François Leo - OPERA, Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles - has been awarded an ERC-POC with the Versacomb project. This grant is a continuation of his ERC-Starting Grant Quadracomb project, which aims to explore the innovative potential of his results.

François Leo
The QuadraComb project by François Leo - École polytechnique de Bruxelles, which has already been funded by an ERC Starting Grant, aims to generate frequency combs (trains of optical pulses) that can be used for precise and rapid distance measurements or spectroscopy. This new funding will make it possible to explore the innovative potential of the results obtained during this first ERC, a first at ULB.

Optical frequency combs are a particular type of optical source that have revolutionised many important applications, such as metrology and spectroscopy. Their inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. Optical frequency combs have improved greatly since then, and are now commercially available, but many limitations remain. 

The Versacomb project is based on the observation that there are several competing technologies for creating optical frequency combs. Most sources are still custom-built and confined to laboratory demonstrations. A high-quality source with a versatile repetition frequency, good stability properties and high power would revolutionise the field.

The aim of the project, based on the results of Quadracomb, is to combine the advantages of each of the technologies in a single device that would cover most existing applications.

 
Dates
Created on March 22, 2023