The French Optical Society, the Advanced Research Cluster “Physics Triangle” and ONERA celebrated 30 years of quantum engineering on May 24th 2011 in the Pierre Faurre amphitheater of the École Polytechnique. A powerful symbol of these golden years, a physicist, engineer and professor with communicative enthusiasm, it was quite natural that we dedicate this meeting to honor Emmanuel Rosencher. Report on a conference that was rich in physics.
Opto-electronics is the basis of the information technology revolution of the last 20 years, the technology of devices that it has become impossible to do without (MOS capabilities, semiconductor lasers, CCD imagers, etc.). This is a hybrid field, at the interface between photonics and electronics, based on concepts of quantum mechanics and transport phenomena physics. It is also a transverse field, where the technologies developed by the micro-electronics industry open the way for nano-photonic engineering.
Opto-electronics is thus a complete technical and scientific structure in itself, to which Emmanuel Rosencher made his contribution with the study of the electrical and optical properties of semiconducting heterostructures (silicon/silica, gallium arsenide/aluminum and gallium arsenide, etc.). A gifted researcher and theorist, he contributed in particular to our progress in the understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena that take place in these “traditional” components in order to extend their potentialities. An original engineer and fertile inventor, he also took part in the discovery of new micro structures and then opto-electronic structures based on new physical phenomena (ballistic transport, giant oscillator forces, form or Fresnel birefringence, etc.).
The conference, which attracted more than 150 researchers, was organized around 3 sessions centered on the activities of Emmanuel Rosencher
