Prof. Marcello Ferrara (Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom) delivered a seminar on March, 10, 2025, entitled « Low-Index Photonics: Past, Present, and Future » at the University of Brescia.

Abstract: Over the past three decades, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have undergone a remarkable shift in perception within the scientific and technological communities. Once primarily valued as industrial materials for transparent electrodes, they have since emerged as viable alternatives to metallic inclusions in plasmonic devices and, more recently, as key players in low-index nonlinear photonics. In this latest role, TCOs have exhibited exceptional figures of merit for enabling ultra-compact nonlinear optical components. Looking ahead, their evolution may extend into time-engineered optical systems and quantum applications. In this seminar, I will present an overview of the historical developments, highlight our latest breakthroughs, and discuss future directions in nonlinear integrated photonics leveraging low-index materials.

Bio: Dr. Marcello Ferrera is currently Associate Professor of Nanophotonics at Heriot-Watt University in the UK. He attained his master degree in micro-electronic engineering in 2005 from The University of Palermo (Italy). In 2006, after a one-year internship at the microfabrication lab (LMF)of the École Polytechnique Montréal, he started his doctoral studies in the UOP group at INRS-EMT (Canada), led by Prof. Roberto Morandotti. In 2007, he won the FQRNT doctoral fellowship, which supported his research on low-power nonlinear processes in doped silica structures. In 2010, sponsored by the NSERC post-doctoral fellowship, he joined the group of Prof. Thomas F. Krauss (St. Andrews – UK) where he was dedicated to the numerical modelling and fabrication of silicon-nitride-based photonic modules. In 2012 he won the Marie-Curie IOF fellowship with the project “ATOMIC” developed and carried on inside the group of Prof. Vladimir Shalaev at Purdue University (USA). In 2014, Dr. Ferrera joined the academic body of the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences (IPaQS) at Heriot-Watt University in the UK. Here, he teaches Nanophotonic, is the appointed director of the new MSc program in applied quantum optics, and coordinates the research activities carried out by the ASN Team.