Innovative Silicon Photonics for Polarization Sensing and Control

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。目标：该计划的目标是设计和演示在硅光子学中结合基于模式演化的集成偏振分离器和旋转器器件的架构，以便在硅芯片上实现偏振传感和操纵功能。智力优势：与光的偏振相关的效应导致光波技术中的重大问题。一个例子是偏振模色散：光脉冲以频率和偏振相关的方式在时间上传播，导致电信中的错误。 虽然这种效应可以补偿，但用于感测和操纵偏振的设备通常在体光学器件中实现，这限制了它们的广泛应用。集成器件因其强大的尺寸和成本优势而被期望，特别是如果多个器件可以集成在单个芯片上以支持波分复用。基于硅光子学的集成偏振分束器和旋转器实现了偏振感测、控制和高速调制，从而潜在地提供了补偿偏振模色散的实用解决方案，并且还实现了偏振复用技术，其中在两个正交偏振状态上发送独立的数据以实现更高的比特率。这项工作有可能通过支持经济中普遍存在的高速通信基础设施的进步而产生重大影响。 如果成功开发，能够进行偏振操纵的集成芯片可以为实际部署新的光学补偿器铺平道路，解决光纤通信中的严重失真效应，并实现光传输系统和网络的新概念。两个博士学生将得到支持，并将邀请一名本科生参加。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)Objective:The objective of this program is to devise and demonstrate architectures incorporating mode-evolution based, integrated polarization splitter and rotator devices in silicon photonics, in order to enable polarization sensing and manipulation functionalities on a silicon chip.Intellectual merit:Effects related to the polarization of light lead to significant issues in lightwave technology. One example is polarization-mode dispersion: optical pulses spread in time in a frequency- and polarization-dependent manner, leading to errors in telecommunications. While such effects can be compensated, the devices for sensing and manipulating polarizations are usually implemented in bulk optics, which limits their widespread application. Integrated devices are desirable for their strong size and cost advantages, especially if multiple devices can be integrated on a single chip to support wavelength-division multiplexing. Silicon photonics based, integrated polarization splitters and rotators enable polarization sensing, control and high speed modulation, thereby potentially offering a practical solution to compensate polarization mode dispersion, and also enable polarization multiplexing techniques, in which independent data is sent on two orthogonal polarization states to realize higher bit rate.Broader impacts:This work has the potential for significant impact by supporting advances in high-speed communications infrastructure pervasive to the economy. If successfully developed, integrated chips capable of polarization manipulation could pave the way to practical deployment of new optical compensators addressing serious distortion effects in fiber communications and enable new concepts for optical transmission systems and networks. Two Ph.D. students will be supported and one undergraduate student will be invited to participate.