Integrated Nanophotonics Devices
Integrated nanophotonics devices represent a cutting-edge field at the intersection of nanotechnology, optics, and materials science, where light-based technologies are combined with miniature, on-chip structures. This area of research aims to manipulate and control light at the nanoscale to improve performance, size, and efficiency in devices for a wide range of applications, from telecommunications and data processing to sensing and energy harvesting. By integrating photonic components on a single chip, these devices promise significant advances in speed, energy consumption, and compactness compared to traditional technologies. Key challenges include designing materials with specific optical properties, minimizing losses, and ensuring scalability for mass production. Integrated nanophotonics is expected to drive innovations in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and high-performance communication systems.
The following publications exemplify our recent research endeavors.
HBN-Encapsulated Graphene Coupled To A Plasmonic Metasurface Via 1D Electrodes For Photodetection Applications
It is shown here how encapsulated graphene devices can be laterally coupled to plasmonic metasurfaces via 1D edge contacts, preserving the high mobility of encapsulated graphene while enhancing optical coupling. The device is used for photodetection applications where high responsivities in the range of 100 A W−1 for most of the visible spectrum are reported. The device exhibits a photogating effect which is attributed to defect states in the encapsulating hBN layers. The results highlight a new configuration to couple graphene with plasmonic structures and points to a new type of device based on defect states and graphene's excellent transport properties to achieve photodetectors with ultrahigh responsivities.
Christian Frydendahl, Indukuri, S.R.K. Chaitanya, Devidas, Taget Raghavendr, Han, Zhengli , Mazurski, Noa , Watanabe, Kenji , Taniguchi, Takashi , Steinberg, Hadar , and Levy, Uriel . 2024. “Hbn-Encapsulated Graphene Coupled To A Plasmonic Metasurface Via 1D Electrodes For Photodetection Applications”. Advanced Photonics Research, 5, 4, Pp. 2300192.
Download: advanced_photonics_research_-_2024_-_frydendahl_-_hbn-encapsulated_graphene_coupled_to_a_plasmonic_metasurface_via_1d.pdf
High-Q and High Finesse Silicon Microring Resonator
We demonstrate the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a single transverse mode adiabatic microring resonator (MRR) implemented using the silicon-on- insulator (SOI) platform using local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) approach. Following its fabrication, the device was characterized experimentally and an ultrahigh intrinsic Q-factor of ∼2 million with a free spectral range (FSR) of 2 nm was achieved, giving rise to a finesse of ∼1100, the highest demonstrated so far in SOI platform at the telecom band. We have further studied our device to analyze the source of losses that occur in the MRR and to understand the limits of the achievable Q-factor. The surface roughness was quantified using AFM scans and the root mean square roughness was found to be ∼ 0.32±0.03 nm. The nonlinear losses were further examined by coupling different optical power levels into the MRR. Indeed, we could observe that the nonlinear losses become more pronounced at power levels in the range of hundreds of microwatts. The demonstrated approach for constructing high-Q and high finesse MRRs can play a major role in the implementation of devices such as modulators, sensors, filters, frequency combs and devices that are used for quantum applications, e.g., photon pair generation.
Jinan Nijem, Naiman, Alex , Zektzer, Roy , Frydendahl, Christian , Mazurski, Noa , and Levy, Uriel . 2024. “High-Q And High Finesse Silicon Microring Resonator”. Optics Express, 32, 5, Pp. 7896-7906.
Download: oe-32-5-7896.pdf
CMOS-Compatible Electro-Optical SRAM Cavity Device Based on Negative Differential Resistance
The impending collapse of Moore-like growth of computational power has spurred the development of alternative computing architectures, such as optical or electro-optical computing. However, many of the current demonstrations in literature are not compatible with the dominant complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology used in large-scale manufacturing today. Here, inspired by the famous Esaki diode demonstrating negative differential resistance (NDR), we show a fully CMOS-compatible electro-optical memory device, based on a new type of NDR diode. This new diode is based on a horizontal PN junction in silicon with a unique layout providing the NDR feature, and we show how it can easily be implemented into a photonic micro-ring resonator to enable a bistable device with a fully optical readout in the telecom regime. Our result is an important stepping stone on the way to new nonlinear electro-optic and neuromorphic computing structures based on this new NDR diode.
Rivka Gherabli, Zektzer, Roy , Grajower, Meir , Shappir, Joseph , Frydendahl, Christian , and Levy, Uriel . 2023. “Cmos-Compatible Electro-Optical Sram Cavity Device Based On Negative Differential Resistance”. Science Advances, 9, 15, Pp. eadf5589.
Download: sciadv.adf5589.pdf