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：该项目的目标是设计和演示硅光子学中包含基于模式进化的集成偏振分离器和旋转装置的架构，以便在硅芯片上实现偏振传感和操作功能。知识价值：与光的偏振有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，导致电信中的误差。虽然这种影响可以补偿，但用于传感和操纵偏振的设备通常是在体光学器件中实现的，这限制了它们的广泛应用。集成设备因其强大的尺寸和成本优势而受到欢迎，特别是如果多个设备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路器和旋转器实现了极化传感、控制和高速调制，从而有可能提供一种实用的解决方案来补偿极化模式色散，并且还实现了极化复用技术，其中在两个正交偏振状态上发送独立数据以实现更高的比特率。更广泛的影响：通过支持高速通信基础设施的进步，这项工作有可能产生重大影响。如果成功开发，能够偏振操纵的集成芯片可以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概念。将支持两名博士生，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.