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Organising Committee

Thomas Krauss - chairperson
(University of St. Andrews, Scotland)

Claude Weisbuch - Vice-chairperson
(Ecole Polytechnique, France)

Christopher Smith - Scientific Secretary
(Intense Photonics Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland)
 

T. Baba - Yokohama National University, Japan;
R. Baets - INTEC, University of Ghent, Belgium;
K. Inoue - Hokkaido University, Japan;
S. Kawakami - Tohoku University, Japan;
S. Lin - Sandia National Laboratories, USA;
A. Scherer - California Institute of Technology, USA;
C. Soukoulis - University of Crete, Greece;
W. Vos - University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
E. Yablonovitch - University of California Los Angeles, USA.

Scope of the meeting

Electromagnetic crystal structures are a topic of great activity worldwide. The field offers challenges on the basic scientific as well as on the technological level, and the first products are about to enter the market. The St. Andrews workshop is the third in a loosely connected world series of meetings dedicated to this field, following Laguna Beach, USA, in January 1999 and Sendai, Japan, in March 2000.

The aim of the workshop is to review progress by bringing together the key players in the field, to discuss problems and opportunities in formal and informal sessions, to support the upcoming generation of young scientists in their quest for knowledge and understanding, and to address the following technical challenges: 
 

• Photonic crystal integrated circuits and integrated optic subsystems
• The ability to shrink photonic integrated circuits by orders of magnitude offers many stimulating possibilities for novel device and telecommunication systems designs, as well as rich commercial rewards. A speculative but breathtaking view is that the miniaturisation and large-scale integration of photonic components can have a similar impact to that experienced in electronic components in the 1960s. While the impact is easy to grasp, what are the hurdles? What is the state-of- the art and how can we push it further ? What are the bottlenecks regarding systems demonstrations?
• Optical nano-cavities
• Resonators much smaller than vertical cavity lasers allow us to engineer the spontaneous emission of light and create novel light sources using the Purcell effect. Can we utilise the Purcell effect in the real world and in practical devices? Thresholdless lasers have now been discussed for a long time, can they be achieved, and are they useful for anything?
• Metallo-dielectric structures
• At optical frequencies these become strongly influenced by plasmon resonances. The influence of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) on spontaneous emission is of a similar nature as that of microcavities, but can be orders of magnitude stronger ("Giant Purcell effect"). Can we therefore use SERS or metallo? dielectric microcavities for emission enhancement?
• Lighting applications
• high efficiency LEDs can have a huge market impact due to high brightness and reliability. Have we really explored the various ways to extract photons from high-index materials?
• RF and microwaves
• There is a wide range of radio and microwave antenna structures, phased array antennas, quasi-optical microwave arrays, passive millimetre wave filters and active radio frequency devices that offer more efficient antenna and filtering designs. Capacitive loading between metallic elements can be used to push down the frequency of the electromagnetic "valence band". More compact electromagnetic crystal structures can be realised at radio frequencies, they become smaller and much more lightweight. Have we explored all possibilities? Are there any other challenges in the microwave field, and are we not reinventing, in part, some of the older concepts already used in periodic and segmented waveguides? Is there anything for us to learn from "historic" work?
• 3D optical structures
• Self-assembly and micro-fabrication have emerged as the main routes toward 3-D optical structures. How far can these techniques go? Are there other techniques?
• Thin film 2D structures
• In 2-dimensional, thin-film, photonic crystals, since they leave the third dimension there is still the possibility for creative design. How much do we lose by staying with this quast-3D system?
• Quantum optical effects
These effects, including cavity polaritons with strong coupling effects, can be used for single photon generation, squeezing and quantum state entanglement. Will this lead to emitters with quantum effects? What will they be? Can we play, in the solid-state, the beautiful games enjoyed in atomic physics cavity-QED? 

The session topics include:

• photonic systems;
• nanostructured light emitters;
• 3D electromagnetic crystals at optical and microwave frequencies;
• RF & Microwave applications;
• New Physics and Concepts;
• Applications
• Tutorials on the basic issues

There will be a balanced mix of keynote, invited and contributed presentations from both academic and industrial speakers. Ample time (30%) has been left for poster discussions and structured discussion sessions. This format allows all delegates to fully explore the themes-of-the-day and the contentious issues of the future. Participation is limited to 100-120 in order to maintain an informal atmosphere and to stimulate discussion, a decision inspired by the "Gordon Conferences" in the U.S. and previous succesful Euresco meetings.  

In order to ensure the highest profile of the event and to introduce the emerging generation of researchers to the key people in the field,  grants for young researchers will be available. Apart from the organisation and support of the European Science Foundation through Euresco, we have secured funding from the CEC Human Potential : High Level Scientific Conferences. We are actively seeking further sponsors to ensure the full success of the meeting.

The French National Research Group on "Microcavities and photonic crystals" (GdR CNRS)

Photon Design Europe (Oxford, UK)

SANDIA NATIONAL LABS-US DOE

Corning Inc.

Intense Photonics Ltd. Glasgow, Scotland

The current version of the programme can now be downloaded. Programme as of June 08 (58k) Please note that minor changes may have to be made.

There will be two poster sessions during the conference. Every participant is expected to contribute a poster, and there are several slots left in the programme for contributions to be upgraded to oral presentations.

We will produce an abstract booklet for distribution at the workshop and invite every participant to submit one or more abstracts of up to two pages in length. Please submit the abstract in format Word 97/98 or pdf to the technical secretariat by May 8, 2001.

Discussion sessions: Request for your participation
There is ample time allocated to discussions in the programme and we intend that the key issues in the field should be fully explored. While questions will arise from the scheduled presentations directly we invite all participants to bring with them a maximum of two overheads with points for discussion. Please note that these overheads are meant to stimulate discussion and are NOT for advertising your own work. We hope that everybody has points they feel would benefit from open analysis from the assembled experts and trust that you will participate in these discussions.

Technical points regarding presentations
Poster boards have a useful size of approximately 1.2m x 90 cm (landscape). We will provide self-adhesive velcro stickers for mounting. Oral presentations can use either an overhead projector or a dataprojector with VGA port. We have a switchover box available that will minimise the delay between subsequent electronic presentations on different computers. Presenters are encouraged to bring their own laptop. Alternatively, a local computer will be available and presenters can bring their slides (Power Point) on CD.

Contact for scientific matters

For queries pertaining to the scientific content on the conference, abstracts etc. please contact  the secretariat 

Practical details

This conference is part of the programme of EURESCO Conferences, run by the European Science Foundation with the support of the European Commission.

For all practical information on this conference, i.e.:

• available grants,
• conference venue,
• conference fees,
• list of accepted participants,

follow this link to the EURESCO web pages devoted to this conference.
or contact the EURESCO Office 

Travel details

Euresco will organise transport from Edinburgh airport on Saturday afternoon, June 9 and return on Thursday, June 14, after lunch. Details will be available nearer the time.
For those wishing to make their own arrangements, a taxi from Edinburgh airport costs approximately GBP 50-60 and takes 1h. Hire cars are available at GBP30/day. Public transport is available via Edinburgh Haymarket railway station to Leuchars railway station (1h travel time) and there is approximately 1 service per hour. (approx. GBP 9 sgl/13rtn) For details, visit the Railtrack Timetable . Buses from Edinburgh airport to Haymarket railway station depart every 10-20 min (GBP 3.30 sgl/5 rtn), as do busses from Leuchars railway station to St. Andrews. (GBP1.50 sgl). The conference venue is the Physics building, which is in the North Haugh Science complex of the University, at the entrance of St. Andrews as the town is approached by road. New Hall, which is where the participants will be lodged, is a few minutes by foot away from the Physics building.

Application

The conference is now closed for new applications. We received well over 200 applications by March 16 and regret that due to the hard limit of 120 participants, not all applicants could be accomodated.

Excursion

One afternoon has been kept free for an excursion to Falkland Palace . The Royal Palace of Falkland was the country residence of the Stuart kings and queens when they hunted deer and wild boar in the Fife forest. Mary, Queen of Scots spent some of the happiest days of her tragic life 'playing the country girl in the woods and parks'. The Palace was built between 1501 and 1541 by James IV and JamesV, replacing earlier castle and palace buildings dating from the 12th century, traces of which can still be seen in the grounds. The palace is situated in the ancient village of Falkland, about 18m from St. Andrews. There are many inviting pubs and tearooms offering a relaxed atmosphere for the participants to meet and discuss. For the walking enthusiasts, an ascent of nearby East Lomond, a hill about 1500ft high, will be organised subject to demand. 

Golf

For those wishing to play on one of the 5 famous Golf courses of St. Andrews, this can be arranged at short notice for a modest fee. All courses, except the famous Old Course, accept short term bookings or even walk-on golfers. Golf clubs are available for hire from local clubs and shops (approx. GBP20/day). For more information and booking arrangements, please visit St. Andrews Links Trust.  

Special issue

We have arranged a Special issue of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics connected to this workshop. Participants are encouraged to submit a paper to the Special Issue, which will be refereed according to the usual high standards of an IEEE journal. The Special issue is open to the scientific community, i.e. workshop attendance is not required to submit a paper. The editors are Profs T Baba (Australia, Asia) and TF Krauss (Europe, Americas and Rest of World) and the preliminary deadline for submission of papers is Friday, August 31, 2001.