RANDOM

The project RANDOM proposes to set a mathematically controlled disorder in a system of dual electromagnetic and acoustic resonators on a surface (i) to discover new photonic and phononic physical behaviors in relation with a random distribution controlled by mathematical rules (order/disorder transition, hyperuniformity, percolation paths, Anderson type localization), (ii) to co-localize photons and phonons on randomly distributed sites and to enhance their optomechanical interaction, (iii) to develop a time resolved pump-probe acousto-optic near-field microscope for phoXonic experiments and (iv) to propose an OM component operating at the telecom wavelength consisting in an acoustic, optical and OM stamping of the phoXonic surface. RANDOM will allow producing a complex coding of a random patterns with numerous degrees of freedom usable in information coding. The typical platform under investigation in the RANDOM project is composed of disordered resonators, made of gold nano-pillars to confine both the EM and the elastic waves. We propose to investigate in this dual phononic/photonic (phoXonic) platform the effect of disorder, and more especially of different mathematical probability laws governing the particle geometrical distributions, on transport phenomena, nanoscale localization, and enhanced OM interactions. Numerically, time and frequency domain techniques will be used to perform calculations of the dispersion curves, transmission, reflection, and absorption spectra, field distributions, density of states and eigenvalues of the metasurface. The involvement of mathematical skills in probability and statistics, as Poisson or Gibbs processes, appears in the distribution of the resonators. The microscopic distribution of the acoustic and EM fields in the structure will be also investigated and analyzed experimentally, based on transient grating and picosecond ultrasonic (elastic side), high-resolved optical microscopy and FTIR spectroscopy (EM side). Finally, all results will be used to deliver an OM component, named OM-QR code, consisting in an OM image of the random distribution. The principle lays on the optical reading (the response) of a mechanical wave (the message) through the OM coupling. Finally, we will demonstrate the properties of a new OM component, called OM-QR code, based on the optical reading (the response) of a mechanical wave (the message) via OM coupling. With such functionality, we will be able to define an uncoded image of the random distribution. As such, the project RANDOM goes beyond the current state of the art regarding (i) fundamental theoretical and experimental OM studies of phononic, photonic, and phoXonic crystals, (ii) instrumental development with realization of a time resolved pump-probe acousto-optics microscope, and (iii) applied science with the demonstration of a new OM component for information coding. To succeed, the project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of four complementary partners in the fields of acoustics, optics and mathematics. With the working wavelength of this new experimental platform at 1.55 µm, corresponding to GHz phonons and photons around 180 THz, RANDOM offers new research and applications perspectives in the field of information and communication.