DMREF: Magneto-electro-optically coupled hybrid metamaterial thin film platform for photonic integrated circuits

非技术描述：与电子电路不同，光子集成电路(PIC)使用光子(小的、离散的光分组)而不是电子来传输和处理信息。虽然光子提供了更高的传输速度和信息容量，但实现定向信号传输、光隔离和开关仍然是当前弱非线性材料面临的关键挑战。尽管硅为低成本、大批量制造提供了一个成熟的平台，但在顶部集成许多不同的材料会带来巨大的加工和材料兼容性挑战。这项旨在革新和设计我们的未来的设计材料奖(DMREF)支持开发一类新型混合材料(由纳米级的两种成分组成)的研究，这种材料最终将形成通用、大规模PIC的几个关键构件。这些新型混合材料提供了可定制的光学性能、良好耦合的功能、易于在器件级别集成以及与半导体制造兼容。这项工作的范围为可规模化制造的PIC平台奠定了基础，实现了基于光子的电路的优势，包括：与典型的集成电路(IC)器件相比，速度更快、温度敏感度更低、集成容量更大、成本和碳足迹更低。这些进展将在电信、医疗保健、传感等领域提供至关重要的新能力，以满足在制定有效激励措施以生产半导体(芯片)和通过高效设备概念和制造方法实施《科学法案》方面的关键需求。此外，研究成果将被纳入研究生和本科生水平的学生研究培训，以及为高中教师和学生共同开发的课程和暑期研究计划的教育模块。技术描述：DMREF项目的科学目标是通过两相混合薄膜平台来利用电荷、自旋和光子之间的耦合机制，增进对复杂纳米级混合超材料中电光和磁光耦合效应的理解。技术目标是展示未来大规模PIC的几个关键构件，包括高效和集成的光开关、非互易器件和PIC的磁光传感器，作为这种新的异质集成范例的概念验证。具体地说，该项目将开发一种新型的混合薄膜平台，该平台在介电(例如，BaTiO3)基质中含有合金纳米微管，同时表现出磁光效应、电光效应和等离子体效应，有可能在实现由等离子体效应增强的光开关和单向传输方面提供多功能性。响应材料基因组计划“实验、计算和理论一体化”的号召，该项目通过将实验工作(混合材料生长、光学性能表征、器件集成和演示)、理论和建模(相图计算(CALPHAD)相场建模(PFM)和中尺度电磁建模)以及加速材料预测和模型性能估计相结合，创建了一个有效的反馈环路平台，以加速混合超材料设计过程。主要研究任务包括：(1)探索用于金属-氧化物混合系统中增强磁光耦合的合金金属相设计，并测量片上耦合特性；(2)实施应变工程，以增强基于氧化物的混合系统中的电光耦合，并演示片上调制和器件微调；以及(3)表征和集成混合系统，以形成用于潜在的光隔离、开关和传感的光学设备。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。

Non-technical Description: Unlike electronic circuits, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) use photons (small, discrete packets of light), rather than electrons, to transmit and process information. While photons provide higher transmission speeds and information capacity, achieving directed signal transmission, optical isolation, and switching remain critical challenges with current weakly-nonlinear materials. Despite silicon providing an established platform for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing, integrating many dissimilar materials on top poses significant processing and materials compatibility challenges. This Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) award supports research to develop a class of novel hybrid materials (consisting of two constituents at the nanoscale), which will ultimately form several key building blocks for universal, large-scale PICs. These new hybrid materials provide tailorable optical properties, well-coupled functionalities, easy integration at the device level, and compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing. The scope of the work provides the foundation for a PIC platform that can be manufactured at scale, actualizing the benefits of photon-based circuits, which include: higher speed, lower temperature sensitivity, large integration capacity, and lower costs and carbon footprint, compared to typical integrated circuit (IC) devices. These advances will provide vital new capabilities in telecommunications, healthcare, sensing, etc., to address critical needs in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act through highly efficient device concepts and manufacturing approaches. Furthermore, the research findings will be incorporated into student research training at both graduate and undergraduate levels and education modules for a co-developed course and summer research programs for high school teachers and students.Technical Description: The scientific goal of the DMREF project is to advance understanding of electro-optical and magneto-optical coupling effects in complex nanoscale hybrid metamaterials with a two-phase hybrid thin film platform to harness the coupling mechanisms between charges, spins, and photons. The technological goal is to demonstrate several key building blocks for future large-scale PICs, including highly efficient and integrated optical switches, nonreciprocal devices, and magneto-optic sensors for PICs, as a proof of concept for this new hetero-integration paradigm. Specifically, the project will develop a novel hybrid thin film platform with alloyed nanopillars in a dielectric (e.g., BaTiO3) matrix that simultaneously exhibits a magneto-optic effect, an electro-optic effect, and a plasmonic effect, potentially offering the versatility in achieving optical switching and one-way transmission enhanced by plasmonic effects. Echoing the Materials Genome Initiative’s call for “integrating experiment, computation, and theory,” the project creates an effective feedback loop platform by combining experimental efforts (hybrid materials growth, optical property characterization, and device integration and demonstration), theory and modeling (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams (CALPHAD) + phase field modeling (PFM) and mesoscale electromagnetic modeling), and expedited materials prediction and model properties estimation to accelerate the hybrid metamaterial design process. Major research tasks include: (1) to explore alloyed metallic phase designs for enhanced magneto-optical coupling in metal-oxide hybrid systems and measure on-chip coupling properties; (2) to implement strain engineering for enhanced electro-optical coupling in oxide-based hybrid systems and demonstrate on-chip modulation and device trimming; and (3) to characterize and integrate hybrid systems to form optical devices for potential optical isolation, switching and sensing.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.