Hybrid Graphene/Superconducting Optoelectronics on Silicon Photonic Crystals

电子和光子技术已经成为我们日常生活的一部分。它们是从智能手机和计算机到医疗仪器和电信系统的大量应用的无处不在的骨干。将电子学和光子学集成在一个称为集成光电子学的平台上，不仅可以实现更大程度的设备小型化、更高的速度和更好的性能，而且还可以在量子和纳米技术方面实现新兴的应用。 虽然硅和互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)技术已经主导电子学40多年，硅光子学的研究也取得了显著进展，但各种其他半导体材料被用于光子学，以扩大硅的工作波长范围，主要用于工作在1320和1550纳米波长的光通信系统。因此，寻找与cmos兼容的材料来扩展硅的光学操作波长，从而实现新的功能并跨越经典领域进入量子体系，已成为一项具有技术需求和工业重要性的任务。石墨烯是一种原子厚度的碳层，具有出色的电子和光学性能，事实证明，它不仅可以提高硅器件的性能，而且还可以与CMOS工艺兼容。 通过拟议的计划，我们的目标是开发两类新的集成光电子平台，它们将结合硅光子晶体结构和石墨烯用于经典应用，并将它们与超导氮化Nb(NBN)结合用于量子应用。该提案将涉及此类混合结构的器件物理、工程设计、制造和表征。滑铁卢Quantum NanoFab的现有制造设施和Majedi集团中成熟的表征基础设施将得到充分利用，以确保这一计划的成功。这项提议的主要成果是开发光电设备，主要是光学调制器、开关和探测器，这些设备超出了硅光子公司的光学操作波长，与竞争对手的技术相比，具有更好的性能指标。开发的设备和电路极大地影响了从光学互连和计算处理器到生物医学传感器的应用领域。硅光子晶体上的石墨烯/超导混合器件是一种新的量子光子平台，它集成了单光子器件，其中光子在单个芯片上单独处理和检测，这是一个尚未实现的技术挑战。 HQP将接触到的多学科研究的财富、专业知识的广度和技术能力；吸引有才华的学生并为创新提供独特的环境。

Electronic and photonic technologies have become part of our daily life. They are the ubiquitous backbone of a multitude of applications, from smartphones and computers to medical instrumentation and telecommunication systems. Integrating electronics and photonics on a single platform, known as integrated optoelectronics, holds great promise not only to enable a greater degree of device miniaturization, higher speed, and better performance but also for emerging applications in quantum and nanotechnologies. Although silicon and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology have dominated electronics for more than four decades and research on silicon photonics has progressed significantly, a variety of other semiconductor materials are used in photonics to expand the wavelength range of silicon's operation mainly for optical communication systems operating at 1320 and 1550 nanometer wavelengths. Finding CMOS-compatible materials that extend silicon's optical operation wavelengths that enable new functionalities and leap across the classical domain to quantum regime has therefore become a task of technological need and industrial importance. Graphene, an atomically-thick carbon layer, with exceptional electronic and optical properties proves not only to enhance the performance of silicon devices but is also compatible with CMOS technology. Through the proposed program, we aim to develop two classes of new integrated optoelectronic platforms that will combine silicon photonic crystal structures with graphene for classical applications and their combination with superconducting Niobium Nitride (NbN) for quantum applications. The proposal will address the device physics, engineering design, fabrication, and characterization of such hybrid structures. The existing fabrication facilities at Quantum NanoFab in Waterloo and well-established characterization infrastructure in Majedi's group will be used fully to ensure success of this program. The major outcome of this proposal is to develop optoelectronic devices, mainly optical modulators, switches and detectors, that are beyond silicon photonic's optical operation wavelengths, with better performance metrics in comparison with competing technologies. The developed devices and circuits greatly impact areas of application ranging from optical interconnects and computing processors to biomedical sensors. The hybrid graphene/superconducting devices on silicon photonic crystals is introduced as a new quantum photonic platform integrating single photon devices where photons are individually processed and detected on a single chip, a technological challenge that has not yet been achieved. The wealth of multidisciplinary research, breadth of expertise, and technical capabilities to which HQP will be exposed to; attract talented students and provide a unique environment for innovation.