SBIR Phase I: Liquid Phase Epitaxy of Potassium Tantalum Niobate on Low Dielectric Constant Substrates

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将在立方钙钛矿衬底上开发铌酸钾钽（KTN）的液相外延（LPE）。这种薄膜材料将具有比当前一代铌酸锂波导高得多的电光系数。本项目拟开发新型低介电常数衬底材料，使薄膜材料的有效微波介电常数与光学介电常数更好地匹配，并降低偏置场。在第一阶段，研究人员将确定与KTN匹配的合适晶格参数的完全熔化的衬底材料，这些材料可以通过Czochralski方法生长。将测试各种助焊剂系统和生长条件，以找到最有利于LPE生长的高质量薄膜。电光器件用于通信、模拟和数字信号处理、信息处理、光计算和传感。器件包括相位和幅度调制器、多路复用器、开关阵列、耦合器、极化控制器、偏转器、相关器和传感器。提出的工作将使电光调制器和创新的新设备应用具有更低的成本，更小的占地面积和更低的功率预算。所有这些都有助于改善互联网的基础设施和更快、更低成本的部署，特别是在本地环路中。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop the Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE) of potassium tantalum niobate (KTN) on a cubic perovskite substrate. This film material will have much higher electrooptic coefficients than current generation lithium niobate waveguides. This project proposes to develop new, low dielectric constant substrate materials that will enable better matching of the effective microwave dielectric constant to the optical dielectric constant of the film material and lower bias fields. In Phase I, the researchers will identify congruently melting substrate materials with suitable lattice parameter match to KTN that can be grown by the Czochralski method. Various flux systems and growth conditions will be tested to find those most conducive to LPE growth of good quality films. Electrooptic devices are used in communications, analog and digital signal processing, information processing, optical computing and sensing. Devices include phase and amplitude modulators, multiplexers, switch arrays, couplers, polarization controllers, deflectors, correlators and sensors. The proposed work will enable electrooptic modulators and innovative new device applications with lower costs, smaller footprints and lower power budgets. All this contributes to improvements of the infrastructure of the Internet and more rapid, lower cost deployment, especially in the local loop.