Self-driving lab

"We develop an autonomous experimentation platform to accelerate interpretable scientific discovery in ultrafast nanophotonics, targeting a novel method to steer spontaneous emission from reconfigurable semiconductor metasurfaces.

"Despite the potential of reconfigurable semiconductor metasurfaces with embedded sources for spatiotemporal control, achieving arbitrary far-field control remains challenging. 

"Here, we present a self-driving lab (SDL) platform that addresses this challenge by discovering the governing equations for predicting the far-field emission profile from light-emitting metasurfaces. 

"We discover that both the spatial gradient (grating-like) and the curvature (lens-like) of the local refractive index are key factors in steering spontaneous emission. 

"The SDL employs a machine-learning framework comprising:
  1. A variational autoencoder for generating complex spatial refractive index profiles,
  2. An active learning agent for guiding experiments with real-time closed-loop feedback, and
  3. A neural network-based equation learner to uncover structure-property relationships. 
"The SDL demonstrates up to a four-fold enhancement in peak emission directivity (up to 77%) over a 74° field of view within ~300 experiments. 

"Our findings reveal that combinations of positive gratings and lenses are as effective as negative lenses and gratings for all emission angles, offering a novel strategy for controlling spontaneous emission beyond conventional Fourier optics."


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