In 1992 Allen et al. recognized that light beams could carry an angular momentum much larger than the photon spin. This twist can be generated using lenses, or holograms encoded onto liquid crystal displays. Both whole beams and single photons can carry this twist, or transfer it to particles causing them to spin.

In this talk I will introduce the underlying properties and discuss a number of applications of optical angular momentum. The applications span new methods for micro-manipulation, novel imaging modalities, new types of laser and high-bandwidth communication in both the classical and quantum regimes. Our most recent work considers how a rotational form of the classical Doppler effect can by used to sense the rotation of distant bodies, even when the linear effect is zero.

These various applications and demonstrations by our own group and others highlight how, 350 years after Newton, optics remains a science for the 21st Century.

Photonics deals with Light in a broad sense, not limited to the narrow spectral window where our eyes are effective receptors. Light has always been central in the unfolding of the human endeavor, impacting life elements that goes from the simple survival to the cultural and spiritual components of the Human reality. With the advent of the technology as a structural factor of our Civilization, the developments in this domain associated with Light have been in the core of remarkable progresses, as demonstrated by the worldwide optical communication network that sustains our information age, or when considering the myriad of breakthroughs that became possible with the Laser. It is understood this is only the beginning and unforeseeable Photonic technologies will be ahead, as already pointed out by recent developments in optical metamaterials and in optical quantum systems showing entangled effects. It shall be emphasized the importance of Light does not limit to the technologies that derive from it. Indeed, it has been progressively recognized the importance of the study of Light as a physical phenomenon, remarkably not so well understood as normally assumed. The question “What is Light?” is more actual than ever and the quest for its answer may reveal unexpected clues about persistent philosophical interrogations.

The talk will try to figure out the relevance of Light to the historical development of Science and Technology, to illustrate how nowadays Photonics is nuclear to the on-going of our Society, and looks for delivering some thoughts addressing the impact Light may have in the balanced growing and sustainability of the Human Civilization.

Microstructured fibres are hair-thin strands of glass with a transverse microstructure (typically of hollow channels) running along their entire length. This microstructure permits remarkable control over the propagation of guided light, as well as introducing new possibilities for manipulating optomechanical interactions. In this paper two examples are discussed. In the first, light-driven GHz acoustic resonances in a photonic crystal fibre are used to realise unidirectional devices and generate frequency combs, as well as providing an elegant means of mode-locking fibre lasers at a very high harmonic of their fundamental repetition rate. In the second, a capillary fibre with two ~500 nm thick glass membranes spaced by ~500 nm and suspended across its bore, exhibits giant optomechanical gain and Raman-like self-pulsations when illuminated with only a few mW of CW laser light.

Photonic sensors for chemical, physical, and geological parameters have the potential to provide critical data on virtually every aspect of the energy cycle. This is particularly true for the world’s dominant energy source – hydrocarbon fuels. Development and deployment of photonic sensors can reduce the environmental disruption associated with exploration and extraction of oil and gas, and can help keep workers and residents near fuel production, storage, and transmission sites safe. Photonic sensors can increase the efficiency of power plants and automobiles, improving air quality, increasing availability of resources, and lowering costs to consumers (a 1% increase in would reduce global carbon dioxide emission by more than 370 million tonnes!). Optical methane and carbon monoxide detectors can significantly reduce the economic impact and loss of life from coal-mine disasters, and guard against catastrophic pipeline leaks. All of these improvements, and many more, can be accomplished using photonic sensor technology.

Historically, terahertz wave (or T-ray) technologies were mainly used within the astronomy community for searching far-infrared radiation (cosmic background), and the laser fusion community for the diagnostics of plasmas. Since the first demonstration of THz wave time-domain spectroscopy in the late 80’s, there has been a series of significant advances (particularly in recent years) on the development of intense sources and sensitive detectors.

THz wave air photonics involves the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with air. The air that we breathe is capable of generating and detecting broadband THz field. I will review THz wave air photonics, especially, I will explore the challenges and future opportunities for this rapidly evolving area of research that transcends the "gap" once existing between optics and electronics. I will also highlight their potentials, including remote sensing capability.

For the past 30 years communications research has focused on finding innovative ways of coding and multiplexing optical signals to unlock the maximum practical ~10bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency provided by single-mode optical fiber, enabling the internet as we know it today. However, cost-effective future scaling of network capacity may ultimately benefit from fiber solutions that can exploit multiple spatial modes within a single multimode-core, and/or multiple cores incorporated within the fiber cross-section to increase the per-fiber spectral efficiency. In this talk I will review progress towards realizing these new fiber types (along with the key component / subsystems required) and describe the necessary requirements for ultimate commercial deployment.

Optical methods can provide a single, scalable platform for medical imaging and therapy by manipulating the spatial, spectral, and temporal properties of advanced solid state laser light sources. This allows for control of optical path length, localization of light in tissue, and selection of new mechanisms for achieving image contrast and therapeutic selectivity. This talk introduces emerging Medical Optics technologies that provide unique information about tissue structure and biochemical composition spanning from micro- to macroscopic regimes. These capabilities will be placed in the context of conventional methods in order to assess the current and future role of optical imaging as an enabling, bedside technology in Cancer and personalized health care.

Understanding the cause of diseases, early disease recognition, targeted disease treatment, predication of therapeutic response and monitoring treatment success; are the underlying principles of the vision associated with modern biomedicine. In the past years medical photonics has witnessed the development of optical / photonic approaches that are potentially in a position to meet these aforementioned challenges. In this context spectroscopic approaches like e.g. Raman spectroscopy are especially noteworthy. Here, we introduce into the application of non-invasive spectroscopic approaches with special emphasis on linear and non-linear Raman approaches for clinical diagnosis. We will present chip-based bacterial isolation strategies for a fast pathogen identification and the determination of their antibiotic resistances, which is crucial for patient’s survival. Moreover, we report about Raman on-chip approaches for the identification of circulating tumor cells and therapeutic drug monitoring. Furthermore, we introduce spectroscopic approaches for ex-vivo and in-vivo spectral histopathology for an early diagnosis of cancer.

This talk will introduce the emerging field of Microwave Photonics (MWP) that brings together the worlds of radiofrequency engineering and optoelectronics. MWP deals with the generation, processing, and distribution of microwave and millimetre-wave signals by optical means benefiting from the unique advantages inherent to photonics, such as low loss, high bandwidth and immunity to electromagnetic interference On top of these, MWP brings the fundamental added value of enabling the realization of key functionalities such as reconfigurable filtering, arbitrary waveform generation, frequency up/down conversion and instantaneous measurement, which are either complex or even not directly possible in the radiofrequency domain. In addition, MWP creates new opportunities for information and communication (ICT) systems and networks.

The basic features of MWP will be addressed and the recent advances in integrated microwave photonics will be described putting special emphasis on their potential to sustain not only future fiber-wireless communications paradigms such as 5G but also to expand into other application fields such as sensing and biomedicine.

To increase the level and quality of people’s lives, and to help them in their current occupations, the measurement, monitoring, and control of magnitudes are obvious requirements. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop the capacity to capture, quantify and translate magnitudes, in any domain to another one (normally electrical). Sensors are the devices developed for carrying out these tasks.

The sensing device that uses light Sciences or Technologies on key specific part/s enabling measurand-modulations into some of the characteristics of light and, finally, recovering faithfully the measurand state is understood as photonic sensor.

Many different approaches can be identified and can be included in the”Sensing Using Light” (SuL) area that offers very important expectations of annual growths and strong socio-economic impacts in the present decade (2010-2020).

In the talk, after a mention of what it must be understood as Photonics field we will go into the sensing using light area including the particular cases of the sensors using fiber technologies (OFS). Several significant cases will be presented and discussed in the presentation.

Two decades of extensive research in the field of nano-optics have shown that metallic nanostructures supporting localized surface plasmon resonances stand as ideal systems to control light and heat on the nanometer scale. These unique physical properties offer new opportunities in the field of biotechnologies for both early diagnostics and minimally invasive therapies. In this talk we review our recent activities in the development of novel biomedical sensing tools based on metallic nanostructures.

In particular we present an integrated analytical platform that combines the sensing capability of plasmonic antennas with advanced microfluidic technologies for the label-free multiplexed detection of protein cancer markers in blood. This platform enables parallel, real-time detection of several markers from a single drop of human blood and is currently tested for early diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Furthermore, we discuss how this technology can be extended to on-a-chip chiral sensing capable to detect the handiness of biomolecules with key application to pharmaceutical industry.

Nonimaging Optics has almost exclusively been applied to energy related problems from its very beginning. We review two of these applications: Concentration Photovoltaics (CPV) and Solid State Lighting (SSL). In particular we focus on the applications of a particular design method to these fields. This design method is called SMS. Its applications have been successfully extended also to imaging problems.

Photovoltaic cumulative installed power reached 150 GWp in 2014 and it is expected to get the 500 GWp level by 2020. More than 90% of photovoltaic installations are based on silicon crystalline solar cells whose typical commercial efficiencies are around 15-18%. No substantial efficiency increases are expected because of physical limitations of silicon solar cells, this being a hurdle for future cost reduction of photovoltaic electricity.

On the other hand, multijunction solar cells based on III-V semiconductors exhibit commercial efficiencies of 40% and laboratory developments have already reached the absolute record efficiency of 46% in 2014. On the contrary to silicon solar cells, the efficiency of multijunction solar cells has much more room for increase. In fact, several architectures have been proposed to reach efficiencies of 50% and beyond what would be of paramount importance to produce photovoltaic electricity at prices below the produced from fossil sources. Accordingly, this talk will analyze the design, technology, performance, reliability and cost of III-V multijunction solar cells for efficiencies of 50% and beyond.

This talk presents a general overview of the current use of laser light for manufacturing in different strategic industrial sectors. After a short presentation of the different approaches in which laser light is currently used for laser material processing (additive and substractive methods, joining, forming, etc.), the talk discusses in a greater depth a number of advanced techniques (Laser Induced Forward Transfer, Two Photon Polymerization, Laser Shock Processing, Advances Texturing Techniques for Surface Functionalization, etc.) whose potential impact in different industrial sectors in the short and medium term is huge. As a particular example of how this tool can completely change the manufacturing processes in a particular industrial field, the presentation includes a discussion about the impact that laser technology is having in the photovoltaic industry and, in particular, the solutions that laser manufacturing offers for High Efficiency Solar Cells fabrication.

Since the discovery of laser in 1960, scientists have been trying to get higher and higher intensities. By 1980 terawatt lasers seem really tera-lasers (tera stands for the Greek name of monster) in the sense that they were monster lasers. By 1985, Mourou and Strickland, at that time at the University of Rochester, NY, opened the way of a new technology called CPA (Chirped Pulse Amplification) that allowed the development of compact Terawatt lasers. At that time, just to remark the “non-monster” character of those systems, they were named as T3 lasers (from Table-Top Terawatt) stressing the possibility to fit the terawatt laser on top of an optical table and not a whole building. Now Terawatt lasers became a “common” tool and they are opening a brand new set of unexpected possibilities. This talk will analyse the present and the future of such extremely non-linear applications. Have you ever thought in having a Terawatt laser at home?