Materials and components for photonic neural networks

最近，该项目的学术团队开创了基于Sb2Se3的光子集成电路的超低损耗可逆相变材料（PCMs）的新系列。与传统的相变材料GST相比，该材料在性能值（开关对比度与损耗）方面有两个数量级的提高。因此，在纳米光子器件中集成这些pcm将允许前所未有的光相位控制，并在可编程和可重写光学电路，光信号处理和存储器，神经网络和量子技术的接口量子源中具有许多新兴应用。该项目旨在探索一系列新的应用，这些应用是由材料特性和其相位的光学（和可能的电气）开关的独特组合实现的。这些研究的重点是在硅光子集成电路中集成新的PCMs，这可以进一步扩展到芯片上包括等离子体和共振纳米光子器件。博士工作的主体将包括使用ZI先进的玻璃沉积和纳米制造的洁净室设施制造器件，使用最先进的硅波导测试和光感应相开关设备进行先进的光学研究，以及使用商业软件（FDTD, Comsol）和其他方法（Matlab, Python）对器件进行理论/数值建模。学生将积极参与工作的各个方面，并将由不同研究领域的专家团队进行监督。

Recently the academic team in this project has pioneered a new family of ultra-low loss reversible phase change materials (PCMs) for photonic integrated circuits based on Sb2Se3. This material shows a two orders of magnitude improvement in the figure of merit (switching contrast over the losses) compared to the conventional phase change material GST. Therefore, integration of these PCMs in nanophotonic devices will allow unprecedented optical phase control with many new emerging applications in programmable and rewritable optical circuits, optical signal processing and memories, neural networks, and interfacing quantum sources for quantum technology.This project is aimed at exploring a range of new applications that are enabled by the unique combination of material properties and optical (and possible electrical) switching of its phase. The focus of these studies is directed at the integration of the new PCMs in silicon photonic integrated circuits, which can further expanded to include plasmonic and resonant nanophotonic devices on the chip. The main body of the PhD work will involve fabrication of devices using the ZI advanced glass deposition and clean room facilities for nanofabrication, performing advanced optical studies using state of the art equipment for silicon waveguide testing and optically induced phase switching, and theoretical/numerical modelling of devices using commercial software (FDTD, Comsol) and other methods (Matlab, Python). The student will engage actively with all the different aspects of the work and will be supervised by a team of experts in the different areas of study.