This article highlights ARCNL’s bold push to take optical metrology further than what’s currently possible. They’re doing this through the Lotus project, which the European Research Council (ERC) funds.
Postdoctoral researcher Anchit Srivastava leads the charge under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant. The focus? Ultrafast switching in transition metal oxides—these materials can flip between insulating and conducting states at speeds and scales that really stretch our measurement tools.
Lotus aims to create a high-resolution, time-resolved metrology method. The goal is to catch the physics of these phase transitions as they happen and to build new tools for nanoscopic, ultrafast measurements.
Overview of the Lotus project
ARCNL recently secured ERC funding for the Lotus project. The aim is to push optical metrology past what’s usually possible.
Postdoc Anchit Srivastava heads up the project, working under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant. The team is diving into how ultrafast switching plays out in transition metal oxides.
These materials can switch from insulating to conducting really fast. But the action happens at time and length scales that standard optical techniques just can’t catch.
The Lotus team wants to develop a measurement method that captures the phase transition in real time, with both sharp temporal and spatial resolution. They’re building on the earlier Hades project, adapting and extending a laser-based strategy to watch these switching dynamics unfold in real materials.
The idea isn’t just to see these changes, but to actually measure and understand the mechanisms behind ultrafast conductivity shifts. If it works, this could set a new benchmark for metrology in strongly correlated systems.
Cutting-edge metrology approach
The Lotus project builds on the Hades technique, which used two ultrashort, specially shaped laser pulses. In that method, one pulse cuts out the outer signal, leaving just a tiny central region—this pushes spatial resolution beyond the usual diffraction limit.
Lotus plans to adapt and expand this laser-based strategy to track switching in real materials. They’re mixing custom pulse shapes with precise timing to get millimeter- and femtosecond-scale snapshots of how a material flips between phases.
The team wants to create a measurement approach that can resolve the ultrafast phase transition with both nanoscale spatial detail and tight temporal precision. If they pull it off, the Lotus method could open up new insights into switching mechanisms and inspire fresh metrology instrumentation for studying correlated electron systems.
It’s a leap that could matter not just for basic science, but for applied electronics research too.
Impact on science and industry
Lotus is really pushing what optical metrology can do. That could speed up breakthroughs in semiconductor miniaturization and help us design faster, more energy-efficient electronic and memory switches.
The research goes after a stubborn problem: how do phase changes actually happen in materials that could shape the future of computing and data storage? It’s about building new measurement tools, understanding phase-transition physics better, and figuring out how to engineer devices that use ultrafast switching at the nanoscale.
- Deeper understanding of ultrafast phase transitions in transition metal oxides—these are at the heart of many next-gen devices.
- New metrology instrumentation that can see dynamics even beyond the diffraction limit.
- Better design rules for fast, low-energy switches in memory and logic components.
- European leadership in nanoscale metrology and materials science gets a real boost through ERC and MSCA programs.
Here is the source article for this story: ARCNL receives ERC support for optical metrology past the diffraction limit