CAREER: Enabling New States of Light in Mid-Wave Infrared Photonics for Gas Sensing Applications

气体传感器通过监测环境危害、保障人类健康和保障基础设施的安全，在确保我们的安全方面发挥着至关重要的作用。随着互联网的强大，全球对形成分布式气体传感网络的兴趣迅速增长，这可以使我们能够持续广泛地监测气体威胁。这导致了对具有高传感性能的下一代小型、轻便、低功耗、低成本的气体传感设备的需求不断上升。尽管中波红外气体传感方法具有显著的传感能力，但在减小设备尺寸、功耗和生产成本方面仍然存在巨大挑战，限制了它们在现代传感器网络场景中的应用。因此，本研究项目旨在探索创新的中波红外光子工程方法，以促进气体传感技术的发展，努力实现高效、紧凑和成本效益。除了研究重点，该项目还培养了一支具有STEM能力的光电子学劳动力。光子学是许多尖端技术的基础，对经济的很大一部分产生影响，并使未来的先进制造工艺成为可能。为了激发下一代对光和光子学的兴趣，PI将创建一个教育推广计划，帮助农村STEM教师开发新的光子教学模块，并促进学生参与课后教育活动。PI还将邀请本科生，特别是女性和代表不足的少数民族，参与研究活动，以支持他们的STEM职业道路。这个项目的目标是建立一个全面的理解，在中波红外范围内，跨越3-5微米量子激发的新光态。所获得的知识将有助于控制它们的非平凡的光-物质相互作用性质，以提高中波红外气体传感系统中三个关键光学部件的性能：光源、光电探测器和光-气相互作用波导。其智力价值在于将量子激发的宇称-时间对称性和拓扑光子原理与中波红外光子工程研究相结合。具体地说，本项目将追求三个研究目标：1)实现有源谐振光栅的奇偶时间对称控制，以克服低提取效率和多模宽带发射限制，促进明亮且低成本的中波红外发射器的开发；2)采用一种新的低成本、自取向的湿法化学合成方法，制备高质量的PbSe薄膜，以提高非制冷中波红外探测器的性能；以及3)工程拓扑传感波导，以克服芯片上气体传感固有的限制，如固有的结构无序和制造分辨率。总体而言，该项目的成果将扩大中波红外光子工程战略的组合，提升其技术影响力，以革命性的气体传感技术，同时遵守尺寸、重量、功率和成本要求。该项目由电气、通信和网络系统部门(ECCS)和既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。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。

Gas sensors play a vital role in keeping us safe by monitoring environmental hazards, safeguarding human health, and securing infrastructure. With the power of the internet, there's a fast-growing global interest in forming distributive gas sensing networks that could enable us to continuous monitor gas threat broadly. This has led to a rising demand for the next generation of small, lightweight, low-power, and low-cost gas sensing devices with high sensing performance. Despite the remarkable sensing capabilities offered by mid-wave infrared gas sensing methods, substantial challenges persist in reducing device size, power consumption, and production costs, limiting their application in modern sensor network scenarios. This research project thus aims to explore innovative mid-wave infrared photonic engineering methods to advance gas sensing technologies, striving for efficiency, compactness, and cost-effectiveness. Beyond the research focus, the project also fosters a STEM-competent workforce in photonics. Photonics is foundational to many cutting-edge technologies, impacting a significant portion of the economy and enabling future advanced manufacturing processes. To stimulate the future generation’s interest in light and photonics, the PI will create an education outreach program to help rural STEM teachers to develop new photonic teaching modules, and to promote student participation in afterschool education events. The PI will also engage undergraduate students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, in research activities to support their STEM career path.The goal of this project is to establish a comprehensive understanding of quantum-inspired new states of light within the mid-wave infrared range, spanning 3-5 microns. The obtained knowledge will facilitate the control of their non-trivial light-matter interaction properties to enhance the performance of three critical optical components in mid-wave infrared gas sensing systems: the light source, photodetector, and light-gas interaction waveguide. The intellectual merit lies in the marriage of quantum-inspired parity-time-symmetry and topological photonic principles with the mid-wave infrared photonic engineering research. Specifically, this project will pursue three research objectives: 1) enabling parity-time-symmetry control in active resonant gratings to overcome the low extraction efficiency and multimodal broadband emission constraints and facilitate the development of bright and cost-effective mid-wave infrared light emitters; 2) employing a novel low-cost, self-oriented wet chemical synthesis method to prepare high-quality PbSe thin films for boosting the performance of uncooled mid-wave infrared photodetectors; and 3) engineering topological sensing waveguides to overcome the inherent limitations of on-chip gas sensing, such as intrinsic structural disorder and fabrication resolution. Overall, the project's outcomes will broaden the portfolio of mid-wave infrared photonic engineering strategies, elevating their technological impact to revolutionize gas sensing technologies while adhering to size, weight, power, and cost requirements.This project is jointly funded by the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems division(ECCS), and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.