The University of Paris Saclay is the merging of 2 classical French universities (University of Paris Sud and University of Versailles Saint Quentin) and 7 high schools. This university is mainly located in the south of Paris. It should have 10000 researchers and 70000 students. It is the answer to the challenge of France to reform the French university system to fit the 21st century. It is also an attempt to get out of the Napoleonic model in which the French higher education is trapped for two centuries.

If this attempt is successful it could lead to one of the greatest scientific institutions in the world. This new university would cover all fields of knowledge with a preponderance of hard sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering).

In this presentation we will describe the context and the goals of the creation of this new University and the features that make it unique in the current French university landscape.

André de Lustrac received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in the microwave domain from the Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale (University of Paris Sud) on Josephson logic devices in 1986. From 1989 to 1992 he was an assistant professor at the Institute of Technology of Cachan, France. He is currently full professor at the University of Paris 10, France. From 2002 to 2007 he was the head of the SITEC department of the University of Paris 10 (Industrial Systems and Communication Technics). From 2006 to 2012 he was scientific adviser for the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education. Since 2012 he is the head of the Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, a joined laboratory of the French National Research Center (CNRS) and the University of Paris Sud. He has published more than 290 papers in journals and international conferences in the domains of the simulation and applications of the Josephson junctions in digital circuits, high frequency III-V transistors (HEMT) and quantum circuits, and last but not least, on photonic band gap materials and metamaterials in the microwave and optical domains. (http://www.ief.u-psud.fr/).

Dr. Anatole Lupu
Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, Universite Paris-Saclay and CNRS, France

Dark mode metasurfaces and Parity-Time symmetric optical devices

The concept of dark mode metasurfaces is a promising framework to reduce losses in plasmonic nanostructures. Based on symmetry considerations we introduce a novel type of optical metasurfaces design and provide experimental demonstration for direct dark modes excitation mechanism that doesn’t rely on hybridization mechanism through near-field coupling. This greatly relaxes fabrication constraints for the optical domain where such kind of resonances presenting sharp spectral are highly desirable for sensing applications. We present adaptation of this method to the guided wave configuration and discuss the behavior and applications of hybrid dielectric/metasurface waveguides. We also explore how a blend of gain and losses in optical systems can be used beyond loss compensation. This paradigm, referred to as optical Parity-Time (PT) symmetry, could provide major boost to metamaterials and plasmonics and is expected to foster a new generation of tunable, reconfigurable and non-reciprocal devices.

Dr. Anatole Lupu is a tenured CNRS scientist with twenty-five years research activity in optoelectronics performed both in academic and industrial labs. He joined the Institute of Fundamental Electronics in 2003. He is the head of the Photonic Crystals and Metamaterials Group’s. His current research interests are dealing with the theoretical and experimental studies in the areas of metamaterials, nanophotonics, plasmonics and PT-symmetric devices. Before joining IEF he was with “Corning Incorporated”, which is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. He conducted research on low noise figure semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). Previous research activities at CNET/France Telecom (1995-1999) dealt with the realisation of InP/InGaAsP demultiplexers for Fiber To The Home applications. He published, in total, circa 100 research papers and holds 5 patents.