CAREER: Liquid-Phase Processing of Fiber-Based Electronic and Photonic Materials and Devices

该学院早期职业发展(Career)助学金支持研究推进光纤的精密制造，该光纤具有嵌入式光学结构，可实现玻璃纤维内的新功能。光纤是数字通信的主力，在将新兴设备结构融入全球通信网络方面滞后。跨不同数据处理平台的计算的能源需求不断增长，将需要能够在这些计算平台上有效地转换数据的更高效的长途通信链路。要将高效的数据传输和转换能力赋予光纤，需要将光电子和光电设备和系统集成到光纤本身中。标准的纤维制造方法，如热拉伸，依赖于从熔体中拉出纤维。玻璃熔体成型对纤维的改性过程复杂，流体动力学难以控制，工艺难以控制。这项研究确定了熔相多材料光纤加工在实现所需固态结果方面的局限性，旨在以亚微米精度和严格的材料控制将有源光学电路嵌入光纤中。这项研究支持增强的光纤制造工艺，旨在为新兴计算平台开发高效互连，并教育劳动力，帮助保持美国在全球信息空间的技术和经济主导地位。该奖项支持开发光纤嵌入架构的制造方法的研究，方法是通过3D打印预制件的热拉伸定义纤维横截面，然后使用空间相干材料选择性毛细分解和再定型化对纤维芯进行轴向图案化。在制造过程的每个阶段，纤维包裹的熔体的几何形状和温度决定了力的平衡，从而完全定义了熔体内的流体动力学。实验研究了在工程和控制的时空加热条件下，局部熔融纤维中的液体重塑运动学。对潜在物理机制的理解和控制引导纤维内材料的液态重塑朝着自组装成有序的固态结构的方向发展。该奖项将产生3D打印玻璃及其热回流的材料科学、熔融多材料线的流体力学以及受限熔体中的固-液相变科学方面的知识。这项研究为光子和光电子电路的可扩展光纤内制造提供了基础，旨在为计算平台所需的大规模网络提供通用互连。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。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant supports research advancing the precision manufacturing of fiber optics with embedded optical structures enabling new functionalities within the glass fiber. Fiber optics, the workhorse of digital communication, lags in incorporating emerging device structures into the global communication network. Growing energy demands in computing across diverse data processing platforms will require more efficient long-haul communication links capable of translating data effectively across those computing platforms. Imparting efficient data transduction and transformation capabilities into fiber optics requires integrating photonic and optoelectronic devices and systems into the fiber itself. Standard fiber manufacturing approaches, such as thermal draw, rely on pulling the fiber from a melt. Modification of the fiber by melt-shaping of glass is prone to complex, hard to control fluid dynamics making the process difficult to control. This research determine the limitations of molten-phase multimaterial fiber processing in achieving the desired solid-state outcomes, aiming to embed active optical circuitry in fiber-optics with submicron precision and tight material control. The research supports enhanced fiber-optics manufacturing processes aimed at developing efficient interconnects for emerging computation platforms and educating the workforce, assisting in preserving the US technological and economic dominance in the global information space. This award supports research into development of a manufacturing methodology for fiber-embedded architectures by defining a fiber cross-section through a thermal draw of a 3D printed preform, followed by the axial patterning of fiber cores with a spatially coherent material selective capillary breakup and resolidification. The geometry and temperature of fiber-encapsulated melts at every stage of the fabrication process dictates the balance of forces and thus fully define the fluid dynamics within the melt. Experimental studies investigate the liquid reshaping kinematics in locally molten fiber under engineered and controlled spatiotemporal heating conditions. Understanding and control over the underlying physical mechanisms guide the liquid-phase reshaping of in-fiber materials towards self-assembly into ordered solid-state architectures. The award will generate knowledge in the material science of 3D printed glass and its thermal reflow, fluid mechanics of molten multimaterial threads, and solid-liquid phase transition science in confined melts. The research provides a basis for scalable in-fiber manufacturing of photonic and optoelectronic circuitry, aimed a general interconnect for the large-scale networks needed for computational platforms.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.