CAREER: Scalable Integrated Nanophotonics with Subwavelength Gratings

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。光子集成电路(PIC)是传统电子集成电路的对应物，它使用光子而不是电子进行计算或信号处理，已经创新了广泛的光学应用，包括量子处理、生化传感和光检测和测距(LiDAR)。随着芯片集成密度的不断提高，电子集成电路的发展，高密度的PIC显得尤为重要。它为更多功能添加了更多构建块，提高了模块化电源效率，并降低了单位成本。然而，与电子学不同的是，由于光的波动性质，增加光子芯片密度是极其困难的。当两个光子组件靠得很近时，会出现很大的光学串扰，从而在系统中引入噪声。本项目将探索各种亚波长光栅(SWG)超材料，以推动光子集成密度的边界。SWG具有折射率对比度和各向异性的工程能力，各种下一代SWG方案将被研究以减少光学串扰。还将开发包括面内金属在内的各种SWG光子组件，并将它们集成在一起，以杂化光子和微流体系统。该项目还将开发一门丰富的集成纳米光子学动手实验室课程，允许学生开发自己的光子芯片。学生们将探索他们的想法，使用SWG来推进光子组件，整合这个项目的研究和教育目标。这项计划的成果将分发给当地的K-12学生和家长，激发当地社会对光子学和纳米技术的兴趣。该项目提出通过探索亚波长光栅(SWG)的基本原理，创新PIC元件和芯片体系结构，来推动集成纳米光子学中尺度问题的极限，即芯片集成密度和极端模式转换。SWG形成了有效的各向异性超材料，其各向异性特性将通过具有不同方向、角度和填充比例的下一代SWG来实现。这些SWG的基本原理将有助于提高整体芯片密度并推动各种PIC组件的发展。还将开发不同类型的面内SWG金属透镜，控制产生的光束的幅度和相位，实现亚毫米级的不同光束转换。这种面内金属透镜系统将与微流控芯片共集成，实现针对数百微米级物种的高度稳定和高效的片上光流控系统。建议的研究将通过新开发的集成纳米光子学动手实验课程与教育和推广活动相结合，帮助德克萨斯州西部的学生，并提高社区对科学和技术的兴趣。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Photonic integrated circuits (PICs), the counterpart of traditional electronic integrated circuits that use photons instead of electrons for computing or signal processing, have innovated a wide range of optical applications, including quantum processing, biochemical sensing, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). As electronic integrated circuits have been advanced by increasing the chip integration density, dense-PIC is extremely important. It adds more building blocks for more functionalities, improves modular power efficiency, and decreases unit costs. However, unlike electronics, increasing the photonic chip density is extremely difficult due to the wave nature of light. When two photonic components are close together, large optical crosstalk emerges, introducing noise in the system. This project will explore various subwavelength grating (SWG) metamaterials to push the boundaries of photonic integration density. SWGs have engineering capabilities for index contrast and anisotropic nature, and various next-generation SWG schemes will be investigated for reducing optical crosstalk. Diverse SWG photonic components, including in-plane metalens, will also be developed, and they will be integrated together to hybridize photonic and microfluidic systems. This project will also develop a rich hands-on laboratory course on Integrated Nanophotonics, allowing the students to develop their own photonic chips. Students will explore their ideas of using SWGs for advancing photonic components, integrating research and educational goals of this project. The outcomes of this project will be disseminated to local K-12 students and parents, stimulating the local community’s interest in photonics and nanotechnology. This project proposes to push the limits of scaling issues in integrated nanophotonics, i.e., chip integration density and extreme modal conversion, by exploring the fundamentals of subwavelength gratings (SWGs) and innovating PIC components and chip architecture. The SWGs form effectively anisotropic metamaterials, and their anisotropic properties will be engineered via next-generation SWGs with different directions, angles, and filling fractions. Fundamentals of these SWGs will help increase the overall chip density and advance various PIC components. Different types of in-plane SWG metalenses will also be developed, manipulating the amplitude and phase of the generated beams and achieving diverse beam conversions at sub-mm scale. Such an in-plane metalens system will be co-integrated with a microfluidic chip, realizing a highly stable and efficient on-chip optofluidic system targeting species at hundreds of micron-scale. The proposed research will be integrated with educational and outreach activities via the newly developed hands-on experimental course on Integrated Nanophotonics, helping students in West Texas and increasing the community’s interest in science and technology.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.