OPERA project

Grant agreement ID:
April 2019 to September 2022
Project homepage

In the OPERA project, we are investigating and optimizing the properties of planar photonic devices based on metasurfaces using numerical modelling. The scientific and technical activities that constitute the project work programme are organized around 4 main workpackages. The numerical characterization of the optical properties of planar devices based on metasurfaces, as well as their optimization are at the heart of the activities and objectives of two horizontal (transversal) workpackages. These numerical methodologies will be integrated into the DIOGENeS software framework that will eventually integrates (1) discontinuous Galerkin-type methods that have been tested over the past 10 years for the discretization of Maxwell equations in time and frequency regimes, mainly for applications in the microwave band, (2) parallel resolution algorithms for sparse linear systems based on the latest developments in numerical linear algebra, (3) modern optimization techniques based on learning and metamodeling methods and (4) software components adapted to modern high performance computing architectures. Two vertical workpackages complete this program. Two vertical workpackages complete this program. One of them aims to demonstrate the contributions of methodological developments and numerical tools resulting from transversal workpackages through their application to diffusion/radiation control by passive planar devices. The other, more prospective, concerns the study of basic building blocks for the realization of adaptive planar devices.

Comparison between the classical approach to phase gradient metasurface design and an inverse design approach based on the CMA-ES (Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy) algorithm.