Dynamic Control of Light Waves with Atomically Thin Optoelectronic Devices
Date: 5pm GMT, 12 March 2026
Online virtual lecture, live Q and A.
The manipulation of light has had a profound impact on science and technology, transforming our daily lives. Today, we are surrounded by devices that cleverly manipulate light, from smartphones to solar cells light is used to communicate, capture images and even convert energy.
Traditionally, optics has relied on the use of bulky components like lenses and mirrors to manipulate light but recently, metasurfaces – a new type of planar optical elements – have revolutionised the field. They are created by judiciously patterning thin films of metals, semiconductors, and insulators into very fine, nanoscale structures and over the past two decades, we’ve witnessed a true revolution in the basic science underlying their operation. As a result, these powerful optical elements can now deliver unprecedented optical functions and have transformed many technologies.
Metasurfaces offer a favourable size, weight, power, and cost metric compared to bulky optical elements and these valuable traits are especially relevant for use in many emerging applications, including wearable displays and sensors, autonomous navigation and computational imaging. With the advent of advanced software and high-volume manufacturing processes, the promise of metasurfaces is now becoming a practical reality.
Despite the impressive advances, current metasurfaces are mostly static in nature, and their optical functions are set in stone during fabrication. A myriad of new, practical applications can emerge if we could create dynamically tunable metasurfaces whose optical functions can evolve rapidly in time and/or allow for a flexible programming, playing a key role in LiDAR systems for self-driving cars, projection in augmented reality and (quantum) optical computing.
The Brongersma group has helped pioneer ways to actively manipulate the light-scattering properties of nanostructures, but this task remains challenging.
In our proposed research program, we will open an entirely new paradigm for realising advanced, ultrafast, high-performance optical elements by harnessing the unique optical properties of atomically-thin quantum materials. We will capitalise on the outstanding electrical conductivity of 2D graphene layers, the highly tunable optical properties of atomically-thin semiconductors and the superior insulating properties of atomically-thin insulators.
By stacking and patterning these materials, we hope to engineer the next-generation optoelectronic devices for the dynamic manipulation of complex light flows.
Professor Mark Brongersma
Mark Brongersma is a professor at Stanford University, where he leads a lab on the development of optoelectronic materials and devices. He is a recognised world leader in the field of nanoscale photonics – the science of controlling the flow of light at incredibly small scales.
Mark Brongersma is the Stephen Harris Professor of the School of Engineering, a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor, by courtesy, of Applied Physics at Stanford University.
He received the Walter Gores Award for excellence in teaching and the International Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Physical Sciences. He is a Fellow of OPTICA, MRS, SPIE, and APS.
