Controlling the behaviour of light

Three research teams in the Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, a part of The Photonics Institute (TPI) located at NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, have secured major funding for projects in photonics, the science of controlling the behaviour of light. Led by TPI’s Director, Prof Nikolay Zheludev, researchers on the project “Deeply subwavelength superoscillatory imaging” aim to develop non-invasive imaging technology with resolutions beating the diffraction limit of conventional microscopes. “Far-field, label-free, super-resolution imaging is the final frontier in optical imaging and will have ground-breaking consequences in biology, medicine, nanotechnology, chip manufacturing and fundamental science,” says Prof Zheludev.

The second project, “On-chip terahertz topological photonics for 6G communication (TERACOMM)”, led by Assoc Prof Ranjan Singh, aims to develop and commercialise efficient technologies for next-generation 6G wireless telecommunication networks in collaboration with multinational companies MediaTek and Thales.

In the third project, “Active topological photonics towards robust lasers and efficient sensors”, Assoc Prof Zhang Baile’s team is developing sensors with unprecedented sensitivity for applications such as monitoring air quality, as well as compact transmitters and Internet of Things receivers.

The article appeared first in NTU’s research & innovation magazine Pushing Frontiers (issue #19, August 2021).