The Gholipour Group is based at the Nanoscale Optics Laboratory in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Our lab has broad research interests in nanotechnology in particular nanophotonics, reconfigurable optics and photonic integrated circuits as well as dielectric and plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces realized using predominantly chalcogenide and perovskite semiconductors for emerging telecommunication, sensing, energy, display and computing applications.
Our research follows an interdisciplinary approach to realize mass-manufacturable materials and devices that address grand engineering challenges through coupling fundamental physical insights with cutting edge computational design and simulation techniques. See more on our research interests>>
Group Leader and Lab Director, Professor Behrad Gholipour is a pioneer in the design and manufacturing of reconfigurable plasmonic and dielectric nanophotonic metamaterials and metasurfaces using phase change and perovskite materials as well as manufacturing, processing and use of multimaterial optical fibres for a variety of telecommunication and computing applications. See more>>
Our team is highly multidisciplinary, with a diverse skillset (See more). We are always on the lookout for exceptional candidates (both at the graduate and undergraduate levels) for a variety of projects with knowledge of electronics, physics or materials science, a keen interest in optics and photonic technologies, and a desire to develop advanced skills in experimental photonics, materials design and discovery, computational electromagnetic modeling, electron and optical microscopy and cleanroom-based nanofabrication.
Alberta Metal-Chalcogenide Manufacturing Facility (AM2F)
The Nanoscale Optics Lab is home to the Alberta Metal-Chalcogenide Manufacturing facility
We have established the Alberta Metal-chalcogenide Manufacturing Facility
(AM2F) at the University of Alberta. This unique national facility is open to all academic and industrial entities who are in need of metal-chalcogenide coatings and/or their optoelectronic device integration for research or commercial activities. The facility is capable of deposition and growth of a large number of different phase change, topological insulator and epsilon-near-zero chalcogenide, transparent conducting oxides (TCO's) and metallic alloys for free-space and integrated device platforms. We are always looking for collaborative opportunities with academic and industrial partners. Contact us for more information!
Photoionics for reconfigurable nanophotonics
Our work on photoionic driven movement of metallic ions as a nonvolatile reconfiguration mechanism in amorphous chalcogenide metasurfaces chosen as inside back cover of Advanced Optical Materials. - Issue 24, 2021
Metal-doped amorphous chalcogenide semiconductors (MdACs) exhibit a directional photoinduced movement of their constituent metal-ions when exposed to light with a photon energy equivalent or higher than the bandgap of the host chalcogenide glass. This “photoionic” movement results in nonvolatile changes of refractive index and conductivity at the nanoscale enabling a nonvolatile, nonbinary dynamic modulation of light removing the need for a phase transition. It is shown here that this photoionic movement in silver-doped amorphous germanium selenide metasurfaces enables reversible optical switching.
Fiber integrated metasurfaces for reconfigurable dispersion control
Our work on Fiber integrated phase change metasurfaces capable of switchable group delay dispersion chosen as inside front cover of Advanced Optical Materials and also covered in october issue of Nature Photonics. - Issue 21, 2021
Light-induced amorphous-crystalline phase switching in a chalcogenide metasurface, only a fraction of a wavelength thick, fabricated on the end-facet of a single-mode optical fiber, enables intensity and phase modulation of the guided wave at metasurface designated bands. Such devices present a range of opportunities in fiberized remotely programmable phase/intensity multiplexing and dynamic dispersion compensation for emerging telecommunications and data storage/processing applications, including in photonic neural network and neuromorphic computing architectures.
NSERC - Alberta Innovates Success
We have been awarded an NSERC Alliance - Alberta Innovates Advance program funding for scaling and integration of metal-chalcogenides into emerging photonic computing and telecommunication platforms.
NSERC Alliance – Alberta Innovates Advance (Advance) is a partnership program between Alberta Innovates and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Through this program, the agencies invest in projects that will advance a research idea toward developing a technological solution with an envisioned future market opportunity. Funding supports eligible researchers at Alberta Universities who have made promising discoveries in emerging technologies priority areas to conduct the research needed to advance to the development stage, which could eventually lead to commercialization.
