Surface Nanoscale Axial Photonics (SNAP)

近十年来，光学和光子学领域的科学家和工程师对基于慢光现象的微型器件的研究和开发产生了浓厚的兴趣。慢光的概念是通过强迫光在特殊设计的微观光子结构（如光子晶体和耦合环形谐振器）中振荡和循环来降低其平均传播速度。研究人员预计，慢光器件将在通信、光学和无线电信号处理、量子计算、传感和基础科学方面具有革命性的应用。因此，包括电信巨头IBM、英特尔和NTT在内的许多学术实验室和工业研究中心都在进行慢光的研究。然而，尽管取得了重大进展，但人们已经确定，目前的光子制造技术无法生产出实用的慢光器件，主要障碍是制造精度不足和光的大量衰减。为了克服这些障碍，该项目将开发一种新的光子技术，表面纳米轴向光子学（SNAP），这将使我们能够展示具有前所未有的高精度和低损耗的微型光子器件。SNAP是本项目项目负责人发明的一种新型微电子制造平台。与之前考虑的基于耦合环形谐振器和振荡光子晶体中的光循环的慢光结构不同，SNAP平台采用光纤中的窃窃廊光模式，其在光纤表面附近循环并沿其轴缓慢传播。这些模式的轴向传播速度非常慢，以至于可以通过纤维半径的微小纳米级变化来完全控制。该项目将开发先进的SNAP技术，用于制造超精密、超低损耗、可调谐、可切换和完全可重构的微型慢光器件，为其在未来信息和通信技术中的革命性应用奠定基础。该项目的成功将使英国处于这一革命性发展的中心。

Over the last decade, much interest of scientists and engineers working in optics and photonics has been attracted to the research and development of miniature devices based on the phenomenon of slow light. The idea of slow light consists in reducing its average speed of propagation by forcing light to oscillate and circulate in specially engineered microscopic photonic structures (e.g., photonic crystals and coupled ring resonators). Researchers anticipated that slow light devices will have revolutionary applications in communications, optical and radio signal processing, quantum computing, sensing, and fundamental science. For this reason, the research on slow light has been conducted in many academic laboratories and industrial research centres including telecommunications giants IBM, Intel, and NTT. However, in spite of significant progress, it had been determined that current photonic fabrication technologies are unable to produce practical slow light devices due to the major barriers: the insufficient fabrication precision and substantial attenuation of light. To overcome these barriers, this project will develop a new photonic technology, Surface Nanoscale Axial Photonics (SNAP) which will allow us to demonstrate miniature photonics devices with unprecedentedly high precision and low loss.SNAP is a new microphotonics fabrication platform invented by the PI of this project. In contrast to previously considered slow light structures based on circulation of light in coupled ring resonators and oscillations photonic crystals, the SNAP platform employs whispering gallery modes of light in an optical fibre, which circulate near the fibre surface and slowly propagate along its axis. The speed of axial propagation of these modes is so slow that it can be fully controlled by dramatically small nanoscale variations of the fibre radius. This project will develop the advanced SNAP technology for fabrication of ultraprecise, ultralow loss, tuneable, switchable and fully reconfigurable miniature slow light devices establishing the groundwork for their revolutionary applications in future Information and Communication Technologies. The success of the project will place the UK in the centre of this revolutionary development.