NanoLight kick-off meeting

ICFO has been the venue for the kick-off meeting of the program NanoLight.es (Light control on the nanoscale), one of 29 large scale national projects funded in 2007 by the program Consolider-Ingenio 2010, put forward by the Ministry for Education and Science (MEC). All group leaders participating in NanoLight gathered at ICFO to start their common scientific activities and to present their specific role in the joint project.

The principal investigators of the NanoLight groups are:

• Niek van Hulst, Molecular NanoPhotonics, ICFO, Barcelona
• Luís Martín Moreno, Condensed Matter Physics, (CSIC) UZaragoza
• Cefe López, Photonic Crystals Group, ICMM (CSIC) Madrid
• Manuel Nieto-Vesperinas, Condensed Matter Theory, ICMM (CSIC) Madrid
• Romain Quidant, Plasmon Nano-Optics, ICFO, Barcelona
• Javier García de Abajo, Institute of Optics (CSIC), Madrid
• Francisco Meseguer Rico, Ass. Unit ICMM (CSIC), UPValencia
• Francisco García Vidal, Theoretical Physics of Condensed Matter, UAMadrid
• Jordi Martorell, Nonlinear Photonic Structures, ICFO, Barcelona
• Juanjo Sáenz, MoLE, Condensed Matter Physics, UAMadrid

Prior to presentations of all groups, Prof. Niek van Hulst, coordinator of the consortium, outlined the vision of the project: “NanoLight aims to develop nanoscale light technology for applications in sensing, nanoimaging, optical circuitry and data storage, the key components of future information technology. The experimental research comprises nanophotonics, plasmonics, nanofabrication, near field microscopy, single molecule detection, photonic crystals and nonlinear optics, and thus covers the most important current approaches to nanoscale light technology. These methods will be exploited to investigate and control the generation, confinement and flow of light energy on the nanoscale. The theoretical part is essential to provide concepts and guidelines to design suitable schemes for the creation of highly localized spatio-temporal fields, to calculate plasmon and shape resonances, local density of states, nanophotonic forces and the response of embedded quantum systems”.

NanoLight consolidates a Spanish network acting as an international reference in this field. The unique financial injection provided by the Consolider program will be used to invest in the future both in people (at least 25 new high level research positions) and in national high-tech experimental infrastructure. NanoLight fosters collaborations with national and international industry, as well as training activities.

The CONSOLIDER program NanoLight has established a Scientific Advisory Board which monitors scientific quality and progress of the program, and prioritizes internal collaborative research proposals. Members of the Scientific Advisory Board are:

• Bill Barnes, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
• Alain Dereux, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
• Thomas Ebbesen, ISIS - University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
• Jaime Gomez-Rivas, AMOLF & Philips Res. Labs. Eindhoven, the Netherlands
• Fritz Keilmann, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany
• Lukas Novotny, the Institute of Optics, Rochester, USA
• Diederik Wiersma, LENS, European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy, Florence, Italy