Daria Bochuk, a fourth year postgraduate student at the NSU Physics Department won the Best Poster Presentation prize at the IV International Conference on Nanophotonics and Metamaterials (METANANO). The IV Annual METANANO Conference took place in St. Petersburg and attracted over 400 participants from Russia, Germany, France, China, Australia, Spain, and other countries. Every year attendance increases to include a widening spectrum of scientists from those dedicated to basic research in the fields of photonics and plasmonics to those working on business-oriented projects related to radio-frequency technologies, bionanotechnology, and solar energy. The event is designed to generate discussion and knowledge sharing between industry representatives and the academic community. The goal is to develop future collaboration between these groups.
This year, METANANO introduced a new concept for the Poster session, Electronic Poster (ePoster). More than 100 ePoster presentations were given. Participants had one minute to describe the essence of their research. The best poster and performance award was given to Bochuk for her report “Bent Optical Fiber as a Tunable Bottle Microresonator". This research demonstrated the new effect when a very bent optical fiber causes a nanoscale variation in its effective radius. Bending the optical fiber, researchers at the NSU Physics Department Fiber Lasers Laboratory learned how to make SNAP bottle microresonators for whispering gallery modes (WGMs) . This method is significantly simpler than others because it does not require the use of lasers. Its primary advantage is the possibility for real-time mechanical tuning and that means the ability to change the delay time of light pulses.
Bochuk talked about this research confirming that this phenomenon was discovered in the Fiber Lasers Laboratory,
Resonators are transparent axisymmetric bodies, like a sphere or cylinder, in which light circulates on the surface due to the effects of total internal reflection. Today, these miniature devices are in the spotlight, because they combine a high optical Q factor and micrometer dimensions. This makes it possible to create a strong localization of light. This allows you to observe in them a wide range of nonlinear effects, such as the generation of optical combs.
Resonators for WGMs are widely used in technology. Electro-optical modulators and lasers with ultra-narrow lines are manufactured using them. These resonators have also generated interest in the field of detection, since the resonant frequency is sensitive to small changes in the environment. These changes include in temperature, pressure, and the refractive index of the environment, which makes it possible to detect single biomolecules or nanoparticles.
Bochuk continued describing the practical significance and advantages of these developments,
In addition to the many applications for WGM resonators in technology and field of detection, they also act as an critical part of photonic integrated circuits for optical signal processing. Optical delay lines, filters, switches, and buffers are manufactured with them. The lithographic technology applied to this is steadily increasing its complexity. However, the large optical losses in silicon and roughness on the surface of these resonators present a fundamental limitation to this technology.
Bochuk and her colleagues work was published in the Optic Letters scientific journal. Another recent article by NSU researchers, was among the most popular recently published in this Journal.
The Conference was organized by the Research Center for Nanophotonics and Metamaterials at ITMO University with the support of the Mediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics. The first METANANO conference in Russia was held in Anapa in 2016 with 100 speakers, in 2017 it was held in Vladivostok with more than 230 participants from Europe, Asia, and Russia. METANANO 2018 attracted 330 participants to Sochi.
