Slow Light Enhanced Nano-Photonic Devices for Optical Communication and Sensing
When: Monday, November 14, 2011 - 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Where: KEC 1001
Speaker Information
Speaker Name: Alan X. Wang
Speaker Title/Description:
Assistant Professor
School of EECS
Oregon State University
Speaker Biography:
Alan X. Wang is an assistant professor of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. degree from Tsinghua University, and M.S. degree from the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China, in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. From January 2007 to August 2011, he was with Omega Optics, Inc., Austin, Texas, where he served as the Chief Research Scientist.
Nano-photonic devices are playing increasingly important roles in optical
communication and optical sensor systems. By engineering the nano-photonic
structures, for example, by fine-tuning the photonic band diagram of photonic
crystal waveguides, one can slow down the group velocity of the photons by two
orders of magnitude, which can significantly increase the light-matter
interaction. In this presentation, I will discuss the design and fabrication of
an innovative photonic crystal slot waveguide on silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
wafers, with special emphasis on coupling light from conventional optical
fibers into slow light enhanced nanophotonic waveguide.
Based on this ultra-efficient platform, we have developed highly compact
(300um) and sensitive on-chip optical sensors for water quality monitoring
(50ppb xylene in water) and green-house gas detection (100ppm methane in
nitrogen). When the slow light enhanced nano-photonic waveguide is combined
with other innovative materials, we can create various photonic devices with
enhanced functionalities for a broad spectrum of applications in board level
optical interconnect, radio frequency (RF) photonic communication,
electromagnetic wave detection, and bio-molecule sensing. I will show the
state-of-the-art design of a nano-photonic modulator using E-O polymer
infiltrated silicon photonic crystal slot waveguide with unprecedented
efficiency, and experimental demonstration of 735pm/V in-device E-O coefficient
and 0.44Vmm of VPiL, which is ten times better than the best results of our
competitors.
In summary, slow light enhanced nano-photonic photonic devices have
demonstrated extremely high potential in many communication and sensing areas,
and will continue to broaden its application in many emerging fields through
interdisciplinary research.
_______________________________________________
Colloquium mailing list
[email protected]
https://secure.engr.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/colloquium
