Chip-scale classical and quantum nonlinear photonic mixers

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The objective of this program is to develop a chip-scale technology for compact and efficient nonlinear classical and quantum photonic mixers while maintaining compatibility with silicon integrated optoelectronics. Proposed research builds on recent accomplishments of slow-light enhanced nonlinearity which is 20x higher than that of conventional silicon nanophotonic waveguides, correlated photon generation via spontaneous four-wave mixing in long chains of low loss coupled silicon microring resonator waveguides, and telecom-band to infrared four-wave mixing conversion in nitride-clad silicon waveguides. Devices will be designed, fabricated and measured which combine electro-optic functionality, materials engineering and lithographic patterning to substantially improve the figures of merit of nonlinear optical frequency conversion applications. The intellectual merit is to develop chip-scale devices with orders-of-magnitude improvement in energy efficiency, and reduction in size, weight and cost, compared to fiber-based or crystal-based bulk nonlinear optical systems. Novel scientific insights will emerge from the systematic study of combined electro-optic and nonlinear optical phenomena in both the classical and quantum regime, bridging traditional barriers between those fields. The outcome of this project will be the creation of optoelectronic devices useful for data and free-space communication, chemical and biomolecular spectroscopy, sensing, metrology, cryptography, and quantum photonics.The broader impacts are to integrate several modern scientific disciplines, to which graduate students will gain valuable exposure and benefit from research collaborations with industry and government laboratories which provide broader perspective and scope for field applications of the novel scientific breakthroughs.