SGER: The Opto-Mechanical Effect in Glass - A Novel Phenomenon

9816402 jain目前，将光信号转换为机械信号需要结合电光和压电型交叉效应。电子设备的必要干预意味着信号质量的损失和额外的费用。最近，英国剑桥大学的研究人员报告了50%砷-50%硒玻璃薄膜的光机械效应（OME），它将光信号直接转化为机械应变。这是一个令人兴奋的发现，它开辟了材料研究的一个新领域。它立即导致了许多新颖应用的概念，如光盘驱动器磁头，纳米致动器或开关，纳米换能器，传感器，超灵敏分光光度计等。然而，为了在设备中开发OME，迫切需要确定其起源和各种特征，并确定如何提高其强度。这个项目的重点是与剑桥小组合作，理解和发展新现象。以硫化物（如硒、硫化物或硒化镓、锑或砷等）为基础的半导体玻璃的性质和结构已知对光敏感。光子可以影响玻璃的体积、非晶化/反玻璃化、力学（如可塑性）、流变学（如粘度）、光学（如变暗、双折射、发光）、电学（如电导率、介电常数）或化学（如蚀刻、溶解）性能。根据其稳定性，这些光引起的变化可以分为三类：(a)不破坏样品就无法恢复的永久性变化，(b)可以通过将样品加热到玻璃化转变温度来逆转的变化，以及(c)可以通过简单地去除光源或随后将样品暴露在适当的光下而逆转的变化。OME是一种(c)类矢量现象，它在光输入信号和机械输出之间表现出类似的关系。将测量极化方向与OME产生的应力之间的完整取向关系，以及温度依赖性和动力学。将确定诱导光的波长与OME的大小或动力学之间的关系。电子结构将被表征，玻璃的表面成分将使用高分辨率x射线光电子能谱（根据需要与俄歇能谱一起）进行监测。最近在硫系玻璃薄膜中发现的光机械效应，通过可能实现从光信号到机械信号的直接转换，为先进光子学领域开辟了新的机会。目前，这种转换需要两个中间步骤，这需要昂贵的电子设备，并导致信号损失。Jain教授是一位眼镜专家，他将与发现光机械效应的研究人员合作，研究该效应的基本特征和局限性，以便将其用于新设备。本项目是探索性研究小额拨款，因为它是一个新颖的想法的初步工作，因为它的高风险/高回报的性质

9816402JainCurrently, the conversion of an optical signal into mechanical signal has required working with the combination of electro-optic and piezo-electric type cross effects. The necessary intervention of electronics has meant both a loss of signal quality and additional expense. Recently, researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK reported an opto-mechanical effect (OME) in glassy 50% arsenic-50% selenium films, which transforms an optical signal directly into mechanical strain. It is an exciting discovery, which has opened a new area of materials research. It has instantly led to the conception of many novel applications such as optical disk drive heads, nano-actuators or switches, nano-transducers, sensors, super-sensitive spectrophotometers, etc. However, for OME's exploitation in devices there is an urgent need to establish its origin and various characteristics, and to determine how its magnitude may be enhanced. This project focuses on the understanding and development of the new phenomenon in collaboration with the group at Cambridge. The properties and structure of semiconducting glasses based on chalcogens (e.g. Se, sulfides or selenides of Ge, Sb or As, etc.) are known to be sensitive to the light. The photons may affect the volume, amorphization/ devitrification, mechanical (e.g., plasticity), rheological (e.g., viscosity), optical (e.g., darkening, birefringence, luminescence),electrical (e.g., conductivity, dielectric constant), or the chemical (e.g., etching, dissolution) properties of the glass. These photo-induced changes may be classified into three categories depending on their stability: (a) permanent changes which cannot be recovered without destroying the sample, (b)changes which can be reversed by heating the sample to the glass transition temperature, and (c)changes which can be reversed simply by removing the light source, or exposing the specimen to appropriate light subsequently. The OME is a class (c) vector phenomenon which exhibits analog relationship between optical input signal and mechanical output. The complete orientation relationship between the polarization direction and stresses resulting from OME will be measured, along with the temperature dependence and kinetics. The relationship between the wavelength of inducing light and the magnitude or kinetics of OME will be determined. The electronic structure will be characterized and the surface composition of the glass will be monitored using high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (together with Auger spectra, as needed). %%%The recent discovery of an opto-mechanical effect in chalcogenide glass films has opened up new opportunities in the area of advanced photonics by possibly enabling direct conversion from an optical signal to a mechanical signal. Currently, this transformation occurs by 2 intermediate steps, which require expensive electronics and result in a loss of signal. Professor Jain, an expert in glasses, will collaborate with the researchers who discovered the opto-mechanical effect to study the basic characteristics and limitations of the effect so that it can be utilized in new devices. This project is funded as Small Grant for Exploratory Research because it is preliminary work on a novel idea and because of its high-risk/high-payoff nature.***