Analysis and design of novel photon-electron-interaction nanodevices for emerging applications

该研究计划旨在开发下一代具有片上放大功能的破坏性纳米级光子器件，用于电信（交换），生物医学（传感），能源（太阳能收集），信息（信号处理）和其他新兴技术，商业和消费领域。目标是建立具有内置光电增益能力的纳米光子功能元件的理论，实验和技术平台，以便以超高速控制和操纵光子。 该研究将解决光电子相互作用效应的理论、实验和应用及其在纳米光子器件中的应用等具有挑战性的问题。该研究将集中于理解通过从固态材料中移动的自由电子中提取能量来获得光放大的概念，并利用非线性和等离子体相互作用。 研究将围绕光子在电子环境中的行为展开，重点关注在利用其结构特性的同时，将光波和含电子介质带入光电材料内的主动相互作用的方法。硅和其他半导体材料，如石墨烯将被研究。 通用有源纳米光子元件将被调查，技术兼容和集成到一个共同的半导体平台上的光子-电子功能，在特定应用的纳米架构。 目标的一个组成部分是培训高素质的工作准备人员在计算机辅助建模，模拟和结构设计的纳米光子器件在太赫兹和光学区域，在制造样品的表征和测试，并与工业合作伙伴密切合作，以获得实践经验。 该研究将把我们的理论，建模，模拟和设计结果转化为新型先进的纳米光子器件，具有预期的卓越性能参数，如片上内置放大/损耗补偿，超高的操作速度，鲁棒的传感和能源效率。这将导致重大创新，从而有助于进一步开发纳米光子集成组件。新的知识将从我们计划的光子-电子相互作用的研究中发现。它将对光子学及其在许多其他领域的广泛应用产生长期影响，例如应用数学，物理学，电信，医疗数据的传感和分析，信息处理，工程，国防和其他新兴应用领域。在拟议的研究中接受培训的学生将在纳米技术和纳米光子学的一般领域毕业。这将使他们为就业做好准备，并具有高度的就业能力，同时能够为加拿大经济财富的进一步发展做出积极贡献。

This research program aims at developing the next generation of disruptive nanoscale photonic devices with on-chip amplification for applications in telecommunications (switching), biomedicine (sensing), energy (solar harvesting), information (signal processing), and other emerging technological, commercial, and consumer areas. The objectives are to establish theoretical, experimental, and technological platforms for nanophotonic functional elements with built-in optoelectronic gain capabilities in order to control and manipulate photons at ultra-high speeds. The proposed research will address the challenging issues of the theory, experiment and applications of optoelectronic interaction effects and their exploitation in photonic devices at the nanoscale. The research will concentrate on understanding concepts of obtaining optical amplification via extracting the energy from moving free electrons in solid-state materials, and exploiting nonlinearities and plasmonic interactions. The investigations will centre around the behaviour of photons in the electrons' environment with a focus on the means of bringing optical waves and electron-containing media into active interactions within optoelectronic materials while using their structural properties. Silicon, and other semiconductor materials such as graphene will be studied. Generic active nanophotonic elements will be investigated that are technologically compatible and integrable onto a common semiconductor platform for photon-electron functionalities implemented in application-specific nanoarchitectures. An integral part of the objectives is training highly qualified job-ready personnel in computer-aided modelling, simulations, and structure design of nanophotonic devices in terahertz and optical regions, in characterization and testing of fabricated samples, and in working closely with industrial partners to acquire practical experience. The research will transform our theoretical, modelling, simulation and design results into novel advanced nanophotonic devices with expected superb performance parameters such as on-chip built-in amplification/loss compensation, ultra-high operation speeds, robust sensing, and energy efficiency. This will lead to significant innovation thus contributing to further development of nanophotonic integrated components. New knowledge will be discovered from our planned studies of photon-electron interactions. It will lead to a long-term impact on photonics and its broad applications in many other areas such applied mathematics, physics, telecommunications, sensing and analysis of medical data, information processing, engineering, defense, and other emerging application areas. Students trained in the proposed research will be graduating with unique skills in the general area of nanotechnology and nanophotonics. This will make them job-ready and highly employable while being able to contribute actively to the further development of economic wealth of Canada.