Project 1.1 EO and Spatial Light Modulators; Hybrid Integration with Silicon

Overview

To develop improved materials to modulate electrical and optical signals, CMDITR researchers work to:

Maximize bandwidth so that the material can carry as much information as possible;
Minimize the voltage required for device operation in order to minimize power consumption and heat generation; and
Minimize insertion loss and, therefore, signal degradation.

In addition, CMDITR will strive to ensure that materials meet the practical requirements of facile processibility and resistance to physical, optical, and thermal fatigue. Stability has been dramatically enhanced by the development and implementation of new lattice-hardening chemistries. Theory, ranging from first-principles quantum-chemical approaches applied to molecular systems to statistical mechanics applied to understand the behavior of composite materials, plays an important role in guiding a rational design process for synthesizing the best candidate chromophores and for nanoengineering of material lattices. In parallel with materials development, CMDITR researchers utilize high-r33 EO materials to build novel high-speed modulators and organic/Si hybrid integrated devices.

This project also seeks to efficiently incorporate nonlinear organic materials into silicon photonic devices through the use of strong nonlinear optical properties of organic materials for new frequency generation (sum and difference frequency generation, second and third harmonic generation) and up-converted fluorescence due to nonlinear absorption. Using this approach, CMDITR expects to achieve mode volumes that are 100 times smaller than what was believed to be possible in these systems, giving devices the potential to be 100 times more efficient.