In this webinar hosted by the Photonic Metamaterials Technical Group, Romain Fleury will discuss topological wave transport in the context of scattering, connecting it with a simple graphical rule. From there, Prof. Fleury will build and develop a comprehensive theory of topological scattering networks, proposing a definition of the topological phase that applies even in the absence of a well defined band structure. Experiments and direct topological invariant measurements will be performed on aperiodic microwave systems, validating the theory.

Subject Matter Level: Introductory - Assumes little previous knowledge of the topic

What You Will Learn:
• What topological scattering networks are
• An intuitive picture for the origin of topological edge states
• How topological invariants can be defined and measured even in aperiodic cases

Who Should Attend:
• Researchers working on metamaterials
• PhD students
• Post-Doctoral students
 

About the Presenter: Romain Fleury from EPFL

Romain Fleury is a tenure-track assistant professor at EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he leads the Laboratory of Wave Engineering. He received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UT Austin in 2015, working in the group of Andrea Alù. Before joining EPFL in 2017, he was a postdoc in ESPCI Paris, working with Mathias Fink. His research interests include wave scattering, topological insulators, metamaterials, etc. He has received an ERC Starting Grant in 2021, and SNSF Eccellenza grant in 2019, a Polysphere STI teaching award at EPFL, and a best reviewer award from New Journal of Physics. He co-founded the start-up MinWave, which sells subwavelength microwave solutions based on metamaterials and has won several awards, including ESA Business incubator CH support, Venture Kick, and more.