Semiconductor Doped Glasses for Nonlinear Integrated Optics

尽管导波固有地增加了光功率密度，但由于缺乏适当的材料，实用的非线性导波器件尚未出现。研究人员正在研究一种很有前途的候选材料——半导体掺杂玻璃，这种材料最近被证明在光诱导等离子体产生时具有很大的非线性，并且有可能具有皮秒的激发和恢复时间。利用亚皮秒激光源的简并四波混频实验研究了非线性的上升和下降时间。正在研究的市售材料由玻璃基体中的小半导体晶体组成。沉积技术也正在发展，以制造半导体复合薄膜。从一系列物质中制造薄膜复合半导体-介电材料应该扩大器件可实现的范围，并加强对这些材料在线性和非线性体制下光学行为机制的理解。非线性通道器件将通过在商用玻璃中使用离子交换，通过光刻技术在沉积的半导体薄膜中形成所需的图案来制造。

Despite the inherent increase in optical power density available with guided waves, practical nonlinear guided wave devices have not been forthcoming due to the lack of appropriate materials. The researchers are investigating a candidate material of great promise, semiconductor doped glass, which has recently been shown to have large nonlinearities from optically induced plasma creation, and with potentially picosecond excitation and recovery times. The rise and fall times of the nonlinearity are being investigated experimentally using degenerate four-wave mixing with a sub-picosecond laser source. The commercially available materials being investigated consist of small semiconductor crystallites in a glass matrix. Deposition techniques are also being developed to fabricate semiconductor composite films. The fabrication of thin-film composite semiconductor-dielectric materials from a range of substances should broaden the range of device possibilities achievable, and enhance understanding of the mechanism responsible for the optical behavior of these materials in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. Nonlinear channel devices are going to be fabricated by using ion exchange in commercially available glasses by lithographic techniques to form the required patterns in the deposited semiconductor films.