Photonic Atoms

Photonic atoms are photonic resonators, which exhibit electromagnetic resonances. Photonic atoms are the building block of photonic crystals, which give rise to photonic bandgap materials and more recently metamaterials, which have attracted wide attention from the optics and photonics community, as well as the public at large. The focus group on Photonic Atoms is an association of people, working groups, and institutions within the EOS that are engaged in the design, simulation, fabrication, measurement, characterization, and testing of photonic atoms based applications, devices, and systems. The focus group provides a platform for communication between experts from universities, industry, and government laboratories. The focus group intends to identify and formulate future trends in photonic atoms in Europe and worldwide. The group activities will help European institutions benefit from the most up-to-date information on photonic atoms.

The focus group considers basic fields such as:

• Material Science and Engineering related to Photonic Atoms
• Physics and Engineering of Photonic Atoms
• Computational Elecromagnetics of Photonic Atoms
• Optical Spectroscopy of Photonic Atoms
• Applications, devices, and systems based on Photonic Atoms

Intended activities are:

• Establishing a web portal including
  • Forum for discussion and information exchange
  • Member directory
  • Newsletter
• Establishing an EOS Topical Meeting on Photonic Atoms
  • Starting with a workshop on Photonic Atoms in 2008/2009
• Initiation of European projects on or related to Photonic Atoms