Exploiting light: from quantum nanophotonics to advanced fabrication

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Photonics is a key enabling technology of the 21st century. NSERC DG funding will allow my team to exploit light-matter interaction for applications ranging from solving key manufacturing problems to exploring novel nanostructures. Our focus is on unravelling the dynamics of the process, and using light in innovative ways to control it. Powered by new collaborations and multi-million dollar investments in infrastructure, we will help solve two of the major technical challenges of our age, namely how to make our society more sustainable and more secure. We will also expand the frontiers of ultrasensitive sensing and ultrafast dynamics.**** To become more efficient with our resources, we need new manufacturing processes that generate lighter and more efficient components with less waste. Laser-based additive manufacturing (LAM) promises to revolutionise manufacturing with its ability to directly "write" intricate 3D metal components, but its widespread adoption is being impeded by the complexity of the intense light/matter interaction. By high-speed in situ monitoring during laser writing, we will solve the LAM quality assurance and control problem.**** Due to the great advances in fiber optic networks, information flows like never before but loss of security can have dire consequences. Almost all secure transmissions rely on public key encryption, but experts agree that its obsolescence is only a matter of time. It is crucial that we move quickly to encryption systems guaranteed by physical law, such as quantum key distribution (QKD) which relies on bits encoded onto single photons. A significant roadblock to widespread QKD implementation is the lack of appropriate quantum optical sources that can be scaled up to meet technological needs. We will develop high brightness, high fidelity single-photon sources integrated onto a chip, exploiting standard semiconductor fabrication technology.**** Mechanical systems provide exquisitely sensitive probes of the world around us, and when inserted into a optical cavity, can be controlled and read out by light. We will explore the ultimate quantum limit of hybrid mechanical-optical systems (e.g., single-atomic thick membranes, single-photon light fields) to discover new capabilities for quantum mechanical and optical state creation, transduction of quantum information, and creation of high-sensitivity sensors working at the ultimate quantum limit.**** Timing of this proposal is critical: DG-funded HQP will be able to exploit the recently CFI-funded Queen's Nanaophotonics Research Centre ($7.3M). Outcomes of this research include: training of 11 researchers (plus 15 undergraduates) in fields of key importance to Canadian industry, novel methods of using lasers for precision manufacturing, novel nanomaterials for secure telecommunications and sensing, and improved understanding of the underlying physics present at the tip of a laser beam.**