Research Support Activities

＜Assistant Prof. MORITAKE＞ Department of Physics,School of Science
I am deeply honored to receive the prestigious Suematsu Challenging Research Award. It is particularly moving for me as a researcher in optical science to receive an award named after Professor Suematsu, who made significant contributions to this field globally. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Masaya Notomi from the School of Science’s Department of Physics and to all those who have supported me throughout my research journey.
Nanophotonics is a field that studies and controls light-matter interaction by using structures on the scale of hundreds of nanometers, comparable to the wavelength of light. Recently, groundbreaking optical control mechanisms utilizing ideas from condensed matter and quantum physics have been reported. The purpose of my research project is to achieve highly sensitive optical sensing by applying the principles of non-Hermitian physics. This high sensitivity will be leveraged to detect quantum biological signals, which are typically difficult to measure due to their weak nature. Through interdisciplinary research spanning physics, engineering, and biology, the development of a new scientific principles and optical technologies is expected.

＜Assistant Prof. CHUJO＞ Department of Mechanical Engineering,School of Engineering
I am very honored to receive the prestigious Tokyo Tech Challenging Research Award and the Suematsu Challenging Research Award. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my co-researchers, students and staffs in our laboratory and research group, and my family who supported my research.
Solar sails are a propellant-free propulsion system that uses solar radiation pressure. It is particularly compatible with lightweight micro spacecraft, and I believe it is one of the important technologies that will be useful for frequent space exploration missions by micro spacecraft. In order to use a solar sail, mission design (orbit/trajectory design) based on an understanding of orbital mechanics and control to follow the designed orbit/trajectory are required. However, since the orbital control of a solar sail is performed via attitude control, a concept of integrated attitude-orbit control is necessary. In this research, we established the integrated attitude-orbit control law using a gimbal mechanism equipped on the sail deployment part, and designed various orbits and trajectories assuming missions near the moon and Lagrangian points. We are also preparing for a technology demonstration mission in space, aiming to apply it to deep space exploration in the future.

＜Associate Prof. YAMAMOTO＞ Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research
I am very honored to receive the Tokyo Tech Challenging Research Award and the Suematsu Challenging Research Award. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the people who have been involved in the research.
I am honored to receive the Tokyo Tech Challenging Research Award and the Suematsu Challenging Research Award. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those involved in the research.
I am working on the synthesis of novel materials of inorganic compounds. In this research, I aim to create various crystal structures by arranging the defects that form in crystals by controlling the synthesis method and composition. People may get a negative impression of the word 'defect', and in fact, in many cases, they cause various factors that degrade the performance of materials. However, if defects can be arranged periodically, they can become part of a beautifully aligned crystal structure and provide a means of controlling the properties of a material. Recently, we have shown that the concept of controlling defects, which was well-known for oxides, can be extended to organic-inorganic hybrid compounds, which have recently attracted attention in perovskite solar cells. In this research, I would like to provide pioneer methods that enable the free arrangement of elements and defects in various material groups and develop functional materials.