SBIR Phase II: Laser Sources for Scalable Optical Connectivity

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将展示用于高性能计算（HPC）和数据通信行业的复杂计算机网络的新激光器。HPC对于研究许多复杂的科学现象至关重要。类似地，云计算中心代表了支持移动的计算、通信和网络的普及连接的骨干。 HPC和数据中心都越来越依赖于先进的技术来连接数十万台计算机。 该项目将使新系统具有更高的性能、效率、可靠性和成本。该小型企业创新研究第二期项目将专注于优化基于新型半导体量子点的多波长激光源的性能。 由于激光模式和色散之间的增益竞争，具有足够输出功率和低噪声的商业应用的多波长激光器长期以来一直具有挑战性。 本项目开发的设计和材料平台直接解决了这些挑战。量子点增益材料提供了克服多波长激光器性能的传统障碍的稳定性。通过优化材料特性和器件设计，将使量子点群之间的增益竞争和色散效应最小化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be in demonstrating a new laser used for the complex computer networks of the high-performance computing (HPC) and data communications industries. HPCs are critical for studying many complex scientific phenomena. Likewise, cloud datacenters represent the backbone of the pervasive connectivity that enables mobile computing, communications, and networking. Both HPCs and datacenters are increasingly reliant on advanced techniques to link hundreds of thousands of computers. The proposed project enables new systems with improved performance, efficiency, reliability, and cost.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will focus on optimizing the performance of novel semiconductor quantum dot based multiwavelength laser sources. Multiwavelength lasers with adequate output power and low noise for commercial applications have long proven challenging due to gain competition between lasing modes and dispersion. The designs and materials platform developed in this project address these challenges directly. The quantum dot gain material provides stability against the traditional barriers to multiwavelength laser performance. By optimizing material properties and device designs, the gain competition between dot sub-populations and the effects of dispersion will be minimized. This can be used for various integrated circuit chips, including ethernet switches, graphics processing units, and field-programmable gate arrays.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.