Ultra-High-Capacity Optical Communications and Networking: Nano-Photonic Integration of Ultra-fast WDM Optical Communications Systems

该提案是根据“超高容量光通信和网络”招标NSF 01-65提交的。超高速光分组通信（分组比特率超过160 Gbps）是超高容量光网络发展的关键一步。超高比特率分组通信是一种难以实现的电子通信方式。光子技术有望实现这些高带宽系统，但光子技术的集成严重限制了实现与电子学相当的高密度电路的能力。要使光子学达到与上世纪60年代和70年代电子学所经历的集成水平相同的水平，需要新技术。该项目将解决超高容量光通信系统和网络的纳米光子集成问题，这些系统和网络具有更小的可集成组件。研究目标是研究纳米技术，将光学缩放扩展到超过160 Gbps的比特率和数百到数千个波长。提出的项目还将解决纳米光子器件的物理和材料以及非线性动力学和控制如何相互耦合以及系统需求。这种跨学科的方法贯穿于这个项目的研究和教育/培训方面。必须了解这些技术的设计、性能、加工、制造和集成，必须培训新一代的科学家和工程师来领导和支持这一新技术基础。该提案将多个领域的研究人员聚集在一起，共同致力于超高速WDM光通信系统的纳米光子集成。将光网络和通信与纳米光子器件和材料以及非线性动力学和控制的研究相结合，将解决新的关键问题。教育目标包括整合学生教育，包括材料生长，器件制造，控制理论和系统。学生将共同承担以团队为基础的指导本科生的责任——为这些学生提供一个真正独特的视角来看待一个真实的、令人兴奋的、技术上关键的问题。我们期望这个动态的、多学科的研究项目将吸引来自未被充分代表的群体的各种研究生，这些大规模的光子集成研究将有助于培养未来5到10年需要的新一代科学家和工程师，以支持未来的超高容量光通信网络。这类研究的潜在影响可能与20世纪50年代末至70年代初在电子工业中发生的影响一样具有根本性。

This proposal was submitted in response to the solicitation NSF 01-65 on "Ultra-High Capacity Optical Communications and Networking." Ultra-fast optical packet communications, with packet bit rates exceeding 160 Gbps, is a key next step in the evolution of ultra-high capacity optical networks. Ultra high bit rate packet communications is a regime difficult to implement electronically. Photonic technologies hold promise to realize these high bandwidth systems, but integration of photonic technologies severely limits the ability to realize high density circuits comparable to that of electronics. New technologies are required to bring photonics through the same level of integration that electronics experienced in the 1960s and 70s.This program will address nano-photonic integration of the building blocks for ultra-high capacity optical communications systems and networks with smaller, integrable components. The research objectives are to investigate nano-technologies that extend optical scaling to bit rates in excess of 160 Gbps and hundreds to thousands of wavelengths. The proposed project will also address how the physics and materials of nano-photonic devices and the nonlinear dynamics and control are coupled to each other and to the systems requirements. This interdisciplinary approach is carried across the research and educational/training aspects of this program. The design, performance, processing, fabrication and integration of these technologies must be understood and a new generation of scientists and engineers to lead and support this new technology base must be trained. This proposal brings together researchers from multiple fields under the common goal of nano-photonic integration for ultra-high speed WDM optical communications systems. New critical problems will be solved by integrating research in optical networks and communications with nano-photonic devices and materials and nonlinear dynamics and controls.The educational objectives involve integrating student education that incorporates material growth, device fabrication, control theory and systems. Students will take joint, team-based responsibility for mentoring undergraduate students - giving those students a truly unique perspective on a real, exciting and technologically critical problem. We expect that this dynamic, multidisciplinary research program will attract a diverse set of graduate students from underrepresented groups, and these large scale photonic integration investigations will help train a new generation of scientists and engineers that will be needed over the next five to ten years to support future ultra-high capacity optical communications networks. The potential impact of this type of research can be as fundamental as that which occurred in the electronics industry in the late 1950s through the early 1970s.