Institute – link

C2N-CNRS – Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud), was formed in June 2016, via the merger of LPN-CNRS (Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures) and IEF (Orsay) to form the C2N (Centre de Nanotechnologies et de Nanosciences), to provide the largest nanotechnology platform in Île-de-France.

C2N-CNRS carries out research activities within the general context of nanosciences, at the crossroads of quantum optics and electronics, of physics, chemistry and biology, of materials science and device physics. C2C-CNRS aims at developing the new technologies and the concepts that will initiate innovation both in basic and in applied science. C2C-CNRS has one of the 6 large technological facilities of first circle of the french national nanofabrication network : RENATECH. The 1000 m2 cleanroom is mainly dedicated to the fabrication and characterisation of III-V semiconductor micro/nanostructures.

Within the current project, C2C-CNRS will be in charge with the conception and the fabrication of the InP-on-SOI laser diodes which will be used as non-von Neumann (n-vN) computing primitives. C2C-CNRS will also devote some effort into the implementation of these building into n-vN networks and its experimental assessment.

To carry out such tasks, C2C-CNRS will beneficiate from its recognised know-how in semiconductor growth, nanoprocessing and study of neuromorphic dynamics in micropillar lasers. The group involved in the project has built an international reputation for its outstanding results in the fabrication of semiconductor nanodevices and their exploitation to produce highly performant optical components. It is also at the forefront in the use of spiking micropillar lasers for building neuromorphic optical primitives and has demonstrated lately relative refractory period as well as temporal summation is such devices.

People – link

  • Dr. Fabrice RAINERI has been an associate professor (maître de conférence) at C2C-CNRS since 2005, while teaching at Paris Denis Diderot University. His PhD work (2001-04) was on nonlinear Photonic crystals, his postdoc work was on CW Optical Parametric Oscillators at ICFO (Barcelona, 2005). His current research interests are focused on the investigation of optical nonlinear interactions within semiconductor micro/nanostructures and their exploitation for the achievement of optical functionalities useful for data processing.
    Recently, he led his work towards integrated nanophotonics with a specific effort on hybrid III-V semiconductors on Silicon structures.He has participated and worked on several national, bilateral PICS European projects, COST actions and European FP7 (ICT-HISTORIC, ICT-COPERNICUS, IP-PHOXTROT) and H2020 (STREAMS) projects
    He has published more than 58 articles in peer reviewed journals, participated in many conferences (> 20 invited talk, conference co-chair of CLEO focus at ECOC2014, technical program committee CLEO Europe 2015, CLEO PR2013,… ).
  • Dr Sylvain BARBAY is Chargé de Recherche (Senior Research Scientist) HDR at the C2C-CNRS since 2001. He has obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in 1998. His research interests include spatio-temporal dynamics and stochastic dynamics in microcavity lasers and nanolasers. Recently he has conducted research on excitability and neuromimetic dynamics in micropillar lasers showing several important properties in this system. He has been granted a post-doctoral Marie-Curie fellowship in 1999 has participated to several National and European Projects (ESPRIT LTR PIANOS, FET FunFACS). He is in charge of the management and animation of of the future Photonics Department of the C2N. He has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
  • Dr Alejandro M. Giacomotti is a tenured researcher at C2C-CNRS since 2007. He has obtained is PhD degree in at the University of Buenos Aires in 2002. After a Postdoc at the Laboratory of Plasma Physics and Technology, Ecole Polytechnique on the dynamics of density fluctuations in turbulent flows, he joined C2C-CNRS to work in the domain of nonlinear nanophotonics. Among his main contributions are the first demonstrations of excitability in photonic crystal resonators (2006), as well as the recent achievement of spontaneous symmetry breaking in coupled photonic crystal nanocavities (2015). Since 2007 he has been involved in many collaborative research projects on nonlinear nanophotonics in France, as well as in international projects. He has published more than 39 articles in peer reviewed journals and has given 19 invited talks in conferences.