In this talk, I will discuss our recent progress in the area of light manipulation using strongly coupled light-matter oscillations in engineered materials featuring lattice resonances and time-driven phenomena. I will discuss the opportunities to control and tailor photons at the nanoscale to enable control over thermal radiation and incoherent processes, based on spatially and/or temporally periodic patterns in metasurfaces. During the talk, I will discuss the exotic phenomena supported by these photonic engineered structures, and their opportunities for classical and quantum light applications.

Bound states in the continuum enable dielectric metasurfaces to confine light with extreme near-field enhancements and high quality factors. I will show how this single principle powers three advances from my group: label-free molecular fingerprinting and AI-assisted biosensing; permittivity-driven, actively reconfigurable metasurfaces culminating in new symmetry-protected BIC concepts for ultrafast resonance control; and van der Waals nanophotonics in crystals such as rhenium disulfide that open a path to topological photonics. Together, these advances show how a single principle, the control of radiative loss, is becoming a remarkably versatile engine for nanophotonic discovery.

Since their emergence as a scientific concept, hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HCPCFs) have evolved from a fascinating curiosity into both a versatile platform for unique gas-based photonic devices and a compelling candidate for next-generation datacom and telecom transmission. Through a historical account of this evolution, this talk will highlight the remarkable synergy between three interconnected drivers: fundamental science, fabrication technology, and applications. Advances in understanding how light can be confined and guided in a hollow core inspired new fiber structures and guidance mechanisms. In parallel, innovations in fabrication enabled increasingly sophisticated designs to be fabricated with greater precision and control. These advances opened new application opportunities, whose requirements and challenges, in turn, stimulated further developments in fiber science and technology. This continuous feedback between understanding, making, and applying HCPCFs has driven extraordinary progress in their performance and capabilities.

The talk will trace how this interplay enabled HCPCFs to develop along two major directions: as a platform for unique and varied light–gas interactions and novel photonic devices, and as an ultra-low-nonlinearity, low-latency transmission medium with rapidly decreasing loss. The latter is now bringing HCPCFs into the performance regime required by the unprecedented demands from artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centers for faster, higher-capacity, and more energy-efficient data transport. The talk will conclude with the remaining scientific and industrial challenges and the pathway toward widespread HCPCF deployment in future communication systems.