U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership - Visible Light-wave Generation and Manipulation through Non-Linear Waveguide Technology (VIBRANT)

可见光波，特别是绿光，在功能性和微型化的光子集成电路中的产生和操纵，作为询问和表征人体组织的手段，目前在生物光子学应用中引起了极大的兴趣，以便快速诊断或治疗各种疾病，并有望大大改善医疗保健。目前用于这些应用的最先进的光学设备笨重、不灵活且成本高昂。利用在数据和电信领域实现光子集成电路的技术进步，这项国际合作研究将通过在厘米级芯片上实现完整的光学系统来提供低成本的解决方案。该研究项目将在美国-俄亥俄州立大学和爱尔兰-贝尔法斯特皇后大学、科克大学学院和明斯特理工大学之间进行。该项目的成功将在各种光子技术方面取得重大进展，包括通过芯片上的传感系统进行强大的、可扩展的化学和生物传感，这反过来将对传感领域产生影响。所提出的集成绿色光子电路包括一种包含许多集成器件的新体系结构，从而导致在芯片上实现密集的光子集成。该项目还将重点放在国际合作、本科生研究以及对科学、技术、工程和数学职业感兴趣的高中生身上。参与该项目的研究生和博士后将与来自这四个机构的来访团队成员进行联合实验。研究人员还计划为学生提供一次短暂的交流访问，以促进研究经验的交流和合作的发展。这个美国-爱尔兰合作研究项目的目标是研究通过非线性波导技术产生和操纵可见光，以实现功能性光子集成电路(PIC)。主要的研究目标是开发一个绿色光谱波段的PIC技术平台。为了实现这一技术突破，该项目将把产生二次谐波的材料与氮化硅波导和红外III-V泵浦激光器共同集成，以实现芯片上绿光的产生。该项目将使用发射波长为1062 nm的片上连续波GaAs激光器来激励高Q值的Nb酸锂(LN)环形谐振腔，并随后产生二次谐波(531 Nm)。其他新型脉冲激光沉积的非线性材料将被研究、开发和表征，以实现高效的上转换。该集成技术将利用转印技术来实现非线性材料和泵浦激光器与低损耗波导的渐近和端射耦合。将开发新的LN PIC设计、制造和混合集成工艺。我们将在这些非线性材料上探索模式相位匹配和基于周期极化的准相位匹配技术，以比较这两种方法的有效性。我们将研究无极差模式相位匹配技术在实现高二次谐波产生/可见转换效率方面的局限性。如果成功，这项PIC技术将提供引人注目的尺寸、重量、功率和成本降低优势，并在传感、安全、医疗、研究和通信等领域实现广泛的新兴应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Visible Light-wave, particularly green, generation and manipulation in a functional and miniaturized photonic integrated circuit is currently of significant interest for biophotonic applications as means to interrogate and characterize human tissue in order to rapidly diagnose or treat various illnesses with the promise of much improved healthcare. Current state-of-the-art optics for these applications are cumbersome, inflexible and costly. Leveraging the technological advancement made for implementing photonic integrated circuits in data- and telecommunication, this international collaborative research will provide a low-cost solution by realizing full optical systems on a centimeter-scale chip. The research project will be carried out between the US-The Ohio State University, and Ireland- Queens University Belfast, University College Cork and Munster Technological University. The success of this project will make significant advancements in a variety of photonic technologies, including robust, scalable, chemical and biological sensing via sensing systems on a chip that in turn, will have impact on the fields of sensing. The proposed integrated green photonic circuits involve a new architecture incorporating many integrated devices, leading to dense photonic integration on chip. This project will also place a strong emphasis on international collaboration, undergraduate research, and outreach to high school students who are interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Graduate students and postdocs working on this project will perform joint experiments with visiting team members from these four institutions. The researchers also plan to include a short exchange visit for the students to facilitate the exchange of research experiences as well as the development of collaborations.The goal of this US-Ireland collaborative research project is to study visible light-wave generation and manipulation through non-linear waveguide technology to realize functional photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The primary research objective is to develop a PIC technology platform in the green spectral band. To enable this technological breakthrough, the project will co-integrate the materials for second harmonic generation with silicon nitride waveguides and infrared III-V pump lasers to allow the generation of green-light on-chip. The project will use an on-chip continuous-wave GaAs-laser emitting at 1062 nm to excite a high-Q lithium niobate (LN) ring resonator and subsequently generate the second harmonic (531 nm). Other new pulsed laser deposited- non-linear materials will be studied, developed, and characterized for efficient up-conversion. The integration technology will utilize transfer printing to evanescently and end-fire couple the non-linear materials and pump lasers with the low-loss waveguides. Novel LN PIC designs, fabrication and hybrid integration processes will be developed. We will explore modal phase matching and periodic poling-based quasi phase matching techniques on these non-linear materials to compare effectiveness of each of these methods. The limits of the poll-free modal phase matching technique in terms of achieving high second harmonic generation/visible conversion efficiency will be investigated. If successful, this PIC technology will offer compelling size, weight, power and cost reduction advantages and enable a wide range of emerging application in areas including sensing, security, medical, research and communication.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.