PhD Student Yannick Chassagneux is the winner of the first Photonics21 Student Innovation Award. Jan Ostoja-Ostaszewski, member of the Cabinet of Viviane Reding, awarded Chassagneux the prize at the opening ceremony of the World of Photonics Congress in Munich on the 15 th June 2009. Ostoja-Ostaszewski handed him a cheque of 5000 Euros, sponsored by Adva, Laserline, Philips and Zeiss, an official certificate and a trophy. Chassagneux also received a complimentary ticket for the following World of Photonics Congress.

The Frenchman Jannick Chassagneux works as a PhD Student at the Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale (IEF) of the Université Paris Sud in France. His innovative R&D paper in photonics is entitled: “THz quantum cascade lasers with ultimate control of mode pattern and divergence”. The award committee appreciated Chassagneux’s work as “outstanding and excellent” as his research activity fully met the expectations of the Photonics21 Student Innovation Award.

During his undergraduate work, Chassagneux worked on a theoretical proposal for a new generation of mid-infrared optoelectronic devices operating in the strong-coupling regime between light and matter. In his PhD period, Chassagneux focused on the physics and technology of THz semiconductors laser sources with an emphasis on the development of innovative solutions based on photonic crystal technology. He carried out original theoretical and experimental work and published 9 articles in high-level, internationally refereed journals and gave several presentations at international conferences. The culmination of Chasagneux’s research activity has been the demonstration of a novel, highly effective photonic technology to control the spectral and spatial output properties of THz semiconductor lasers. The result, published in the journal Nature, will also have an impact on applications.