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（小的离散光包）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、光学隔离和开关仍然是当前弱非线性材料的关键挑战。尽管硅为低成本、大批量制造提供了一个成熟的平台，但在上面集成许多不同的材料会带来重大的加工和材料兼容性挑战。这个设计材料革命和工程我们的未来（DMREF）奖支持研究开发一类新型混合材料（由纳米级的两种成分组成），这将最终形成通用，大规模PIC的几个关键构建模块。这些新的混合材料提供可定制的光学特性，良好的耦合功能，易于在器件级集成，并与半导体制造兼容。这项工作的范围为可以大规模制造的PIC平台提供了基础，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，更高的速度，更低的温度敏感性，更大的集成容量以及更低的成本和碳足迹。这些进步将为电信、医疗保健、传感等领域提供至关重要的新能力，通过高效的器件概念和制造方法，满足《创造有益的半导体生产激励措施》（CHIPS）和《科学法案》中的关键需求。此外，研究成果将被纳入研究生和本科生的学生研究培训，以及为高中教师和学生共同开发的课程和夏季研究计划的教育模块。技术描述：DMREF项目的科学目标是推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，相位混合薄膜平台，以利用电荷、自旋和光子之间的耦合机制。技术目标是展示未来大规模PIC的几个关键构建模块，包括高效集成光开关、非互易器件和PIC磁光传感器，作为这种新的异质集成模式的概念证明。具体来说，该项目将开发一种新型的混合薄膜平台，在电介质中具有合金纳米柱（例如，BaTiO 3）基质，其同时表现出磁光效应、电光效应和等离子体效应，潜在地提供了实现通过等离子体效应增强的光开关和单向传输的多功能性。响应材料基因组计划“整合实验，计算和理论”的呼吁，该项目通过结合实验努力创建了一个有效的反馈回路平台（混合材料生长，光学特性表征，器件集成和演示），理论和建模（相位图计算（CALPHAD）+相位场建模（PFM）和中尺度电磁建模），加快了材料预测和模型特性估计，从而加速了混合超材料的设计过程。主要研究任务包括：（1）探索用于增强金属-氧化物混合系统中的磁光耦合的合金化金属相设计，并测量片上耦合特性;（2）实施用于增强基于氧化物的混合系统中的电光耦合的应变工程，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光学隔离的光学器件，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。

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.