Silica Based Non-linear Optical Devices

二氧化硅基非线性光学器件

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05072
• 负责人: Smelser, Christopher
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=588194
• 关键词: Silica; Based; Non; linear; Optical

Silica glass has long been the preferred material for waveguides in optical telecommunications networks and sensor applications. Currently, most of the existing telecommunications network is composed of silica fiber or waveguides. As a result of the wide deployment of silica based infrastructure, silica components can be made relatively inexpensively. While silica has many desirable properties it has one significant drawback in that it is an amorphous material that does not possess a second order optical non-linearity (SON). The SON is important as this property can be exploited to produce devices like optical modulators or frequency converters. Optical modulators are a major component in current telecommunications networks and wavelength converters have the potential to significantly impact future networks, fiber lasers, and cryptography. Currently, the crystal lithium niobate is used for these types of applications because it is not amorphous and possesses a large SON. Lithium niobate would be a perfectly acceptable solution if it were not for the fact that its index of refraction and thermal expansion are not compatible with the existing silica based infrastructure. In addition to the incompatibility issues, lithium niobate is more expensive and is not as easily formed into the variety of components necessary for many applications. In a perfect world, we would be able to use a silica based device that has a large SON instead of lithium niobate. Two decades ago researchers did actually discover a method, called thermal poling, to create a SON in silica (of about 1 pm/V) but have been unable to increase it to the same level as lithium niobate (about 80 pm/V). Recently we were conduction thermal poling experiments on micro and nano-layered structures in silica and made a startling discovery. Our measurements suggested that the SON in our samples could be as much as 14x higher than previously achievable. Such an increase would result in a SON that is much closer to that of lithium niobate. It is the goal of this research proposal to capitalize on this potential breakthrough and continue to study these structures to see whether we can eventually produce devices capable of competing with lithium niobate. The program will begin with a closer look at the structures themselves to see whether they can be optimized to produce even larger non-linearities. This could involve altering the composition of the glass or changing the spacing/thickness of the layers. We will also produce simulations that we hope will explain the reason for the observed increase in SON. After a considerable amount of work has gone into perfecting the layer structures we hope to move on to producing waveguides that incorporate micro and nano-layers. My students will begin by designing the basic structures using modeling software and then will attempt to develop them in our fabrication facility. We will also be seeking industry partners to develop low loss waveguide structures that incorporate micro and nano-layers. If we are successful in developing micro and nano-layer waveguides we intend to test them as modulators and wavelength converters to determine if there is a significant improvement over pre-existing silica glass based devices. Successfully producing silica based devices with large SON's would represent a major breakthrough and would impact virtually all aspects of the Canadian Photonics industry. We believe that our studies indicate that such a breakthrough could be on the horizon.

长期以来，硅胶一直是光学电信网络和传感器应用中波导的首选材料。 当前，大多数现有的电信网络由二氧化硅纤维或波导组成。 由于基于二氧化硅的基础设施的广泛部署，二氧化硅组件可以相对廉价地制造。 尽管二氧化硅具有许多理想的特性，但它具有一个重要的缺点，因为它是一种不具有二阶光学非线性（SON）的无定形材料。 儿子很重要，因为可以利用此属性来生产诸如光学调制器或频转换器之类的设备。 光学调节器是当前电信网络中的主要组成部分，而波长转换器具有显着影响未来网络，光纤激光器和密码学的潜力。 当前，尼橙锂晶锂用于这些类型的应用，因为它不是无定形的，并且拥有一个大儿子。 如果不是因为它的折射率和热膨胀指数与现有的基于二氧化硅的基础设施不兼容，则硝酸锂将是一个完全可接受的解决方案。 除了不兼容的问题外，尼贝特锂的价格更高，并且不容易成为许多应用所需的各种组件。 在一个完美的世界中，我们将能够使用带有大儿子的二氧化硅设备而不是尼贝特锂。 二十年前，研究人员实际上确实发现了一种称为热极点的方法，可以在二氧化硅（大约1 pm/v）中创建一个儿子，但无法将其与硝酸锂（约80 pm/v）相同的水平增加到相同的水平。 最近，我们是在二氧化硅中的微型和纳米层结构上进行的传导热量实验，并进行了惊人的发现。我们的测量结果表明，我们的样本中的儿子可能比以前可实现的高14倍。这样的增加将导致一个儿子更接近Niobate锂。 这项研究提案的目标是利用这一潜在的突破，并继续研究这些结构，以查看我们是否可以生产能够与硝酸锂竞争的设备。 该程序将仔细研究结构本身，以了解是否可以优化它们以产生更大的非线性性。 这可能涉及改变玻璃的组成或改变层的间距/厚度。 我们还将产生模拟，希望我们能解释观察到的儿子增加的原因。 在完成了大量工作之后，我们希望继续生产结合微型和纳米层的波导。 我的学生将首先使用建模软件设计基本结构，然后尝试在我们的制造设施中开发它们。我们还将寻求行业合作伙伴来开发融合微型和纳米层的低损失波导结构。 如果我们成功地开发了微层和纳米层波导，我们打算作为调节器和波长转换器测试它们，以确定与现有的基于二氧化硅玻璃的设备相比是否有显着改善。 成功生产基于大儿子的二氧化硅设备将代表一个重大突破，并将影响加拿大光子学行业的所有方面。 我们认为我们的研究表明，这样的突破可能即将到来。