PetaCom, a European project
PetaCom aims to create a new paradigm in ultrafast electronics. Today, gigahertz electronics has been mastered, and the terahertz regime is only just accessible.
Soon, electronic components will move into the petahertz range, involving attosecond dynamics.
Dielectrics and semiconductors exhibit reversible properties of ultra-fast, high electron mobility when exposed to intense femtosecond laser fields
A strong current of electrons oscillates at Petahertz frequencies in the conduction band, entirely controlled by the laser field.
The aim of PETACom is to exploit these recently discovered physical phenomena to lay the foundations forpetahertz electronics. The project will create the building blocks for the realization of new electronic devices at petahertz frequencies.
This will involve the design of new smart materials that switch at petahertz frequencies when addressed by ultrafast lasers, as well as the design and development of tools for metrology at these extremely high frequencies.
The project will also provide the scientific community with theoretical support forattosecond electronics.
In addition to these first-rate scientific results, PETACom aims to create industrial value during the course of the project through
its two industrial partners(NOVAE and Menlo Systems) and, at a later stage, through closer links with electronics manufacturers.
The project, coordinated by Willem Boutu (CEA – Université Paris-Saclay – Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamiques et Lasers) involves eight partners in Europe: the LIDYL laboratory at IRAMIS (Université Paris-Saclay), the XLIM laboratory (Université de Limoges), the NOVAE SME based in Aixe-sur-Vienne and a spin-off from XLIM, the German universities Ludwig Maximilians (Munich) and Friedrich Alexander (Erlangen), the Menlo Systems company (Munich), the ICFO institute (Barcelona), and the Wigner Research Center for physics (Budapest).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under agreement no. 829153.
Project leader : Willem BOUTU