Active Optical Phase-Change Plasmonic Transdimensional Systems Enabling Femtojoule and Femtosecond Extreme Broadband Adaptive Reconfigurable Devices

ended

PHEMTRONICS has the ambitious vision of translating forefront knowledge in phase-transformation dynamics of “light controllable active matter with reconfigurable and interactively tunable dynamical properties” into broadband reconfigurable and adaptive devices by developing a radically novel transdimensional materials platform that is intrinsically phase change, low-loss plasmonic and electronically topological. The photon-electron-phonon coupling will enable a new technology paradigm of adaptive optical signal processing with key metrics of the “femtosecond-scale switching time”, “ultralow power of femtojoule/bit” and “microwave-to-optical frequencies” broadband capability required for reliable multibit operations To do so PHEMTRONICS will (i) develop a novel platform of eco-sustainable non-toxic phase-change transdimensional materials with a large pool of structural motifs, accessible close to room temperature; (ii) pioneer a programmable mixed-mode plasmon-opto-electrical machine, actuated with novel active phase-change low-loss plasmonic nanoantennas, exploiting mechanisms of dynamical amplification of phonons by plasmons to achieve mode-selective enhancement (iii) master beyond-equilibrium phase-transformations through predictive models to guide reconfigurability of devices We will deliver innovative ultrafast light induced phase-change switches, dynamically reconfigurable nanoantennas and adaptive switchable multiple-band detectors surpassing the current paradigms of speed, energy and frequencies PHEMTRONICS interdisciplinary team covering the whole value chain, from a novel class of plasmonic phase-change materials, to fabrication, design, modelling tools and integration to new device architectures, will herald a new era in the fields of mobile communications, optical computing, ultrafast athermal switching for neuromorphic computation, tuneable nanopixel displays, creating new markets and reinforcing the leadership of European research and industrial players