PIC: CMOS-compatible, monolithic, and high-performance optical isolators on silicon

光隔离器是只允许光的单向传输的光二极管。它们构成了芯片级光子电路的重要组成部分，尽管由于材料和工艺不兼容，它们与光子芯片的集成一直具有挑战性。该计划寻求开发一种用于芯片级光子电路的隔离器解决方案，该解决方案可以利用美国集成光子学制造研究所提供的标准半导体微制造工艺进行制造。该项目的成功将对光通信、光模拟计算和磁光传感等领域产生立竿见影的影响。科学研究将与麻省理工学院和AIM光子学学院的教育和推广活动紧密结合。我们还将与教育与应用原型实验室合作，为来自全球学术界、政府和行业的K-12学生和研讨会参与者开发在线互动模块和动手实验。技术：光隔离器是保障激光器和光子集成电路(PIC)稳定运行的重要光学元件。然而，目前的片上光隔离方法都不能满足这些器件在最先进的PIC中实际部署的严格要求：高隔离率、最小的插入损耗、宽带操作、小占地面积、无源操作、偏振分集以及与可扩展硅制造的兼容性。该计划将通过在硅上开发第一个满足上述所有要求的光隔离器来实现这一挑战的变革性解决方案。除了探索器件设计和工艺创新以实现前所未有的高性能外，该计划还将验证隔离器器件的可扩展制造和集成，方法是在美国制造集成光子学研究所(AIM Photonics)利用标准的硅制造工艺进行原型制作，然后进行磁光石榴石材料的后端兼容单片沉积。这种多方面的方法将提供一个实用的解决方案，以弥合当前片上隔离器与其在PIC中的部署目标之间的巨大性能差距，并解决集成光子界面临的长期挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Optical isolators are optical diodes which only allow uni-directional transmission of light. They constitute an essential component in chip-scale photonic circuits, although their integration with photonic chips has been challenging due to material and processing incompatibility. The program seeks to develop an isolator solution for chip-scale photonic circuits which can be manufactured leveraging standard semiconductor microfabrication processes offered by the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics. Success of the project will have an immediate impact on fields such as optical communications, optical analog computing, and magnetooptical sensing. The scientific research will be tightly integrated with educational and outreach initiatives at MIT and the AIM Photonics Academy. We will also collaborate with the Lab for Education & Application Prototypes to develop both online interactive modules and hands-on experiments for K-12 students and workshop participants from academia, government, and industry around the globe. Technical: Optical isolators are essential optical components safeguarding the stable operation of lasers and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). None of the current approaches for on-chip optical isolation, however, meets the stringent demands for practical deployment of these devices in state-of-the-art PICs: high isolation ratio, minimal insertion loss, broadband operation, small footprint, passive operation, polarization diversity, as well as compatibility with scalable Si manufacturing. This program will lead to a transformative solution to this challenge by developing the first optical isolator on Si that fulfills all the aforementioned requirements. In addition to exploring device design and processing innovations to enable unprecedented high performance, the program will also validate scalable manufacturing and integration of the isolator device through prototyping at the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) leveraging standard Si manufacturing processes, followed by backend-compatible monolithic deposition of magnetooptical garnet materials. This multi-faceted approach will provide a practical solution to bridge the large performance gap between current on-chip isolators and the target for their deployment in PICs and solve a longstanding challenge facing the integrated photonics community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.