• About Us

    OPTOlogic_AboutUs

Mitigating dissipation & Saving energy

Since the late 1980s, energy consumption from the modern electronics industry has increased drastically. These devices also waste most of the energy they consume, which dissipates or gets lost as charge or electricity moves throughout electronic circuits. Knowing that our information-based society is growing at exponential rates, translating into increasing demands in consumer electronic products, studies have estimated a projected energy consumption increase of 20% by 2030. We expect this amount to surpass the total energy production available worldwide, posing a major problem that needs a quick and affordable solution.

  • The Project

    We aim at the development of light-induced and controlled topology for energy-efficient logic operations. Currently, 10% of global energy production powers electronic circuits, which perform logic operations for the global internet and consumer devices. This energy consumption will likely increase by 20% by 2030.

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Our project envisions a new class of dissipation-less quantum devices generated through spatially and temporally structured ultrafast pulses of light to artificially induce and control topologically protected states. Consequently, with OPTOlogic, we will prepare future quantum devices based on intrinsic and light-induced topological building blocks which move and store information with minimal energy expense, thereby achieving dramatically increased computing power.

We will develop a computing architecture that uses light-induced topology, thereby enabling the writing, changing, and rewriting of near-arbitrary patterns on the fly. Furthermore, our multi-disciplinary team of experts and SME will achieve the required breakthrough by uniting world-leading experimental, theoretical, and industrial expertise in condensed matter physics, ultrafast laser technology, non-linear optics, strong-field physics, attosecond metrology, quantum optics and gauge theory, quantum computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Overall, by increasing the energy efficiency and speed of logical operations, OPTOlogic would significantly impact the economy, the environment, and society. It would also address a market valued at 426.0 million USD in 2017.

The Consortium

ICREA Prof. at ICFO Jens Biegert coordinates the consortium, comprised of ICFO, Max Plank Society (MPG), French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB-MBI), and LightOn. This multi-disciplinary team of experts and SME unites world-leading expertise in condensed matter physics, ultrafast laser technology, attoscience, quantum optics and computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence.