GOALI: Engineered photonic structures with extreme energy density for single particle studies

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The capabilities of microelectronic chips currently dictate the ultimate performance of many modern technologies, including cell phones, laptops, and cloud computers. Incorporating light alongside electricity on a chip is recognized as a promising approach for increasing computation speed and reducing the power budget. This project aims to investigate a new on-chip silicon structure capable of concentrating light into nanoscale volumes with extremely high energy density. This innovation could allow light with low input power to locally operate with a much higher effective power for ultra-low power, ultra-high speed on-chip information processing. The fundamental work to be undertaken in this project includes exploiting the new on-chip silicon structure to enable the investigation of turning light "off" and "on" using a single vanadium dioxide nanoparticle on a chip, and measuring the emission from a single quantum dot on a chip. Neither of these phenomena has been previously demonstrated on a microelectronic-compatible chip and their realization could lead to significantly expanded on-chip capabilities to be leveraged for higher performance modern technologies. The world-class fabrication facilities at GlobalFoundries that monolithically integrates electrical and optical components on a single silicon chip will be utilized for this project. The diverse team of participating Vanderbilt students will do cutting-edge research at the intersection of nanotechnology, engineering, physics, and materials science in collaboration with industrial researchers at GlobalFoundries. Faculty and graduate students will share their enthusiasm for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) with middle and high school students in middle Tennessee. Technical: Expanding the capabilities of microelectronic chips likely holds the key to continued performance improvement of modern technology. The objective of this research is to study fundamental light-matter interaction in single particles that are integrated onto a silicon photonics chip to probe the limits of what is possible for on-chip light modulation and emission. To achieve this objective, silicon bowtie photonic crystals with extreme energy density will be utilized to provide a platform by which properties of single particles can be monitored in a straightforward manner. Guided by simulations, this project will utilize relatively low input power to measure (1) the phase change properties of a single grain vanadium dioxide nanoparticle and (2) emission from a single quantum dot on a silicon chip. The intellectual significance of the proposed activities includes: (a) determination of the ultimate switching speed and threshold energy density per unit volume of vanadium dioxide to elucidate the prospects of this phase change material for terabit per second optical modulators; (b) investigation of the limits of photoluminescence intensity and spontaneous emission rate enhancement achievable from a single quantum dot embedded in the extremely high energy density silicon bowtie photonic crystal cavity; and (c) demonstration of the integration of photonic crystals with customizable unit cell geometries on a monolithic multi-project wafer platform for the first time. This project will train participating students in optical science and engineering, silicon photonics, materials science, and advanced computational techniques, and will give them experience working alongside industrial researchers. Project members will engage in science and technology outreach targeting middle and high school students in both Metro Nashville and surrounding rural Tennessee counties by participating in successful programs already well-established at Vanderbilt.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.