Fiberized Platforms for Integrated Nanosheet Materials

可以在非常薄的薄膜中生产的材料，厚度只有几纳米，目前处于一股激动人心的科学研究浪潮的前沿。与传统的块状材料相比，这些“纳米片材料”呈现出许多独特的光学和电学性质，这些性质有利于在通信、成像、传感和能量采集等广泛领域使用。此外，通过改变层厚，将不同的材料堆叠在一起，并通过电子控制，可以很容易地调整纳米片材料的性能，进一步扩大其应用潜力。然而，使用这些原子薄膜有一个重大的挑战：当光信号直接聚焦通过材料时，光与物质的重叠很弱，因此大多数光不受干扰地通过。这使得利用纳米薄片材料的特性构建高效的光子器件变得非常困难。该计划的工作旨在通过将纳米片材料直接集成到光纤平台中来解决这一问题，光纤平台以其出众的导光能力而闻名。这些材料将通过一个专门设计的“相互作用窗口”被结合到纤维中，该窗口已经打开，进入纤维的覆层。这种配置允许在光纤内引导的光信号在延长的传播长度上与超薄材料相互作用，而不会对其光路造成任何破坏。因此，该平台内置的组件将立即与现有的光纤系统和网络兼容，这将促进它们在学术界和工业界的广泛使用。通过为目标波长体制选择合适的材料和器件设计，将有可能开发出一系列适合广泛应用的高功能光学和光电子器件，包括大批量制造、电信和量子信息。此外，通过引入电接触来控制材料属性，这些器件还可以在其性能指标和工作波长上进行调节，为开发下一代智能实时可调光子系统铺平了道路。这些全光纤集成纳米薄片设备将针对效率、稳定性和耐用性进行设计和优化，这是加快其向商业领域过渡的关键要求。

Materials that can be produced in very thin films, a few nanometres thick, are currently at the forefront of an exciting wave of scientific research. Compared to their traditional bulk material counterparts, these "nanosheet materials" present many unique optical and electronic properties that are advantageous for use in wide-ranging areas such as communications, imaging, sensing, and energy harvesting, to name but a few. Moreover, the properties of the nanosheet materials can be readily tuned by changing the layer thickness, stacking different materials together, and through electronic control, further expanding their application potential. However, there is a significant challenge to working with these atomically thin films: when optical signals are focused directly through the material the light-matter overlap is weak, so that most of the light passes through unperturbed. This makes the construction of efficient photonic devices that draw on the properties of the nanosheet materials very difficult. The work in this programme aims to address this issue by integrating the nanosheet materials directly within optical fibre platforms, which are famed for their exceptional light-guiding capabilities. The materials will be incorporated into the fibres through a specially designed "interaction window" that has been opened into the fibre's cladding. This configuration allows for light signals that are guided within the fibre to interact with the ultra-thin material over extended propagation lengths, without any disruption to their optical path. The components built into this platform will therefore be immediately compatible with existing fibre systems and networks, which will facilitate their wide-spread use in academia and industry alike. By choosing the right material and device design for the target wavelength regime, it will be possible to develop an array of highly functional optical and optoelectronic devices that are suitable for wide-ranging applications, including high-volume manufacturing, telecommunications, and quantum information. Furthermore, by introducing electrical contacts to control the material properties, these devices could also be tunable in their performance metrics and wavelength of operation, paving a way for the development of next generation "smart" - real-time adjustable - photonic systems. These all-fibre integrated nanosheet devices will be designed and optimized for efficiency, stability and durability; key requirements that will expedite their transition into the commercial domain.