Approximate solvers and statistical optics for efficient simulation and optimization in photonics

In photonics, fabrication technologies now enable us to build devices, e.g. metasurfaces, that have aperiodic patterns at the scale of the wavelength and diameters of thousands of wavelengths, which present an unprecedented opportunity to shape light with complex objectives. However, these devices are very challenging to simulate and even harder to optimize. This talk will present ways to harness the full computational power of modern large-scale optimization in order to design metasurfaces by exploiting domain-decomposition approximations and surrogate models. We will also present recent experimental results of large-area lenses that are achromatic for several wavelengths across the visible. Finally, we will present an efficient way to simulate and optimize collimators and concentrators for incoherent light using reciprocal simulations. Co-sponsored by: INRS, STARaCom Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/325079