Ultrafast optical control in semiconductor

半导体中的超快光控制

• 批准号: 378-2006
• 负责人: VanDriel, HenryMartin
• 金额: $ 9.77万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2006-01-01 至 2007-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=336525
• 关键词: Ultrafast; optical; control; semiconductor

The standard of living that we enjoy today is largely due to our understanding of the natural world and our attempts to apply that understanding in technology. In some cases we strive to surpass what nature has to offer and develop new materials or processes to advance technology for the benefits of society.        Our research program attempts to further the use of light in information and photonic technologies. Canada is one of the leaders in this area with large and small companies proposing and marketing new ways to increase the capacity of the internet or enhance communication and other information services. Besides helping to satisfy demands for trained manpower in the broad photonics industrial sector, university-based groups such as ours investigate new ideas for the next generation of optical technology.       We focus on two thrusts related to gaining control of how light and semiconductors interact. In the first thrust, we use the coherence or phase property of laser radiation to directly control the amplitude and direction of charge and spin currents, placing these currents where we want them and when we want them, on time scales as short as femtoseconds, i.e. thousands of millionths of millionths of a second. These techniques might allow for the possible development of new types of information cryptography and quantum information processing.       The other thrust employs nanostructed semiconductors to control light.  By varying the architecture of materials that transmit light one can control how pulses propagate, how light can be used to switch or rout other light pulses, and, also control how fast light pulses move on a chip.  For example, with respect to how fast light moves, while it is known that nothing travels faster than light in some cases light based information, can overload a communications system. "Slow" light is required for optical buffers or storage devices to control the flow of  information.  The problem is to do so in a manner that allows the short optical pulses that underpin high speed communications systems to be delayed by adjustable amounts without the pulses breaking up.

我们今天所享有的生活水平很大程度上归功于我们对自然世界的理解以及我们将这种理解应用到技术中的尝试。在某些情况下，我们努力超越自然，开发新材料或新工艺，以推进技术进步，造福社会。        我们的研究计划试图进一步推动光在信息和光子技术中的应用。加拿大是这一领域的领导者之一，大大小小的公司提出并营销新的方法来增加互联网的容量或增强通信和其他信息服务。除了帮助满足广泛的光子工业领域对训练有素的人力资源的需求之外，像我们这样的大学团体还研究下一代光学技术的新想法。       我们重点关注与控制光和半导体如何相互作用相关的两个重点。在第一个推力中，我们利用激光辐射的相干性或相位特性来直接控制电荷和自旋电流的幅度和方向，将这些电流放置在我们想要的地方和时间，时间尺度短至飞秒，即千分之一秒。这些技术可能有助于开发新型信息密码学和量子信息处理。       另一个推动力采用纳米结构半导体来控制光。  通过改变传输光的材料的结构，人们可以控制脉冲如何传播、如何使用光来切换或路由其他光脉冲，并且还可以控制光脉冲在芯片上移动的速度。  例如，关于光移动的速度，虽然已知在某些情况下没有什么比光传播得更快，但基于光的信息可能会使通信系统超载。光学缓冲器或存储设备需要“慢”光来控制信息流。  问题在于，这样做的方式是允许支持高速通信系统的短光脉冲被延迟可调节的量，而不会使脉冲中断。