Boston Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society

Abstract:  Plasmonic and dielectric metasurfaces have been widely investigated as a means to tailor the wavefronts of externally incident light for passive device applications.  At the same time, their direct integration within active optoelectronic devices such as light emitters and photodetectors is far less established.  In this talk, I will report the design and development of plasmonic metasurfaces that can promote directional light emission and angle-sensitive photodetection from a nearby active material.  These results are significant for the continued miniaturization and large-scale integration of optoelectronic devices and related systems, and as a way to create new functionalities and enable novel applications.  Specifically, the use of metasurface directional photodetectors for image sensing and processing will be presented, including the demonstration of lensless compound-eye vision with ultra-wide field of view, optical edge detection for computer vision, and phase-contrast imaging.

Biography:  Roberto Paiella is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University with a joint appointment in the Division of Materials Science and Engineering, and a member of the BU Photonics Center.  He received his BS and MS degrees from Columbia University and his PhD from Caltech.  Prior to joining BU he worked as a postdoc at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies.  His research over the years has focused on the development and investigation of novel optoelectronic devices using bandgap engineering, plasmonics, and nanophotonics.  He has served on multiple professional committees, including most recently as an editorial board member of Scientific Reports and CLEO 2022 program chair.  

Location:  Analog Devices Hubble Auditorium