Tag Archives: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Nanoscale light confinement without metal (photonic circuits) at the University of Alberta (Canada)

To be more accurate, this is a step forward towards photonic circuits according to an Aug. 20, 2014 news item on Azonano,

The invention of fibre optics revolutionized the way we share information, allowing us to transmit data at volumes and speeds we’d only previously dreamed of. Now, electrical engineering researchers at the University of Alberta are breaking another barrier, designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace the copper wiring on computer chips.

This could result in radical increases in computing speeds and reduced energy use by electronic devices.

“We’re already transmitting data from continent to continent using fibre optics, but the killer application is using this inside chips for interconnects—that is the Holy Grail,” says Zubin Jacob, an electrical engineering professor leading the research. “What we’ve done is come up with a fundamentally new way of confining light to the nano scale.”

At present, the diameter of fibre optic cables is limited to about one thousandth of a millimetre. Cables designed by graduate student Saman Jahani and Jacob are 10 times smaller—small enough to replace copper wiring still used on computer chips. (To put that into perspective, a dime is about one millimetre thick.)

An Aug. 19, 2014 University of Alberta news release by Richard Cairney (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more technical detail and information about funding,

 Jahani and Jacob have used metamaterials to redefine the textbook phenomenon of total internal reflection, discovered 400 years ago by German scientist Johannes Kepler while working on telescopes.

Researchers around the world have been stymied in their efforts to develop effective fibre optics at smaller sizes. One popular solution has been reflective metallic claddings that keep light waves inside the cables. But the biggest hurdle is increased temperatures: metal causes problems after a certain point.

“If you use metal, a lot of light gets converted to heat. That has been the major stumbling block. Light gets converted to heat and the information literally burns up—it’s lost.”

Jacob and Jahani have designed a new, non-metallic metamaterial that enables them to “compress” and contain light waves in the smaller cables without creating heat, slowing the signal or losing data. …

The team’s research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative.

Jacob and Jahani are now building the metamaterials on a silicon chip to outperform current light confining strategies used in industry.

Given that this work is being performed at the nanoscale and these scientists are located within the Canadian university which houses Canada’s National Institute of Nanotechnology (NINT), the absence of any mention of the NINT comes as a surprise (more about this organization after the link to the researchers’ paper).

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Transparent subdiffraction optics: nanoscale light confinement without metal by Saman Jahani and Zubin Jacob. Optica, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 96-100 (2014) http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.1.000096

This paper is open access.

In a search for the NINT’s website I found this summary at the University of Alberta’s NINT webpage,

The National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) was established in 2001 and is operated as a partnership between the National Research Council and the University of Alberta. Many NINT researchers are affiliated with both the National Research Council and University of Alberta.

NINT is a unique, integrated, multidisciplinary institute involving researchers from fields such as physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, informatics, pharmacy, and medicine. The main focus of the research being done at NINT is the integration of nano-scale devices and materials into complex nanosystems that can be put to practical use. Nanotechnology is a relatively new field of research, so people at NINT are working to discover “design rules” for nanotechnology and to develop platforms for building nanosystems and materials that can be constructed and programmed for a particular application. NINT aims to increase knowledge and support innovation in the area of nanotechnology, as well as to create work that will have long-term relevance and value for Alberta and Canada.

The University of Alberta’s NINT webpage also offers a link to the NINT’s latest rebranded website, The failure to mention the NINT gets more curious when looking at a description of NINT’s programmes one of which is hybrid nanoelectronics (Note: A link has been removed),

Hybrid NanoElectronics provide revolutionary electronic functions that may be utilized by industry through creating circuits that operate using mechanisms unique to the nanoscale. This may include functions that are not possible with conventional circuitry to provide smaller, faster and more energy-efficient components, and extend the development of electronics beyond the end of the roadmap.

After looking at a list of the researchers affiliated with the NINT, it’s apparent that neither Jahani or Jacob are part of that team. Perhaps they have preferred to work independently of the NINT ,which is one of the Canada National Research Council’s institutes.

Federico Rosei (Québec nanoscientist) scores another honour, an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship

On the heels of last week’s announcement (featured in my Jan. 27, 2014 posting) that Federico Rosei of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) will be receiving the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s (CSC) 2014 Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry comes this announcement (from a Feb. 4, 2014 news item on Azonano),

Federico Rosei, professor at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre, is the recipient of an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honours awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). An internationally renowned researcher, Professor Rosei has made a name for himself through his pioneering work on advanced materials, which has enormous technological potential in electronics, photonics, life sciences and energy conversion.

The Feb. 3, 2014 INRS news release by Stéphanie Thibault, which originated the news item, describes the fellowship (Note: A link has been removed),

The Steacie Fellowship, which is granted for a two-year period and comes with a $250,000 research grant and $180,000 salary support, will allow Professor Rosei to explore new avenues and implement effective new strategies in the design, development, and characterization of multifunctional materials.

“Receiving the highly-coveted E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowshipis a true honour that inspires me to redouble my efforts to gain a greater understanding of the multiple properties of nanomaterials in order to contribute to scientific and technological innovation,” Professor Rosei said.

E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowships

Every year NSERC awards up to six E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships in memory of Edgar William Richard Steacie, an outstanding chemist and research leader who made major contributions to the development of science in Canada. The Fellowships are awarded to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising Canadian university faculty by relieving them of teaching and administrative duties, so that they can devote all their time and energy to research.

Congratulations to Dr. Rosei.

L’actualité en français: http://www.emt.inrs.ca/actualites/attribution-dune-prestigieuse-bourse-steacie-au-professeur-federico-rosei