USC, Northrop Grumman Establish Optical Materials Research Institute

Northrop Grumman Corp. and the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering have announced plans to establish an advanced research institute focused on optical materials and nanophotonics devices.

The Northrop Grumman Institute of Nanophotonics and Nanomaterials (NG-ION²) will be based on the USC campus, and will bring together research teams from the university and the aerospace industry.

Under the agreement, Northrop Grumman will contribute $500,000 to NG-ION² in 2016 to help foster interdisciplinary research by materials scientists, electrical engineers, physicists and chemists to develop novel materials for optical devices.

NG-ION² will also enable regular exchanges between USC and Northrop Grumman researchers working across projects. USC Viterbi will grant Northrop Grumman scientists visiting researcher positions, a strategy that will allow them to work collaboratively on campus with their Institute counterparts to advance science in nanomaterials and integrated photonics, the two organizations said.

Initial projects include theoretical and experimental studies on 2D materials, plasmonics and nonlinear optics.