Nanophotonic devices and nanostructured materials for enhanced nonlinear optical interactions and optical signal processing

用于增强非线性光学相互作用和光信号处理的纳米光子器件和纳米结构材料

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05359
• 负责人: Dolgaleva, Ksenia
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=567116
• 关键词: Nanophotonic; devices; nanostructured; materials; enhanced

Modern optical communication networks suffer from fundamental limitations of electronic signal processing due to the limited bandwidth. All-optical signal processing is necessary to overcome these limitations, as optical materials exhibit much broader bandwidth compared to that available in electronic signal processing. All-optical signal processing relies fully on nonlinear optical interactions of light with matter. Such interactions result in the appearance of new spectral components and the modifications of the optical response of the medium supporting the propagation of the optical beams. The appearance of new frequencies in the optical spectrum of the information streams is crucial for wavelength conversion used for transferring the information channels from one frequency band to another. The modifications of the optical media’s response by nonlinear interactions are necessary for optical switching of the information streams between physically separated channels; it can occur nearly instantly, much faster than electrical switching. Another target area that can benefit from nonlinear optical interactions is quantum information. In quantum communication networks, one can securely encode and transmit information. Quantum information fully relies on generation of correlated (entangled) photon pairs. Such photon pairs can be produced through nonlinear optical interactions, decomposing (down-converting) an optical beam into two beams with new frequencies. The goal of the proposed research program is to develop nanophotonic devices and nanostructured materials aimed at producing highly efficient nonlinear optical interactions for all-optical signal processing in optical communication networks, and for the field of quantum information. Several approaches will be pursued towards the realization of enhancement in nonlinear optical response of photonic materials and devices. The first approach includes engineering integrated optical devices and photonic nanostructures to produce the desired enhancement. The second approach is material-based; it relies on the physics of the nonlinear optical response of nanocomposite optical materials which are nanoscale mixtures of two or more homogeneous constituents. The size of individual grains in such materials is much smaller than the wavelength of light, and the electrostatic optical field redistribution with the localization in the component with the higher optical nonlinearity can be achieved by a proper tailoring. Combining the two approaches is expected to result in dramatic enhancements of the optical nonlinearity, opening up the route to new interesting physics and practical applications. The implementation of the enhanced nonlinear optical response in integrated optical components for all-optical signal processing, as well as in producing integrated quantum optics networks is an ultimate goal of the proposed research program.

现代光通信网络由于带宽有限而受到电子信号处理的基本限制，因此需要全光信号处理来克服这些限制，因为与完全依赖于电子信号处理的可用带宽相比，光学材料表现出更宽的带宽。光与物质的非线性光学相互作用导致新的光谱成分的出现以及支持光束传播的介质的光学响应的​​变化。信息流的光谱中出现新的频率。对于所使用的波长转换至关重要将信息通道从一个频带传输到另一个频带，通过非线性相互作用来改变光学介质的响应对于物理通道之间的信息流的光学切换是必要的；它几乎可以立即发生，比电切换快得多。可以从非线性光学相互作用中受益的领域是量子通信网络，量子信息完全依赖于相关（纠缠）光子对的生成，这种光子对可以通过非线性光学相互作用产生。分解拟议研究计划的目标是开发纳米光子器件和纳米结构材料，旨在为光通信网络中的全光信号处理产生高效的非线性光学相互作用。在量子信息领域，将采取多种方法来实现光子材料和器件的非线性光学响应的​​增强。第一种方法包括设计集成光学器件和光子纳米结构以产生所需的增强。它依赖于；纳米复合光学材料的非线性光学响应物理学，纳米复合光学材料是两种或多种均匀成分的纳米级混合物，此类材料中单个晶粒的尺寸远小于光的波长，并且静电光场重新分布具有局域化。通过适当的定制可以实现具有更高光学非线性的组件，预计将导致光学非线性的显着增强，从而为新的有趣的物理和实际应用开辟道路。用于全光信号处理的集成光学元件以及产生集成量子光学网络中增强的非线性光学响应是拟议研究计划的最终目标。