Ph.D. student Valerio Mazzone wins best paper award

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Valerio Mazzone, a Ph.D. student in the Primalight group based in the University's Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering Division (CEMSE), was awarded the best paper award at the 9th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics (META), which took place from June 24 to July 1.

Mazzone's paper entitled "Near-field coupling and mode competition in anapole system" demonstrated that it is possible to design a new type of fully optical neural networks by using dielectric nano-lasers that are characterized by an invisible emission.

"The impact is huge. Indeed, if we put together many of them, the nano-lasers will interact as in a neural network and produce different outcomes. In our research, we showed that the system can be designed to produce ultrafast optical pulses with controllable period and time duration," Mazzone explained. "Today, pulsed lasers can cost around $500,000, and they occupy a large macroscopic space. Our structure can produce similar dynamics in an optical chip with a footprint of 15 micrometers long at a cost of less than $10."

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