Parent Interventions: Navigating through the Pandemic | Health Monitor: Attention and Memory Deficits in People Who Experienced Mild Covid | Parent Interventions: How can we Revert Peanut Allergies in Children? | Teacher Insights: Play Based Learning has a Positive Impact on Child's Learning and Development | Health Monitor: Social Media Use Likely to Affect the Physical Health of a Person | Parent Interventions: How to Deal with Developmental Language Disorder in Children | Health Monitor: Lifestyle Interventions from Early Childhood Prevents Cardiovascular Diseases | Teacher Insights: Teacher Expectations Can Have Powerful Impact on Students Academic Achievement | Policy Indications: Make Sure the Digital Technology Works for Public Good | Teacher Insights: The Significance of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum in Schools | Health Monitor: Forgetting is a Form of Learning | Higher Studies: University of Manchester Invites Application for LLB and LLM Programmes | Health Monitor: Is There a Blue Spot Inside our Brain? | Parent Interventions: Babies born during the Pandemic Performs Lower during Developmental Screening | Policy Indications: Invest in Structural Steel R&D : Prof BS Murty |

December 07, 2021 Tuesday 12:54:05 PM IST

Inverse Designed Photonics: New and Better!

Electrical engineer and Stanford University professor Jelena Vučković delivered the 2021 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture on the topic: How computer software can support advanced designs and new functionalities?

To have a preparatory idea, let’s know what is Photonics? It is the science of guiding and manipulating light which is used in applications such as optical interconnects, optical computing platforms for AI or quantum computing, augmented reality glasses, biosensors, medical imaging systems, and sensors in autonomous vehicles. Unfortunately, the problems with high-density photonic integration are several. Traditional photonic components are large, sensitive to fabrication errors and environmental factors such as variations in temperature are designed by manual tuning which can cause errors.

What is Photonics Inverse Design?

According to Jelena, in this new process, scientists rely on sophisticated computational tools and modern computing platforms to discover optimal photonic solutions or device designs for a particular function. In this inverse process, the researcher first considers how he or she would like the photons to operate, then uses computer software to search the whole parameter space of possible solutions for the one that is optimal, within fabrication restraints.