Organics: Slow Light in Coupled Polymeric High-Q Ring Resonators

本项目将实验研究聚合物、可调谐和非线性耦合高q光微谐振波导中光的减速和停止。原则上，在环境条件下，光脉冲可以在芯片上任意减速。为了实现这一目标，该项目将以(i)新型可调谐和非线性光学聚合物的应用为目标，（ii）开发亚微米分辨率聚合物的制造方法和工艺，以及（iii）研究光学微谐振器的新设备设计和概念。智力优势：从基础物理学的角度来看，在芯片上展示慢光将是重要的，同时使新型的光延迟线、缓冲器和存储元件成为可能，这对干涉测量、光通信和光学计算系统非常重要。可调谐、非线性和低损耗聚合物光学器件的发展将普遍适用于光开关、滤波器和调制器。该项目将全面解决聚合物集成光学器件的材料、制造和加工技术以及物理设计等问题。更广泛的影响：本项目主要支持一位女研究生的研究。夏季和少数民族本科生研究奖学金等项目使不同群体的学生能够参与这个项目。预算将部分资助学生组织的应用物理光学研讨会。通过这个项目，研究人员将与学术机构、工业和政府实验室的合作者进行互动。这些合作和系列研讨会促进了跨学科的合作，加强了新思想的传播。通过出版物和会议报告，这个项目的发现将与科学界分享。

0438038YarivThis project will experimentally investigate the slowing and stopping of light in polymeric, tunable, and nonlinear coupled high-Q optical microresonator waveguides. In principle, a light pulse can be slowed arbitrarily on a chip in ambient conditions. To achieve this goal, the project will target (i) the application of novel tunable and nonlinear optical polymers, (ii) the development of submicron resolution fabrication methods and processes for polymers, and (iii) the study of new device designs and concepts for optical microresonators. Intellectual Merit: The demonstration of slow light on a chip will be important from a fundamental physics point of view while enabling new classes of optical delay lines, buffers, and memory elements which are important to interferometry, optical telecommunications, and optical computing systems. The development of tunable, nonlinear, and low-loss polymeric optical devices will be generally applicable to optical switches, filters, and modulators. The project will comprehensively address the issues concerning the materials, fabrication and processing techniques, and physical designs for polymeric integrated optical devices. Broader Impacts: This project primarily supports the research of a female graduate student. Programs such as the summer and minority undergraduate research fellowships enable a diverse group of students to participate in this project. The budget will partially sponsor the student-organized Applied Physics Optics Seminars. Through this project, researchers will interact with collaborators at academic institutions, industry, and government laboratories. The collaborations and the seminar series promote an interdisciplinary cooperation, enhancing the dissemination of new ideas. Through publications and conference presentations, the discoveries from this project will be shared with the scientific community.