Nanophotonics: A New Frontier Technology to Efficiently Control Light at the Nanoscale

Abstract: The field of nanophotonics has significantly evolved and matured during the last years mainly due to the rapid improvement in nanotechnology fabrication capabilities. In addition, currently we are able to accurately model and analyze very complex nanophotonic systems with dimensions ranging from nano to angstrom scales. Nanophotonics promise to efficiently control light at the nanoscale leading to the practical exploration of various emerging optical effects. In my talk, I will present our recent findings on nanophotonic systems with new functionalities and how they are connected to several relevant nascent fields in nanotechnology, such as metamaterials/metasurfaces, nanoantennas, phase-change materials, and plasmonics. The presented new photonic nanostructures will find applications in quantum communications and computing, thermal emission and radiative cooling, low-threshold nanolasers, photochemistry, all-optical switches and mixers, compact magnet-free nonreciprocal optical filters, and efficient chiral sensors and polarizers.

Bio: Christos Argyropoulos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He also holds an Associate Research Professor appointment at Applied Research Laboratory. He was Assistant and Associate Professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA during 2014-2022. He received the Diploma of Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (2006). He holds a M.Sc. degree in Communication Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK (2007) and a Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from University of London, UK (2011). After completion of his Ph.D. studies, he accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship position at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Next (2013), he worked for one year as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics at Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, USA. He has published over 300 technical papers in highly ranked journals and refereed conference proceedings, including 7 book chapters and 3 patents. He has been the recipient of several awards and recognitions for his research studies, such as the 2019 ONR Young Investigator Award, 2017 ONR faculty research fellowship, 2017 URSI Young Scientist Award, 2013 IEEE APS Junior Researcher Award, the international Travel Grant by Royal Academy of Engineering and twice the Marie Curie Actions Grant by the European School of Antennas. He is a senior member of IEEE, SPIE, and Optica, elected full member of URSI and URSI Commission B, and member of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and American Physical Society.