A team of researchers led by Professor Seon-Kyu Yu from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SNU has successfully developed an evolving network that can explain the scattering pattern of light. When light collides with other particles (left, blue), a scattering phenomenon occurs, causing light to scatter in various directions. Using the network (right) developed by the research team, the interaction between light and other particles can be expressed in a simple manner. / SNU College of Engineering

SNU College of Engineering announced on the 14^th that Professor Seon-Kyu Yu from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering developed a technology that can control the scattering of light by analyzing the evolving pattern within the increasing number of particles in an optical network.

Initially, during the calculation of the scattering pattern, the resource and time required for the calculation increased exponentially with the number of particles that can collide with the light under observation. Furthermore, the difficulty in altering the number of particles that were configured initially posed a problem.

Professor Yu solved that problem by introducing the concept of evolution into the field of network sciences. Network sciences, which is a field that aims to explain complex networks, such as biological or social networks, is mainly applied to the analysis of complex relationships. Examples of such relationships include the interaction between the nerves of the human brain and social relationships. The size of the group that makes up the network may grow or shrink over time. This change in the size of the group is called ‘evolution’.

Based on the optical network calculation results, the team also developed a material that can control the scattering of light. The material that was altered to exhibit a high degree of light scattering caused three times more scattering than before. The team also succeeded in designing a material that scatters light in a desired pattern.

Professor Yu said, “This study introduced the concept of network sciences and evolution into the analysis of an optical phenomenon, and is the first study to strictly define the concept of optical networks.”, and that they “plan to further the research to the application of the network to the development of optical artificial networks or artificial materials such as metamaterials, and to the utilization of the network to gain an understanding of the formation of ultra-uniform patterns found in nature.”

Professor Seon-Kyu Yu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / SNU College of Engineering