Strong Atom-Photon Interaction for Microphotonic Devices

这项研究的目标是开发一种基于掺铒微腔的新型器件，这种器件可以作为高效的光发射器、光子开关和太赫兹信号振荡器。该器件将利用强光子-原子相互作用的基本物理原理来确定在高Q微腔中使用掺铒介质作为光子器件设计的基本单元的可行性。这些器件的制造将涉及结构和工艺指标的设计，如应力消除、层的平面性和均匀性以及材料系统的相稳定性。如果成功，这项研究将为光子的产生、探测和操纵创造一类新的设备，这对所有光网络的发展至关重要，用于信息的移动和管理。我们用硅/二氧化硅介电堆镜包覆的er2o3微腔介质获得的初步结果直接证明了光子-原子耦合，在室温下从微腔发射的光增强了几个数量级，以及光开关能力。这种潜在的新型器件的Si/ sio2微腔结构为CMOS兼容处理和集成提供了一条非常重要的途径。此外，Si/ sio2材料体系的高介电对比度（dnr =2）意味着在1000的空腔Qs中只需要4层对。稀土元素作为量子点类似物提供了最终的尺寸单分散性和电子定位。铒是一种理想的稀土光掺杂剂，其发射光谱在电信标准l=1.55微米波长区域。发展硅：铒平台的主要障碍是其光学截面小、辐射寿命长、原子共振难以调谐等。我们建议使用单片平面微腔来增强铒光子耦合，从而增加一个调谐振荡器强度的机制。er2o3腔介质提供了高密度的原子，可以经历与光的相干相互作用。这些相互作用的铒原子通过尖锐的发射线与它们的宿主矩阵弱耦合。这种特性产生了一种响应光的器件，作为一组铒光子耦合振荡器。通过调整微腔共振，可以将结构的发射、传输和反射特性控制在相当于铒和腔共振之间频率差的速度上。我们计划用三年的时间来设计、制造和表征l=1.55微米波长区域的光发射和开关的室温操作装置。本研究探索了一种新的光活性离子耦合器件平台及其在光的产生和控制中的应用。如果能够实现承诺的性能，那么这个Er:Si/SiO2系统将提供一个高度可制造的，硅兼容的光子器件平台。

The goal of the proposed research is to develop a new class of devices based on Er-doped microcavities that function as efficient light emitters, as photonic switches and as terahertz signal oscillators. The devices will exploit the basic physics of the strong photon-atom interaction to determine the feasibility of the using of Er-doped media in a high Q microcavity as a basic unit of photonic device design. The fabrication of these devices will involve the design of the structures and the process metrics, such as stress relief, planarity and uniformity of the layers and the phase stability of the materials systems. If successful, this research creates a new class of devices for the generation, detection and manipulation of photons that could be critical to the evolution of all optical networking for the movement and management of information. Our preliminary results obtained with an Er 2 O 3 microcavity medium clad by Si/SiO 2 dielectric stack mirrors showed direct evidence of photon-atom coupling, an enhancement of the light emitted from the microcavity by orders of magnitude at room temperature, and the capability of optical switching. The Si/SiO 2 microcavity structure of this potential new class of devices provides a very important route to CMOS compatible processing and integration. In addition, the high dielectric contrast of the Si/SiO 2 materials system (D nr=2) means that only four layer pairs are required for cavity Qs of 1000. Rare earth elements as quantum dot analogs offer the ultimate in size monodispersity and electronic localization. Erbium is an ideal rare earth optical dopant because of its emission spectrum in the telecommunications standard, l=1.55 micron wavelength region. The main obstacle to the development of a Si:Er platform is the small optical cross section, long radiative lifetime and difficulty of tuning of the atomic resonances of the rare earth elements. We propose to use monolithic planar microcavities to enhance the Er-photon coupling, and hence, add a mechanism for tuning of the oscillator strength. An Er2 O3 cavity medium provides a high density of atoms that can experience coherent interactions with light. These interacting Er atoms are weakly coupled to their host matrix with sharp emission lines. This property yields a device that responds to light as a set of Er-photon coupled oscillators. By tuning the microcavity resonance the emission, transmission and reflection properties of the structure may be controlled at speeds equivalent to the frequency difference between the Er and cavity resonances. We propose a three-year effort to design, fabricate and characterize room temperature operating devices for emission and switching of light in the l=1.55 micron wavelength region. The proposed study explores a new device platform of photon coupling to optically active ions and its application to the generation and control of light. If the promised performance can be achieved, then this Er:Si/SiO2 system will provide a highly manufacturable, silicon compatible photonic device platform.