NIT Strategic Workshop Emerging Technologies for Future Optical and Wireless Networks September 8 & 9, 2003 Nanotechnology for Networks: Merging bottom-up self-assembly with top-down engineering design Prof. Edward (Ted) H. Sargent Nortel Networks - Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies University of Toronto Abstract. The optical Internet of the future will demand enhanced optical-domain agility combined with assured stability; new functions such as processing of signals in the optical domain; and new levels of integration, especially at the optical-electronic and optical-wireless interfaces.     I will present our latest research into the architectures that will enable such a network, and on the physical origins and implementations of the materials and devices that will answer its functional requirements. I will show how we have been harnessing the vast potential of novel materials chemistry and self-organization to produce new materials and structures which address anticipated network needs. I will describe our recent demonstration of quantum dots embedded in spin-processible semiconducting polymers which produce light across the entire spectrum used in optical communications. I will discuss how we are combining these materials with micron-lengthscale photonic crystals to control electronic wavefunctions and electromagnetic waves in tandem. Biography. Ted Sargent received the B.Sc.Eng. (Engineering Physics) from Queen's University in 1995 and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Photonics) from the University of Toronto in 1998. His research exploits nanoscience and nanotechnology to enable a fast and agile optical Internet. He was recently honoured by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research as one of Canada’s top twenty researchers under age forty. In 2002 he won the Outstanding Engineer Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of Canada "...For groundbreaking research in applying new phenomena and materials from nanotechnology towards transforming fibre-optic communications systems into agile optical networks." He was awarded a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto in 2000: “[Ted Sargent] has created a new type of laser that unites many sophisticated optical devices onto a single, integrated photonic chip. His research links the emerging concept of the photonic circuit with the exploding field of fibre optic networks. Ted Sargent's breakthrough with the lateral current injection laser won him the 1999 NSERC [Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council] Silver Medal. More info: Ted Sargent's web site