OP: Hybrid Silicon-Vanadium Dioxide Resonators for Tbps Optical Communication

Abstract TitleHybrid Silicon-VanO 2 Modulators for Record High Speed Optical CommunicationAbstractNontechnical：简单地通过添加更多晶体管来提高计算处理速度越来越困难，因为特征尺寸接近原子尺寸，功率和散热在小体积中存在问题，并且片上通信中的瓶颈减缓了数据传输。 其中最有前途的路线，以显着更快的处理速度是使用光脉冲携带数字数据。 如果计算机要利用硅芯片上的光实现太赫兹级处理，那么可以对光信号进行编码的高速、低功耗光调制器是必不可少的。 然而，由于其固有的物理特性，全硅光调制器不能实现如此高的速度的信号调制。 在本计画中，我们将研究硅-二氧化钒混合光调变器在矽晶片上进行太赫兹光调变。 该项目还将开发关于开关机制的超快行为和固有材料特性的基本见解-二氧化钒中的绝缘体到金属的转变。 参与的学生将在纳米技术，物理，工程和材料科学的交叉点进行尖端研究。 教师和研究生将通过参加范德比尔特已经建立的成功的推广计划，与纳什维尔和周围农村田纳西州县的初中和高中学生分享他们对科学，技术，工程和数学的热情。技术：高速，低功耗光调制器是硅光子学作为超快通信解决方案的未来必不可少的。 该项目的目标是通过利用二氧化钒的超快绝缘体-金属转变，在混合硅中达到至少500 GHz的开关速度，每开关100 fJ的支出：二氧化钒光子器件。 混合装置也将被用来探测强电子相关性的基础上的光诱导绝缘体到金属的动力学二氧化钒。 研究的具体目标是：（1）制作混合硅：二氧化钒光子器件，并比较二氧化钒中光学和电光诱导相变的开关速度;（2）将器件性能与最先进的模拟进行基准测试，以了解二氧化钒中的相变如何控制器件中光脉冲的模式结构;以及（3）通过马赫-曾德尔几何结构中光脉冲的相位和振幅的干涉监测来测量二氧化钒在电信频带中的时间相关介电函数。该项目的核心智力价值在于其理解和利用1500 nm附近二氧化钒相变的超快动力学的雄心。 技术挑战是在混合硅中展示500 GHz的开关速度：二氧化钒结构具有微米级的足迹，使用电信波段的超快激光来启动二氧化钒的相变。 这将需要仔细的光学工程，以确保激光泵浦和混合相变结构之间的低注入损耗。 证明VO 2中的光诱导超快相变可以在实际的硅器件兼容架构和处理机制中利用，将是迈向片上太赫兹级处理的变革性一步。 该项目本质上是跨学科的，培养学生在光学科学和工程，硅光子学，材料科学和先进的计算技术。 项目参与者将参与针对纳什维尔城市公立学校和田纳西州中部农村县初中和高中学生的完善的科学和技术推广计划。

Abstract TitleHybrid Silicon-Vanadium Dioxide Modulators for Record High Speed Optical CommunicationAbstractNontechnical:It is increasingly difficult to raise computational processing speed simply by adding more transistors because feature sizes are approaching atomic dimensions, power and heat dissipation are problematic in small volumes, and bottlenecks in on-chip communication slow down data transfer. Among the most promising routes to significantly faster processing speeds is using light pulses to carry digital data. High-speed, low-power optical modulators that can encode signals in light are essential if computers are to achieve THz-scale processing using light on silicon chips. However, due to their intrinsic physical properties, all-silicon optical modulators cannot achieve signal modulation at such a high speed. In this project, hybrid silicon-vanadium dioxide optical modulators on a silicon chip are investigated for THz-speed modulation of light. Fundamental insights on the ultrafast behavior and intrinsic materials properties of the switching mechanism - the insulator-to-metal transition in vanadium dioxide - will also be developed in the project. Participating students will do cutting-edge research at the intersection of nanotechnology, physics, engineering, and materials science. Faculty and graduate students will share their enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with middle and high school students in Metro Nashville and surrounding rural Tennessee counties by participating in successful outreach programs already established at Vanderbilt.Technical:High-speed, low-power optical modulators are essential to the future of silicon photonics as the solution to ultrafast communication. The goal of this project is to reach switching speeds of at least 500 GHz with an expenditure of 100 fJ/switch in hybrid silicon:vanadium dioxide photonics devices by exploiting the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition of vanadium dioxide. The hybrid devices will also be used to probe the strong electron correlations that underlie the optically induced insulator-to-metal dynamics in vanadium dioxide. The specific objectives of the research are to: (1) fabricate hybrid silicon:vanadium dioxide photonic components and compare the switching speed of the optically and electro-optically induced phase transition in vanadium dioxide; (2) benchmark device performance against state-of-the-art simulations to learn how the phase change in vanadium dioxide controls the mode structure of optical pulses in the devices; and (3) measure the time-dependent dielectric function of vanadium dioxide in the telecommunications band by interferometric monitoring of the phase and amplitudes of optical pulses in Mach-Zehnder geometries. The intellectual merit at the heart of the project lies in its ambition to understand and exploit the ultrafast dynamics of the phase transition of vanadium dioxide near 1500 nm. The technological challenge is to demonstrate 500 GHz switching speeds in hybrid silicon:vanadium dioxide structures with micron-scale footprints using ultrafast lasers in the telecom band to initiate the phase transition of vanadium dioxide. This will require careful optical engineering to ensure low injection loss between the laser pump and the hybrid phase-changing structure. Demonstrating that the optically induced, ultrafast phase transition in VO2 can be harnessed in a practical, silicon-device-compatible architecture and processing regime would be a transformational step toward on-chip THz-scale processing. The project is inherently interdisciplinary, training students in optical science and engineering, silicon photonics, materials science, and advanced computational techniques. Project participants will engage in well-established science and technology outreach programs targeting middle and high school students in both Nashville city public schools and rural counties in middle Tennessee.