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Tanemura Lab
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The lab studies integrated photonics, controlling light freely on semiconductor chips only a few millimeters square.
AboutAbout the lab
The best of light and electronics, on a single chip.
Tanemura Lab studies integrated photonics and nanophotonics, which bring optical components together on semiconductor chips only a few millimeters square.
The lab builds structures smaller than the wavelength of light, along with large numbers of optical elements, at high density on a small chip.
Taking advantage of features unique to light, such as very wide bandwidth and high parallelism, the lab creates optoelectronic devices that leave complex control and digital computation to electronic circuits.
The lab aims at applications in a wide range of fields, including next-generation optical communications, sensing, and computing.
Key terms
- Integrated Photonics
- Technology that builds optical waveguides and optical components together on a small semiconductor chip
- Metasurface
- A surface with an arrangement of structures smaller than the wavelength of light. It can freely change the direction and polarization of light
- Multiply-Accumulate Operation
- A calculation that multiplies numbers and adds the results together one after another. Machine learning repeats this a huge number of times
- LiDAR
- A sensor that shines laser light and measures the three-dimensional shape of its surroundings from the time it takes for the light to bounce back
NewsLab news
A student received the JSAP Presentation Award for Young Scientists (Japan Society of Applied Physics)
Results on a plasmonic-organic hybrid metasurface modulator were published in APL Photonics
A master's student received the Student Excellent Poster Presentation Award at the IEICE Photonics Engineering Research Meeting (OPE)
A student received the Dean's Award of the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo
A student received the Excellent Master's Thesis Award from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to create optoelectronic devices by integrating sub-wavelength structures and large numbers of optical elements on semiconductor chips and combining them with information processing technology. Recently, the lab has been working on light control with metasurfaces, optical computing circuits, and optical phased arrays.
*Illustrative imageFine structures that control the wavefront and polarization of light
The lab makes devices that freely control the wavefront and polarization state of light, using structures smaller than the wavelength of light (metasurfaces) formed on a chip surface. The lab has succeeded in high-speed data transmission experiments for next-generation optical communications, in which light is separated and received by polarization component and combined with digital signal processing.
*Illustrative imageMetasurfaces that modulate light at high speed
The lab studies devices that embed electro-optic materials inside a metasurface to change the intensity and wavefront of incoming light at high speed. The lab has proposed and demonstrated a new device that confines light in a thin polymer film to modulate it efficiently.
*Illustrative imageLow-power circuits that compute with light
The lab studies "optical unitary computing circuits," which perform operations such as the multiply-accumulate operations needed for machine learning at high speed and with low power consumption, simply by passing light through an optical interference circuit. The lab has proposed a new circuit based on the concept of "multi-plane light conversion" and demonstrated that it is easy to scale up.
*Illustrative imageChips that steer light at high speed
The lab applies the phased array antennas used in wireless communications to light, building devices integrated on chips a few millimeters square that switch the direction of emitted light at high speed. These devices are expected to be used in imaging components such as LiDAR, and the lab also studies new imaging methods such as single-pixel imaging.
MembersFaculty
Members of Tanemura Lab include faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, academic specialists, technical assistants, and secretaries.As of 2026
- ProfessorTakuo TanemuraPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “"Lines made with light" - diffraction gratings at the UK ATC ( )” Science and Technology Facilities Council / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Fine structures that control the wavefront and polarization of light: “An incandescent light-bulb viewed through a transmissive diffraction grating” © Robert D. Anderson / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Metasurfaces that modulate light at high speed: “Beugungsbild” Thomas Jochmann / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Low-power circuits that compute with light: “Optical patchcord” Sunmosk / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Chips that steer light at high speed: “Ouster OS1-64 lidar point cloud of intersection of Folsom and Dore St, San Francisco” Daniel L. Lu / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Takenaka Lab): “Silicon Photonics 300mm wafer” Ehsanshahoseini / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yamashita-Set Lab): “Зеркало резонатора волоконного лазера в темноте (Resonator mirror of Er ZBLAN fiber laser and its working fiber in the dark)” Hius1 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Matsui Lab): “Nanoscale Plasmonic Resonator Structures ( )” National Institute of Standards and Technology / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Maeda Lab): “Self-etched nitride MOCVD film” Evavilova / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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