Advanced Optics

Advanced Optics – Prof. dr. W.L. Vos

Masters involved: Applied Physics
Contributing Institutes: MESA+

Light is essential to life, science, and industry; its speed is proverbial and so is its elusiveness. Generating, manipulating, and trapping photons and completely controlling their propagation and emission will have far-ranging consequences in a wide variety of scientific fields in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Moreover, it will give rise to quantum improvements in technologies that will be vital to our future society, such as efficient lighting, solar energy conversion, medical imaging, security and high-speed information networks. Such control of photons is no science fiction but is the subject of the field of advanced optics, and of the emerging area of Nanophotonics. Here light is manipulated by dielectric, metallic, molecular, and (non-linear) optical structures on length scales down to the nanoscale.

The research and education areas of interest are closely aligned with the specific research topics of the involved groups, and broadly include laser physics and nonlinear optics, optical biophysics and imaging, complex photonic systems, integrated optics and solid-state lasers, and coherent control and nonlinear imaging. In view of the myriad of anticipated applications, it is no surprise that this field of research is booming. For example, the large “World of Photonics” conference and trade fair in June 2009 in Munich (Germany) was attended by thousands of leading specialists.

In this programme, we focus on advanced optics, with a particular focus on applied nanophotonics, congruent with the eponymous strategic research orientation within MESA+. In combination with fundamental physical aspects, its applications are vigorously pursued in light guiding, light emission and lasing, information and communication technology (relevant for the information technology), in environmental and biomedical sensing of molecules, bio-matter, and nanoparticles, in high-resolution microscopy (relevant for biology and medical sciences) and in spectroscopy and imaging in scattering materials (relevant for pharmaceutical and medical applications).

The mysteries of light and the prospects of advanced optical techniques have commanded the attention of some of our greatest minds. Seminal contributions have been made by leading Dutch physicists, including Christiaan Huygens, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Hendrik Lorentz, Pieter Zeeman, Frits Zernike, and Nico Bloembergen.

Advanced optics is an essential element in many technologies relevant for the key themes of energy, health and sustainability. Examples include high-efficiency lighting, optics for biomedical diagnostics and imaging, and photovoltaic solar cells. The fact that the field is relevant is evident from the major scientific impact (>20 Nobel prizes in the last century) and the enormous industrial impact.

Advanced Optics in the Media: On the 6^th of December the first three students of TGS, Advanced Optics, received their certificate. Thomas Denis, Robert van der Meer and Ruud Oldenbeuving were the first doctoral students from the Twente Graduate School who completed their training. Read all about it in one of the following links (Dutch only): Tv Enschede FM, ROC NL and Nationale Onderwijsgids. If you want to see the photos of the event, please click here.