Preface

Abstract

International School of Photonics (ISP) was established in 1995 as a separate school under Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) with objectives of developing and establishing research activities in photonics and related fields. ISP offers a two-year MTech Programme in Optoelectronics and Laser Technology and Five-year Integrated Masters Programme in Photonics. Equiped with sophisticated research facilities, ISP also offers PhD in Photonics and related area.As a part of academic activities, ISP has been conducting a national level annual photonics workshop since its inception. This workshop gradually developed in to National Photonics Symposium (NPS) since 2017. NPS brings together leading scientists, academicians, industrialists and young researchers in India and aborad for fruitful interactions and active discussions on various aspects of photonics. Permanent venue of the conference is ISP, CUSAT, Cochin. In 2022, NPS was conducted as an International Conference on Recent Trends in Photonics (NPS 2022) in online mode during 27 February to 01 March. Virtual mode was preferred due to government restrictions in place due to COVID-19. NPS 2022 brought 12 invited speakers from India and abroad including one key note speaker and three plenary speakers. In addition to this, 21 contributed talks and 34 posters were also included for presentations. All invited talks were scheduled for one hour duration including the time for discussion. Contributed speakers were allotted 12 minutes for presentation and discussions. ZOOM Webinar was used for delivering the talks and Breakout Room facility in ZOOM Meetings was used for poster presentations. Dedicated sessions were arranged for industrial collaborators to present and discuss their latest research tools and equipment.The opening of NPS 2022 was marked by the keynote address of Prof. Franz X. Kärtner from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Prof. Kärtner talked about the latest experimental results and the implementation of electron and X-ray sources at DESY, Germany. There were three plenary talks covering various diverse areas of photonics research. Dr. Kazuhiko Maeda, an expert in the field of photocatalysis and energy, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, talked bout artificial photosynthetic assemblies using layered materials. He also gave a general outlook on artificial photosynthesis, solar water splitting with recent developments, challenges and opportunities in the field. Another plenary speaker was Dr. Pablo Albella, from the University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain. Dr. Albella gave an elaborate account of the research activities in his research group in the area of dielectric nanoantennas for guiding light and heat at the nanoscale. The third plenary talk was delivered by Dr. V. M. Murukeshan, Director, Centre for Optical and Laser Engineering (COLE) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Prof. Murugeshan’s talk focused at the research activities in his group on high resolution biomedical optical imaging of various tissues in human body.The invited speakers also included experts from various field of optics and photonics, Dr. Tatyana Sizyuk (Argonne National Laboratory, USA), Dr. Radhakrishna Prabhu (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK), Dr. Sonia Mary (The Jackson Laboratory, USA), Dr. Madhu V. (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark) and Dr. Swapna Nair (Central University of Kerala, India).Industrial sessions in NPS 2022 included two invited speakers and various contributed presentations from industries. Dr. Renilkumar Mudachathi, Chief Scientist at Motion Imager, Twente, The Netherlands gave an invited talk focused on various fabrication techniques for photonic and optoelectronic research and industry. Industry session was also marked by the interaction with Dr. Suresh Nair, IEEE India Council Chair, on the activities of IEEE and the industrial research related to optics and photonics. NPS 2022 also marked the celebration of National Science Day on 28 February, with a special lecture from Prof. G. Ravindra Kumar, TIFR, Mumbai. The lecture delivered on the development of ultraintense lasers and their application in research, was also open to the public.List of Committee members, NPS 2022 is available in this Pdf.