CAREER: Optical-frequency electronics for measuring the fields of light guided on chips

当光传播时，它会产生振荡的电场和磁场。这些场振荡很难及时测量，因为它们波动太快(例如，可见光场每秒振荡数百万亿次)。在这项工作中，我们将开发纳米级天线(一纳米相当于一米的十亿分之一米)，当它们在时间上振荡时，能够捕获光波导内的光场。光波导是一种用于在芯片上传输光的小玻璃通道。这些集成了波导的天线将能够以低于1飞秒(十亿分之一秒)的时间分辨率测量电场。我们的工作将为研究人员和工程师提供完全访问存储在光场中的信息的机会。这种接入可以实现增强光学传感的新技术，或者用于高速计算和通信的新形式的光学频率电子设备。除了该计划的技术努力外，我们还将继续从当地到全球的外展和教育努力。我们将围绕可执行的教科书平台开发互动课程材料，并向公众开放。我们将积极为维基百科等公共知识库贡献我们的专业知识。在学术期刊上发表之前，我们将使用公开可用的服务来托管我们的手稿、数据和代码的免费和开放副本。最后，我们将与阿巴拉契亚农村的K-12学校合作，提供一系列实践讲习班和研讨会。这些工作坊和研讨会将把那里的学生与我们的研究以及更广泛的科学、技术和数学教育联系起来。我们将瞄准全国大学毕业率最低的一些学区(一些县甚至低至5%)。我们的努力将有助于为子孙后代培育一个更具包容性和活力的研究社区。芯片集成频率梳状源发展迅速。为了利用这些光源提供的尺寸、成本和复杂性的降低，需要紧凑、可扩展和超快的场敏光学探测器。我们将开发能够实现全芯片的几个周期的波形控制和场分辨测量的集成波导型拍赫兹电子器件。首先，我们将设计、制造和测试基于波导集成纳米天线的探测器，用于检测和稳定载波包络相位(CEP)。这些探测器将在数十到数百千赫的分辨率带宽上提供数十分贝的CEP敏感信噪比，我们将展示它们稳定几个周期频率梳的能力。与f-2f技术不同，这里探索的方法将绕过非线性转换的需要，并将耦合到长度只有几十微米的标准波导材料，如氮化硅。其次，我们将开发用于任意光波形的场分辨采样的波导集成纳米天线探测器。我们将使用这些场采样设备来演示无标记分子检测，并对非线性光-物质相互作用动力学进行采样。我们将研究如何利用优化的器件设计、信号读出多路复用、波导耦合和激励方法来实现少到单次激发的波形和CEP检测。应用将是深远的。该计划中开发的设备将能够研究复杂介质中的线性和非线性光-物质相互作用动力学，例如对太阳能转换至关重要的激子动力学或导致极端非线性的电子动力学。应用包括无标签分子检测，以及原子钟或测距仪器的芯片上频率梳的稳定。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。

As light travels it creates oscillating electric and magnetic fields. These field oscillations are challenging to measure in time due to how quickly they fluctuate (e.g. visible light fields oscillate hundreds of trillions of times per second). In this work we will develop nanometer-scale antennas (one nanometer is one billionth of one meter) capable of capturing the fields of light inside optical waveguides, small glass channels for transporting light on a chip, as they oscillate in time. These waveguide-integrated antennas will be capable of measuring electric fields with a time resolution of less than one femtosecond (one millionth of one billionth of one second). Our work will provide researchers and engineers with full access to the information stored within the fields of light. This access could enable new technologies for enhanced optical sensing, or new forms of optical frequency electronics for high-speed computing and communications. Beyond the technical efforts of this program, we will pursue outreach and education efforts that span from local to global. We will develop interactive course materials based around executable textbook platforms that will be openly available to the public. We will actively contribute our expertise to public knowledge repositories such as Wikipedia. We will use publicly available services to host free and open copies of our manuscripts, data, and code before publication in academic journals. Finally, we will work with K-12 schools in rural Appalachia, where the PI is from, to deliver a series of hands-on workshops and seminars. These workshops and seminars will connect students there with our research, as well as science, technology and mathematics education more broadly. We will target school districts with some of the lowest college completion rates in the country (as low as 5% in some counties). Our efforts will help cultivate a more inclusive and vibrant research community for future generations. Chip-integrated frequency comb sources are developing rapidly. To leverage the reduction in size, cost, and complexity that these sources offer, compact, scalable, and ultrafast field-sensitive optical detectors are needed. We will develop waveguide-integrated petahertz-electronic devices that will enable all-on-chip few-cycle waveform control and field-resolved metrology. First, we will design, fabricate, and test waveguide-integrated nanoantenna-based detectors for the detection and stabilization of carrier-envelope phase (CEP). These detectors will deliver CEP-sensitive signal to noise ratios on the order of tens of dB at tens to hundreds of kilohertz resolution bandwidths, and we will demonstrate their ability to stabilize few-cycle frequency combs. Unlike f-2f techniques, the methods explored here will circumvent the need for nonlinear conversion and will be coupled to standard waveguide materials such as silicon nitride just tens of microns in length. Second, we will develop waveguide-integrated nanoantenna detectors for field-resolved sampling of arbitrary optical waveform. We will use these field-sampling devices to demonstrate label-free molecular detection, and to sample nonlinear light-matter interaction dynamics. We will study how to leverage optimized device designs, signal readout multiplexing, waveguide coupling, and excitation methods to achieve few- to single-shot waveform and CEP detection. Applications will be far-reaching. The devices developed in this program will enable studies of linear and nonlinear light-matter interaction dynamics in complex media, such as exciton dynamics important to solar energy conversion or electron dynamics that result in extreme nonlinearities. Applications include label-free molecular detection, and the stabilization of on-chip frequency combs for atomic clocks or ranging instruments.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.