Fiberized Platforms for Integrated Nanosheet Materials

可以制成几纳米厚的非常薄的薄膜的材料，目前处于令人兴奋的科学研究浪潮的前沿。与传统的块状材料相比，这些“纳米片材料”呈现出许多独特的光学和电子特性，有利于广泛应用于通信、成像、传感和能量收集等领域。此外，纳米片材料的性能可以通过改变层厚、不同材料的堆叠以及电子控制来调节，进一步扩大了其应用潜力。然而，使用这些原子薄膜有一个重大的挑战：当光信号直接通过材料聚焦时，光-物质重叠很弱，因此大多数光通过时不受干扰。这使得利用纳米片材料的特性构建高效光子器件变得非常困难。该项目的工作旨在通过将纳米片材料直接集成到光纤平台中来解决这个问题，光纤平台以其卓越的导光能力而闻名。这些材料将通过一个特别设计的“相互作用窗口”进入纤维的包层。这种结构允许在光纤内引导的光信号在延长的传播长度上与超薄材料相互作用，而不会破坏它们的光路。因此，该平台内置的组件将立即与现有的光纤系统和网络兼容，这将促进它们在学术界和工业界的广泛使用。通过为目标波长选择合适的材料和器件设计，将有可能开发出一系列高功能的光学和光电子器件，这些器件适用于广泛的应用，包括大批量制造、电信和量子信息。此外，通过引入电触点来控制材料特性，这些器件的性能指标和工作波长也可以调整，为下一代“智能”-实时可调-光子系统的发展铺平了道路。这些全纤维集成纳米片器件将在效率、稳定性和耐用性方面进行设计和优化；将加速其向商业领域过渡的关键需求。

Materials that can be produced in very thin films, a few nanometres thick, are currently at the forefront of an exciting wave of scientific research. Compared to their traditional bulk material counterparts, these "nanosheet materials" present many unique optical and electronic properties that are advantageous for use in wide-ranging areas such as communications, imaging, sensing, and energy harvesting, to name but a few. Moreover, the properties of the nanosheet materials can be readily tuned by changing the layer thickness, stacking different materials together, and through electronic control, further expanding their application potential. However, there is a significant challenge to working with these atomically thin films: when optical signals are focused directly through the material the light-matter overlap is weak, so that most of the light passes through unperturbed. This makes the construction of efficient photonic devices that draw on the properties of the nanosheet materials very difficult. The work in this programme aims to address this issue by integrating the nanosheet materials directly within optical fibre platforms, which are famed for their exceptional light-guiding capabilities. The materials will be incorporated into the fibres through a specially designed "interaction window" that has been opened into the fibre's cladding. This configuration allows for light signals that are guided within the fibre to interact with the ultra-thin material over extended propagation lengths, without any disruption to their optical path. The components built into this platform will therefore be immediately compatible with existing fibre systems and networks, which will facilitate their wide-spread use in academia and industry alike. By choosing the right material and device design for the target wavelength regime, it will be possible to develop an array of highly functional optical and optoelectronic devices that are suitable for wide-ranging applications, including high-volume manufacturing, telecommunications, and quantum information. Furthermore, by introducing electrical contacts to control the material properties, these devices could also be tunable in their performance metrics and wavelength of operation, paving a way for the development of next generation "smart" - real-time adjustable - photonic systems. These all-fibre integrated nanosheet devices will be designed and optimized for efficiency, stability and durability; key requirements that will expedite their transition into the commercial domain.