Structured Electromagnetic Materials
Light sources for the second quantum revolution
In the Structured Electromagnetic Materials Group at DTU Fotonik we try to discover new ways to use light, and we study how to create ever smaller light sources to meet the world’s need for communication technologies in a more energy-friendly way.
The energy consumption for communication is ever-growing. Radical new ideas need to be tried to find new solutions for the future.
Other scientists focus on miniaturization, however, we start from the bottom-up and look for new types of light sources that send only one photon at a time, and we do this in and near materials that are only one or a few atomic layers thick. This may contribute to new technologies for communication at the speed of light with less energy consumption and new types of computation based on light rather than electronics.
While computer chips have become smaller in the past decades, it is still challenging to make optical devices much smaller than the wavelength of light (around half a micrometre). We need quantum physics to understand our smallest light sources. Our light sources and nanostructured materials may become enabling technology for the second quantum revolution that many people worldwide are working on.
Learn more about the research of the Structured Electromagnetic Materials group