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: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=678809
• 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.

现代光学通信网络由于带宽有限而受到电子信号处理的基本局限性。与电子信号处理相比，光学材料的带宽更广泛，因此需要全光信号处理以克服这些局限性。全光信号处理完全取决于光与物质的非线性光学相互作用。这种相互作用导致新光谱成分的出现以及支持光束传播的介质的光学响应的​​修改。信息流的光谱中新频率的出现对于用于将信息通道从一个频段传递到另一个频段的波长转换至关重要。对于物理分离的通道之间的信息流进行光学切换，必须对光学介质的响应进行修改。它几乎可以立即发生，比电动开关快得多。**另一个可以从非线性光学相互作用中受益的目标区域是量子信息。在量子通信网络中，可以安全地编码和传输信息。量子信息完全依赖于相关（纠缠）光子对的产生。可以通过非线性光学相互作用来产生这种光子对，将光束分解为具有新频率的两个光束。将采用几种方法来实现光子材料和设备非线性光学响应的​​增强。第一种方法包括工程集成的光学设备和光子纳米结构，以产生所需的增强。第二种方法是基于材料的。它依赖于纳米复合材料的非线性光学响应的​​物理学，这些光学材料是两个或更多均匀成分的纳米级混合物。此类材料中单个晶粒的大小比光的波长小得多，并且可以通过适当的剪裁来实现静电光场重新分布，并在组件中定位具有较高的光学非线性。预计这两种方法将导致光学非线性的显着增强，并为新的有趣的物理和实际应用开辟了途径。在全光信号处理以及生成集成的量子光学网络中，在集成的光学组件中实施增强的非线性光学响应是拟议的研究计划的最终目标。