Daria Smirnova

Topological photonics promises to revolutionize strategies of light manipulation. Dr. Daria Smirnova developed innovative approaches to probe and generate topological states of light, paving the way towards disorder-immune photonic technologies. Her results help bridge nonlinear optics with topological physics for the integrated and robust photonic circuitry at the nanoscale.

Dr. Smirnova's approach to research has already resulted in a remarkable level of academic excellence and influential insights promoting optical science. In September of 2020, Dr. Smirnova was recognized as one of Australia's top 40 young researchers by the national newspaper, The Australian, in their special report.

Her conceptual framework, which uses nanostructures made of high-index dielectric materials with judiciously designed resonant elements and lattice arrangements, shows a special promise for practical implementations of the topological order for light. These studies advance the fundamental nanoscale optics, and they are expected to benefit globally important photonic applications, ranging from high-speed data processing to nanolasing and quantum light sources.

Dr. Smirnova and her collaborators devised an innovative method to characterize topological phases of light in photonic lattices. The new technique enables easier access to the topological properties of optical systems. It provides a simple way to make light mimic electrons in topological condensed matter systems and spontaneously creates topologically-ordered states, without requiring cryogenic temperatures or strong interactions, which are notoriously hard to implement in photonics. 

Several prototypes of light-emitting nanophotonic topological devices designed by Dr. Smirnova have already been demonstrated experimentally, and further developments for various applications in photonics and quantum computing are in progress.