions and detecting tumour morphodynamics (including the effect of chemotherapy)

Deep optical neural network by living tumour brain cells

Abstract: The new era of artificial intelligence demands large-scale ultrafast hardware for machine learning. Optical artificial neural networks process classical and quantum information at the speed of light,
and are compatible with silicon technology, but lack scalability and need expensive manufacturing of many computational layers. New paradigms, as reservoir computing and the extreme learning machine, suggest that disordered and biological materials may realize artificial neural networks with thousands of computational nodes trained only at the input and at the readout. Here we employ biological complex systems, i.e., living three-dimensional tumour brain models, and demonstrate a random neural network (RNN) trained to detect tumour morphodynamics via
image transmission. The RNN, with the tumour spheroid 19 as a three-dimensional deep computational reservoir, performs programmed optical functions and detects cancer morphodynamics from laser-induced hyperthermia inaccessible by optical imaging. Moreover, the RNN quantifies the effect of chemotherapy inhibiting tumour growth. We realize a non-invasive smart probe for cytotoxicity assay, which is at least one order of magnitude more sensitive with respect to conventional imaging. Our random and hybrid photonic/living system is a novel artificial machine for computing and for the real-time investigation of tumour dynamics.

Authors: D. Pierangeli, V. Palmieri, G. Marcucci, C. Moriconi, G. Perini, M. De Spirito, M. Papi, C. Conti

https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.09311

Observation of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou Recurrence and Its Exact Dynamics

One of the most controversial phenomena in nonlinear dynamics is the reappearance of initial conditions. Celebrated as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem, the attempt to understand how these recurrences form during the complex evolution that leads to equilibrium has deeply influenced the entire development of nonlinear science. The enigma is rendered even more intriguing by the fact that integrable models predict recurrence as exact solutions, but the difficulties involved in upholding integrability for a sufficiently long dynamic has not allowed a quantitative experimental validation. In natural processes, coupling with the environment rapidly leads to thermalization, and finding nonlinear multimodal systems presenting multiple returns is a long-standing open challenge. Here, we report the observation of more than three Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou recurrences for nonlinear optical spatial waves and demonstrate the control of the recurrent behavior through the phase and amplitude of the initial field. The recurrence period and phase shift are found to be in remarkable agreement with the exact recurrent solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, while the recurrent behavior disappears as integrability is lost. These results identify the origin of the recurrence in the integrability of the underlying dynamics and allow us to achieve one of the basic aspirations of nonlinear dynamics: the reconstruction, after several return cycles, of the exact initial condition of the system, ultimately proving that the complex evolution can be accurately predicted in experimental conditions.

D. Pierangeli, M. Flammini, L. Zhang, G. Marcucci, A. J. Agranat,
P. G. Grinevich, P. M. Santini, C. Conti, and E. DelRe in PHYSICAL REVIEW X 8, 041017 (2018)

10th Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School: NLP2019 – Nonlinear Photonics

The School aims in bringing together a large number of PhD students and young researchers from all parts of the world which, during a one-week intense schedule will follow a series of lectures on nonlinear photonics. The lectures are held by internationally recognized experts in the field. At the same, the students are encouraged to enjoy the beautiful location where the school is organized. These Optoelectronics and Photonics Winter School series are traditionally held in Trentino region every second year and have a very good reputation for the in-depth coverage of a topic and the lively atmosphere where ideas exchanges, discussions and amusements are all blended to give a strong physical flavor.

https://event.unitn.it/nlp2019/

Website of the school