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》(Public Law 111-5)获得资助的。目标：该项目的目标是设计和展示在硅光子学中集成基于模式演变的集成偏振分离器和旋转器设备的架构，以便在硅芯片上实现偏振传感和操纵功能。智力优势：与光的偏振相关的影响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。虽然这种效应是可以补偿的，但用于传感和操纵偏振的器件通常是在体光学中实现的，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备受欢迎，尤其是当多个器件可以集成到单个芯片上以支持波分复用时。基于硅光子学的集成偏振分离器和旋转器使偏振传感、控制和高速调制成为可能，从而潜在地提供了一种补偿偏振模色散的实用解决方案，还使得偏振复用技术成为可能，其中独立的数据在两个正交的偏振态上发送以实现更高的比特率。广泛的影响：这项工作通过支持普及到经济中的高速通信基础设施的进步，具有潜在的重大影响。如果开发成功，能够进行偏振操控的集成芯片将为解决光纤通信中严重失真效应的新型光补偿器的实际部署铺平道路，并为光传输系统和网络提供新的概念。将资助两名博士生，并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.