ICFO – The Institute Of Photonic Sciences
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ICFO – The Institute Of Photonic Sciences
ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences (Catalan:Institut de Ciències Fotòniques) ( Spanish: Instituto de Ciencias Fotónicas) is a research center devoted to the science and technology of light. Located in Castelldefels (Barcelona, Spain), ICFO was created in 2002 by the Government of Catalonia and the Technical University of Catalonia. The Institute carries out research in a very transversal range of topics, that span from theoretical quantum physics to applied medical optics. Part of its mission is to train new scientists and technologists. ICFO currently hosts more than 400 researchers in 26 research groups working in over 60 laboratories. The research that the center carries out is possible thanks to the different facilities within the institute: Nanophotonics Fabrication lab, Super-Resolution Light Microscopy & Nanoscopy Lab, an Advanced Engineering Lab, among others. Research Research at ICFO encompasses four broad thematic areas: nonlinear photonics, quantum ...
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Photonics
Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range of visible and near-infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s. History The word 'Photonics' is derived from the Greek word "phos" meaning light (which has genitive case "photos" and in compound words the root "photo-" is used); it appeared in the late 1960s to describe a research field whose goal was to use light to perform functions that traditionally fell within the typical domain of electronics, such as telecommunications, information processing, etc. Photonics as a field began with th ...
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Nonlinear Optics
Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (when the electric field of the light is >108 V/m and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds. History The first nonlinear optical effect to be predicted was two-photon absorption, by Maria Goeppert Mayer for her PhD in 1931, but it remained an unexplored theoretical curiosity until 1961 and the almost simultaneous observation of two-photon absorption at Bell Labs and the discovery of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken ''et al.'' at University of Michigan, both shortly after the constru ...
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Education In Catalonia
Education in Spain is regulated by the ''Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa'' (LOMCE, Organic Law for the improvement of educational quality) that expands upon Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Spanish education system is compulsory and free for all children aged between 6 and 16 years and is supported by the national government together with the governments of each of the country's 17 autonomous communities. In Spain, primary school and secondary school are considered basic (obligatory) education. These are '' Primaria'' (6–12 years old), which is the Spanish equivalent of elementary school and the first year of middle school, and '' Secundaria'' (12–16 years old), which would be a mixture of the last two years of middle school and the first two years of High school in the United States. Spain is working towards reforming vocational education and modernizing education to halt and reverse the rising unemploymen ...
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Optica (society)
Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conferences and exhibitions. It currently has about 488,000 customers in 183 countries, including nearly 300 companies. History Optica was founded in 1916 as the "Optical Society of America", under the leadership of Perley G. Nutting, with 30 optical scientists and instrument makers based in Rochester, New York. It soon published its first journal of research results and established an annual meeting. The first local section was established in Rochester, New York, in 1916 and the ''Journal of the Optical Society of America'' was created in 1918. The first series of joint meetings with the American Physical Society was in 1918. In 2008 it changed its name to The Optical Society (OSA). In September 2021, the organization's name changed to Optica, w ...
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European Technology Platform Nanomedicine
The European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETP Nanomedicine) is a European Technology Platform initiative to improve the competitive situation of the European Union in the field of nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology to medicine. Overview An important initiative, led by industry, has been set up together with the European Commission. A group of 53 European stakeholders, composed of industrial and academic experts, has established a European Technology Platform on nanomedicine. The first task of this high level group was to write vision documentfor this highly future-oriented area of nanotechnology-based healthcare in which experts describe an extrapolation of needs and possibilities until 2020. Beginning of 2006 this Platform has been opened to a wider participation (December 2006: 150 member organisations) and has delivered a so-called Strategic Research Agenda showing a well elaborated common European way of working together for the healthcare of the future tryin ...
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Erasmus Mundus
The European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme (named after Erasmus, the Renaissance scholar) aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarships and academic co-operation between the EU and the rest of the world. The three main objectives of the programme are linked to the internationalisation of students, staff, curricula and research; ensure an influence on the development of practice in Special Education Needs and inclusive education; and to develop international collaborative networks, projects and research. Erasmus Mundus comprises three actions: * Joint programmes * Partnerships * Attractiveness projects Erasmus Mundus Joint Programmes Under Action 1, Erasmus Mundus supports Joint Programmes ( Masters Courses and Joint Doctorates) that are operated by consortia of higher education institutions from the EU and (since 2009) elsewhere in the world. They provide an integrated course and joint or multiple diplomas following study or research at two or more higher educ ...
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Solar Cells
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physics, physical and Chemical substance, chemical phenomenon.Solar Cells
chemistryexplained.com
It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as Electric current, current, voltage, or Electrical resistance and conductance, resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of solar panel, photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels. The common single junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 volts to 0.6volts. Solar cells are described as being Photovoltaics, photovoltaic, irrespe ...
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Photovoltaics
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors. A photovoltaic system employs solar modules, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop-mounted, wall-mounted or floating. The mount may be fixed or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky. Photovoltaic technology helps to mitigate climate change because it emits much less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels. Solar PV has specific advantages as an energy source: once installed, its operation generates no pollution and no greenhouse gas emissions, it shows scalability in respect of power needs and silicon has large availability in the Earth's crust, although other materials required in PV system m ...
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Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy sources are sustainable, some are not. For example, some biomass sources are considered unsustainable at current rates of exploitation. Renewable energy often provides energy for electricity generation to a grid, air and water heating/cooling, and stand-alone power systems. Renewable energy technology projects are typically large-scale, but they are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries, where energy is often crucial in human development. Renewable energy is often deployed together with further electrification, which has several benefits: electricity can move heat or objects efficiently, and is clean at the point of consumption. In addition, electrification with renewable energy is more efficient and therefore ...
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Biophotonics
The term biophotonics denotes a combination of biology and photonics, with photonics being the science and technology of generation, manipulation, and detection of photons, quantum units of light. Photonics is related to electronics and photons. Photons play a central role in information technologies, such as fiber optics, the way electrons do in electronics. Biophotonics can also be described as the "development and application of optical techniques, particularly imaging, to the study of biological molecules, cells and tissue". One of the main benefits of using the optical techniques which make up biophotonics is that they preserve the integrity of the biological cells being examined. Biophotonics has therefore become the established general term for all techniques that deal with the interaction between biological items and photons. This refers to emission, detection, absorption, reflection, modification, and creation of radiation from biomolecular, cells, tissues, organisms, an ...
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Nanophotonics
Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. It often involves dielectric structures such as Optical rectenna, nanoantennas, or metallic components, which can transport and focus light via surface plasmon polaritons. The term "nano-optics", just like the term "optics", usually refers to situations involving ultraviolet, visible light, visible, and near-infrared light (free-space wavelengths from 300 to 1200 nanometers). Background Normal optical components, like lenses and microscopes, generally cannot normally focus light to nanometer (deep subwavelength) scales, because of the diffraction limit (Rayleigh criterion). Nevertheless, it is possible to squeeze light into a nanometer scale using other techniques like, for example, surface plasmons, localized surface plasmons around na ...
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Quantum Optics
Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have been used to test many of the counter-intuitive predictions of quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and teleportation, and are a useful resource for quantum information processing. History Light propagating in a restricted volume of space has its energy and momentum quantized according to an integer number of particles known as photons. Quantum optics studies the nature and effects of light as quantized photons. The first major development leading to that understanding was the correct modeling of the blackbody radiation spectrum by Max Planck in 1899 under the hypothesis of light being emitted in discrete units of energy. The photoelectric effect was further evidence of this quantization as explained by Albert Einstein in a 1905 paper ...
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