Marco Piccardo wins ERC Starting Grant worth 1.5 million euros

Published on Sept. 5, 2024, 2:50 p.m.

Marco Piccardo, Professor at the IST Department of Physics and researcher at INESC MN is one of the latest recipients of the prestigious ERC Starting Grant, securing 1.5 million euros to develop the innovative project metaPOWER: “Space-Time and Vectorial Meta-Optics for High-Power Structured Laser-Matter Interactions".

Over the next five years, Prof. Piccardo will spearhead this project, which aims to revolutionize the field of high-power laser-plasma interactions. The plasma is central to numerous advanced applications such as fusion energy and particle acceleration. High-power lasers, operating at terawatt or petawatt levels, are essential for the creation and control of plasma. However, a significant challenge is the need for advanced beam control at these high-power levels. Project metaPOWER addresses this challenge by developing high-damage-threshold metasurfaces, a cutting-edge nanotechnology in structured light, for high-power lasers. “We will mold plasma using structured lasers as sculpting tools, unlocking an unprecedented control over laser-plasma interactions and enabling new possibilities in fusion energy, particle acceleration, and radiation sources”, explains Marco Piccardo. "When joining IST and INESC MN around one year ago, I had the dream of unifying metasurfaces and plasma physics to open an entirely new direction in the field," says Prof. Piccardo. "By leveraging the cleanroom capabilities of INESC MN and the expertise in lasers and plasmas at GoLP in IST, I am excited to turn this vision into a reality through this ERC, with which we aim to achieve a paradigm shift in structured laser-matter interactions."

This is the first ERC Starting Grant awarded to INESC MN and the second awarded to INESC institutes.

Picture Credits: Maria C.S. Rego