Optical Phased Laser Arrays and Their Functionality

光学相控激光阵列及其功能

• 批准号: 1509845
• 负责人: Kent Choquette
• 金额: $ 35万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-15 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1509845&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Optical; Phased; Laser; Arrays; Their

Title: Coupling Multiple Semiconductor Lasers in a Single Chip for Applications of Fast Optical Data Transmission or High Power OperationSemiconductor lasers have an increasingly significant impact on many aspects of our daily lives, as well as the economy and security of our nation. The internet relies upon tiny lasers to transmit information originating from our smart phones and computers through optical fiber to destinations around the world, while the low cost manufacture automobiles, planes, and consumer goods require lasers for precision cutting and welding. To continue the expansion and improve the performance of the internet, or to further reduce manufacturing costs, improved performance of the properties of semiconductor lasers are necessary. Conventional approaches for further improvements are not obvious, whereby for both high speed data transmission as well as high power laser light output the laser manufacturing industry are near the limits of performance, in technology areas that are accustomed to an order of magnitude increase every few years or less. Therefore new ideas and paradigms are needed to break through these performance barriers. The research of this project seeks to develop new semiconductor laser chips that will address faster optical transmission of data as well as increased laser output power. The ability to distribute greater amounts of digital data over optical fiber with orders of magnitude less electricity and at faster rates, would be a key enabler for data centers, which has been identified in a recent National Academy of Engineering report as a critical U.S. challenge. High power lasers will also lead to more reliable manufacturing processes and lower cost production, or more compact laser sources for display applications. Finally, the development of high brightness lasers could also enable a new generation of directed energy weapons for enhanced U.S. security. This research program incorporates design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization of semiconductor lasers to challenge and educate a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in electrical engineering in both classroom and laboratory experiences.The approach of this research is to develop multiple lasers within a single semiconductor chip to act together in a coherently coupled manner. Specifically, the light wavelength and phase of each of the lasers in the array will be controlled in such a manner that all of the laser beams are combined together coherently. The coherent combination of the lasers does not simply result in the addition of the beams, but in fact the overall output light intensity increases as the square of the number of lasers in the array. Moreover, the control of the phase of each of the lasers in an array with all of the beams coherently combined can produce a significant increase of the modulation rate (the rate of turning the laser light brighter and dimmer) for digital transmission applications. The key aspect to control the light wavelength and phase of each laser element of the array is to independently electrically contact each laser diode. The intellectual merit of this research originates from the control and manipulation of multiple quantum mechanical optical oscillators. The fabrication approaches that are used in this research project are the same as those presently employed to manufacture individual semiconductor lasers, and thus can be transferred to the laser manufacturing industry in the United States. Furthermore and perhaps most importantly, the students involved in this research will be prepared for future scientific and engineering careers in the U. S. photonics industry.

职务名称：将多个半导体激光器耦合在一个芯片上用于快速光数据传输或高功率操作半导体激光器对我们日常生活的许多方面以及我们国家的经济和安全产生了越来越重要的影响。互联网依靠微型激光器将来自智能手机和计算机的信息通过光纤传输到世界各地，而低成本制造汽车，飞机和消费品则需要激光进行精密切割和焊接。为了继续扩展和提高互联网的性能，或者进一步降低制造成本，半导体激光器的性能改进是必要的。传统的进一步改进的方法并不明显，因此对于高速数据传输以及高功率激光输出，激光制造业在习惯于每隔几年或更短时间增加一个数量级的技术领域中接近性能极限，因此需要新的想法和范例来突破这些性能障碍。该项目的研究旨在开发新的半导体激光器芯片，以解决更快的数据光传输以及更高的激光输出功率。通过光纤以更少的电力和更快的速度分发更多数字数据的能力将成为数据中心的关键推动因素，这在最近的美国国家工程院报告中被确定为美国的关键挑战。高功率激光器还将导致更可靠的制造工艺和更低的生产成本，或用于显示应用的更紧凑的激光源。最后，高亮度激光器的发展还可以使新一代定向能武器能够增强美国的安全。该研究计划结合了半导体激光器的设计，仿真，制造和表征，以挑战和教育不同群体的本科生和研究生在电气工程在课堂和实验室的经验。本研究的方法是在一个单一的半导体芯片开发多个激光器，以相干耦合的方式一起行动。具体地，将以所有激光束相干地组合在一起的方式来控制阵列中的每个激光器的光波长和相位。激光器的相干组合并不简单地导致光束的相加，而是实际上总输出光强度随着阵列中激光器数量的平方而增加。此外，对阵列中的每个激光器的相位进行控制，使所有光束相干组合，可以显著提高数字传输应用的调制速率（使激光变亮和变暗的速率）。控制阵列的每个激光器元件的光波长和相位的关键方面是独立地电接触每个激光二极管。这项研究的智力价值来自于对多个量子力学光学振荡器的控制和操纵。本研究项目中使用的制造方法与目前用于制造单个半导体激光器的方法相同，因此可以转移到美国的激光制造业。此外，也许最重要的是，参与这项研究的学生将为未来在美国的科学和工程事业做好准备。S.光电子产业