CAREER: Glass-Based Fexible Integrated Photonic Devices

摘要：传统的集成光子器件几乎完全是在硅片等刚性衬底上制造的。该计划旨在发展基本的光学物理和器件处理技术，使非常规柔性塑料基板上的光子集成成为可能。通过赋予光子结构机械柔韧性，该研究将推进对纳米尺度光学和机械相互作用机制的理解，并开辟新兴的应用领域，包括类人机器人皮肤、假肢、微创手术工具和柔性消费电子产品的触摸面板。科学研究将与课程开发、本科生培训和光学教育实践模块的开发紧密结合。该项目的研究成果将被纳入PI将开发的非晶材料新课程中。除了加强麻省理工学院的课堂教育外，该项目还将通过edX计划开发在线课程，促进知识的免费共享和传播。参与的本科生和研究生研究人员将受益于跨学科研究以及跨领域合作，以扩展他们的技术经验。该项目还将为K-12学生和公众开发动手模块，通过与麻省理工学院埃杰顿中心和当地博物馆合作，提高公众对光学科学和纳米技术的认识。柔性光子学在光子学、力学和材料科学之间有着独特的联系。虽然以前的主题在很大程度上是从三个孤立的领域进行探索，但拟议的研究将开创一种跨学科的方法，协同结合创新的光子设计，纳米机械工程和非常规材料加工，以揭示张拉应变-光学相互作用的丰富物理原理，并将该原理应用于多向应力测量。作为透镜和纤维的骨干材料，玻璃将被探索作为光子集成到非常规塑料基板上的首选光学材料，利用其低光学损耗和极端的加工多功能性，因为它们可以单片沉积在几乎任何技术上重要的基板上，并且可以通过传统光刻或软光刻方法（包括模压，压印和喷墨打印）形成功能器件形式。此外，虽然平面衬底上的传统平面光子电路本质上是二维的，但拟议的研究将利用机械灵活性所赋予的额外几何自由度来创建基于平面微加工的三维光子平台，这种技术将能够精确定位传统“平面”光子无法达到的三维空间中的光物质相互作用位置，因此将具有巨大的应用潜力。和成像。

Abstract Title: Glass-based flexible integrated photonic devicesAbstract:Conventional integrated photonic devices are fabricated almost exclusively on rigid substrates such as silicon wafers. The proposed program aims to develop the fundamental optical physics and device processing know-how that enable photonic integration on unconventional flexible plastic substrates. By imparting mechanical flexibility to photonic structures, the research will advance understanding into optical and mechanical interaction mechanisms in the nanoscale, and open up emerging application venues including humanlike robotic skins, prosthetic limbs, minimally invasive surgical tools, and touch panels for flexible consumer electronics. The scientific research will be tightly integrated with curriculum development, undergraduate student training, and development of hands-on modules for optics education. Research outcome from the project will be incorporated into a new course on amorphous materials the PI will develop. In addition to augmenting classroom education at MIT, the program will also promote the free sharing and distribution of knowledge by developing online courses through the edX initiative. The participating undergraduate and graduate researchers will benefit from the interdisciplinary research as well as cross-cutting collaborations to extend their technical experiences. The program will also develop hands-on modules for K-12 students and the general public to promote public awareness of optical sciences and nanotechnology through working with the MIT Edgerton Center and local museums.Flexible photonics is uniquely poised at the nexus between photonics, mechanics, and materials sciences. While previously the topic has largely been explored from the three isolated fields, the proposed research will pioneer an interdisciplinary approach synergistically combining innovative photonic design, nano-mechanical engineering, and unconventional material processing to unravel the rich physics underlying tensorial strain-optical interactions and apply the principle to multidirectional stress measurement. Glasses, the backbone materials for lenses and fibers, will be explored as the preferred optical materials for photonic integration onto unconventional plastic substrates exploiting their low optical losses and extreme processing versatility, as they can be monolithically deposited on virtually any technically important substrate and can be shaped into functional device forms via traditional lithography or soft lithographic methods including molding, imprint, and ink jet printing. Further, while traditional planar photonic circuits on flat substrates are 2-D in nature, the proposed research will utilize the additional geometric degrees of freedom conferred by mechanical flexibility to create a 3-D photonics platform based on planar microfabrication, a technology that will enable pinpointing light-matter interaction locations in a 3-D space inaccessible to conventional "flat" photonics and thus will have immense application potentials for sensing, communications, and imaging.