This project is part of the Cooperation of Innovative Technology and Advanced Research in Evolutional Area (CITY AREA), which is an Industry- Academy Publlic cooperative research program that the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) proposed to focus on the unique characteristic of the local regions with the goals of creating the seeds for new technology by using "wisdom" from universities, creating new projects, and fostering regional R&D industries. The Osaka-Izumi area was selected as one of the areas in 2002. The Osaka Science and Technology Center serves as the central project organization with assistance from MEXT and Osaka Prefecture.

This project succeeds and further develops part of the research results from the Collaboration of Regional Entities for the advancement of Technological Excellence (Development of Basic Technologies for Ultra-Fast Optical Information) held in the Osaka prefecture for five years since 1997. This project focuses on optical elements with nanostructures and optical measurement technology using these optical elements for ultrafast photonic communication. The aim of this project is to make the Osaka-Izumi region a R&D center in this field through the cooperation of industries, universities and public institutions.

To meet the today's explosive demand for Internet communication, optical systems for recording, transmitting and displaying information are required. This calls for the development of optical elements with new and high performance. This project focuses on optical elements with nanostructures (structures with periods shorter than the wavelength of light). Nanostucture optical elements with new functions are developed and fabrication and evaluation of nanostructures are investigated. Using these elements, an innovative meassurment system that can measure variation of waveforms of ultrashort optical pulses in real-time is also being developed. and expected to become a technology to support the next-generation optical communication systems and the development of nanotechnology.

This project is made up of following sub-projects: (1) a Research Information Exchange Project to promote collaboration among industries, universities, and government and utilize research results; (2) a Joint Research Project to create the seeds for new types of joint research among industries, universities, and government; and (3) a Project for the Cultivation of Results for the development of commercial applications of research results to date.