Infrared (IR) or thermal imaging sensors, traditionally used in defence, are increasingly being introduced in civilian sectors with the rise of new commercial and high volume markets such as automotive, surveillance, thermography, medical diagnosis, environmental sensing and IR imaging in smartphones. The market size in 2018 is around 1M units for the civil market and...
The goal of this proposal is to implement broadband giant refraction (n>10) to achieve a basic building block in what could be termed a white-light photonics, an all-purpose achromatic white-light transducer. The white-light transducer will be able to transfer with maximum efficiency light from any angle of incidence to a photosensitive sensor, irrespective of the...
The field of optogenetics is a relatively young discipline in the research field of biology investigating possibilities to remotely control genetically modified cells with visible light. This is achieved by the reversible control of isolated signalling components. Optogenetic proteins have the property to change their conformation and affinity upon illumination with light of a specific...
The high speed cameras make it possible to acquire a fast single event at a fast frame rate and to observe it at a reduced frame rate, the so called “slow motion”. They find many applications in motion analysis, explosives, ballistic, bio-mechanics research, crash test, manufacturing, production line monitoring, deformation, droplet formation, fluid dynamics, particle,...
The transverse position of the charged particle beam circulating in an accelerator is one of the most basic yet crucial observables. Efficient and safe operation of every accelerator, as well as performance reach of many physic experiments, relies heavily on accurate beam position measurements. Such measurements are typically performed with Beam Position Monitors (BPM) –...
Although most people associate x-rays with medical applications or security scans, their use is widespread, with many industrial sectors and scientific disciplines dependent on them. For over a century, x-rays have been primarily used in a binary fashion, recording if they are absorbed by matter or not, termed attenuation contrast. However, x-rays are waves, exhibiting...
We envision future information society enabled by superconducting logic working in core networks to switch and rout data streams in optical communications network. Until now, the efficient utilisation of superconducting rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ)-logic has been impeded by the difficulty in making the electrical interconnection from the RSFQ-chip to the external world because the...
Glass and glass ceramics are attractive alternatives to the crystalline materials widely used in radiation detectors in basic research as well as for applications in medical diagnostics and homeland security detectors. The materials can be fabricated in moulds or by sol-gel techniques. Therefore, they can be prepared in various geometrical shapes such as blocks, plates,...
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by parasitic protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium species (spp.). It is one of the deadliest diseases claiming half a million deaths annually and its elimination is one of the aims declared on the UN Millennium Development Goals. The worldwide reduction of malaria prevalence raises the need for highly...
The project can be defined as a multidisciplinary effort towards finding the optimal scientific links between the synthesis of the carbon-quantum dots/graphene hybrids and their applications in broad band photodetection. Specifically, it will address the current need to develop flexible carbon-based photodetector (PD) with detection window broader than Si-based photodetectors (sensitivity ranging from UV to...
Integrated image sensors revolutionised the world of visible imaging and receive interest in many other fields. Monolithic CMOS pixel sensors have already been produced to cover a few square meters in some particle physics experiments. The ideal image sensor or camera would detect ionizing particles with an almost noise-free, large amplitude signal, tens of ps...
Sensors have become key elements of today’s society. We live surrounded by sensors and the society evolves towards generalised and personalised sensorization, which allows a greater availability of data to interact with. However, sensors technology is limited in the field of biosensing, where there are no solutions that include universal and versatile label-free detection systems....
Sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a cardiac arrhythmia that originates whenever there is tissue substrate constituting a re-entrant circuit, i.e., the presence of viable myocytes (‘channels’) embedded in myocardial scar, such as post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) scar. AMI is one of the most prevalent human diseases, and sustained VT is a major cause for sudden...
When cutting away sick tissue, surgeons meantime must correctly identify vital anatomical structures such as nerves, lymphatic tissue and blood vessels to prevent accidental damage to these structures. Identifying these to prevent damage remains enormously challenging, especially due to natural differences between individual human bodies. High tech imaging techniques are truly a break through aid...
The aim of the project is to develop a system capable of enabling true terahertz hyperspectral imaging at unprecedented rates. The best performing terahertz spectral imagers nowadays are based on raster scanning, i.e. performing a single pixel spectral analysis and moving the sample, which makes the process time-consuming and, hence, not suitable for most industrial...
Any sensitive detection instrument seeks to isolate a usually very rare signal out of -an often overwhelming amount of- undesired, disturbing background events. Hence, breakthroughs in an instruments’ sensitivity are typically associated with more efficient detection of the former and/or more effective suppression of the latter. For sensitive optical devices this implies that the detection...
In this project the innovative photonics-based technologies, emerging paradigms in machine learning, new concepts in computational modelling of light-tissue interaction and definitive pathology are merged together to explore the opportunity of using the fundamental properties of light, namely circular and/or elliptical polarisation and spin angular momentum of light, for advanced cell cultures diagnosis and tissue...
The enormous potential of silicon sensors in precise time measurement of ionizing particles is far from being exploited. At present, the best time resolutions in pixelated silicon is obtained by the proponents that have measured 100 and 130ps with low-noise ultra-fast SiGe HBT electronics in hybrid and monolithic implementations, respectively, without internal gain mechanism. Recently,...
This project develops a new hardware module that drastically improves the temporal resolution of current patch-clamp from the microsecond domain to the picosecond domain. The hardware module can be attached to a commercially available AFM (atomic force microscopy) platform, as well as a commercially available microwave generator. The new module has both scientific impact to...
Viral lasers represent a disruptive breakthrough in biological sensing with the potential to unlock new avenues of discovery in health research and the life sciences. The interdisciplinary technology bridges laser physics and synthetic biology to tackle biological sensing problems. The inventive use of laser phenomena gives the technology its unprecedented signal generation capabilities, but the...
