SBIR Phase I: Metal Nanoclusters Embedded Composite Thin Films for Photonic Applications

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一种新的方法来合成用于光子学应用的纳米簇嵌入式介电薄膜。纳米粒子嵌入电介质矩阵显示出独特的物理、化学、光学、电子、催化和磁性能。在非线性光学（NLO）应用中，纳米团簇的固有性质如粒径、尺寸分布和体积分数是非常重要的，而对于基体材料来说，它的介电常数和折射率是非常重要的。利用改进的燃烧化学气相沉积（CCVD）技术，制备出具有可控纳米团簇大小和分布的纳米复合NLO材料，该材料具有高三阶光学非线性和快速响应特性。独特的CCVD技术可制备出分散良好的金属纳米团簇嵌入介质薄膜。在第一阶段，项目团队将沉积纳米复合薄膜，表征其NLO性能，并建立工艺-结构-性能关系。主要的工作将是改善纳米团簇的物理性质，如尺寸、形状、组成、结晶度、结构以及它们的尺寸分布和体积分数。目前，没有三阶NLO材料的实际应用，因为迄今为止观察到的非线性比使用中等功率激光器的商业设备所需的非线性要低2到4个数量级。本文开发的嵌入式纳米簇方法将导致性能的必要数量级提高。在商业上，NLO效应在光通信中有着重要的应用，其中光交换和光信号处理设备是必不可少的元素。光学的使用比电子的使用更有利，因为使用了更高的载流子频率，从而提供了潜在的更高带宽。NLO效应的实际应用是光开关、放大、光束转向和清理，以及光通信、计算和集成光学的图像处理。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a novel approach to synthesizing nanocluster embedded dielectric thin films for photonics applications. Nanosized particles embedded dielectric matrices have shown unique physical, chemical, optical, electronic, catalytic, and magnetic properties. For nonlinear optical (NLO) applications, the intrinsic properties of the nanoclusters such as particle size, size distribution, and volume fraction are of great importance, and for the matrix materials it is their dielectric constant and refractive index. A modified Combustion Chemical Vapor Deposition (CCVD) technique will be utilized to produce the nanocomposite NLO materials with controlled nanocluster size and distribution, which will exhibit high third-order optical nonlinearity and fast response. The unique CCVD technique will produce well-dispersed metal nanoclusters embedded dielectric thin films. In Phase I, the project team will deposit the nanocomposite films, characterize their NLO properties, and establish process-structure-property relationship. Primary efforts will be made on improving nanoclusters' physical properties such as size, shape, composition, crystallinity, structure, as well as their size distribution and volume fraction. Today, no third-order NLO material applications are practical because the nonlinearities observed to date are two to four orders of magnitude short of what will be required for commercial devices that use lasers of moderate power. The embedded nanocluster approach developed here will lead to the necessary orders of magnitude increase in performance.Commercially, NLO effects have important applications in optical communications where optical switching and optical signal processing devices are essential elements. The use of optics is advantageous over that of electronics because of the higher carrier frequency used, which gives a potentially higher bandwidth. Practical applications of the NLO effects are in optical switching, amplification, beam steering and clean-up, and image processing for optical communications, computing, and integrated optics.