Crystal Growth and Processing for Anisotropic and Non-linear Infrared Materials
Abstract
312 [Conley, Benjamin]; 312 [Leonard, Kevin]; 351 [Hoffman, Ryan]Anisotropic and nonlinear optical materials are critical to generate, modulate and senselight with polarization and energy sensitivity. There is a dearth of highly anisotropic and highsusceptibilitynon-linear optical materials in the mid-wave (3-8 #m) and long-wave (8-15 #m)infrared energies that span two atmospheric infrared windows (3-5 and 8-11 #m). These materialshighly desirable for several Department of Defense (DoD) relevant applications in developingphotonic and electronic platforms with novel functionalities, especially emerging infrared sensing,imaging, and surveillance devices for both on-chip and free space operation. Our group has alreadydemonstrated giant optical anisotropy in a class of quasi-1D hexagonal chalcogenides. Currently,we grow the crystals by vapor transport and flux growth methods, which limits the crystaldimensions toseveral 10s to 100s of microns in one of the three dimensions. Full characterizationof the anisotropic dielectric tensor and non-linear susceptibility are limited by the size and qualityof the single crystals available now. Hence, it is necessary to develop crystal growth and processingmethods that will make such crystals available for the broader spectroscopic and devicecommunity to study their properties and realize novel infrared devices. One of the key challengesto the growth of such infrared materials is the presenceof both high vapor pressure transitionmetals and low vapor pressure anions such as chalcogen. Few crystal growth methods can handlethe combination of large mismatch in the vapor pressure. To overcome these challenges inachieving large single crystals of vapor pressure mismatched infrared materials, we propose todevelop a solution Bridgman method for the growth of quasi-1D hexagonal chalcogenides andother highly anisotropic and nonlinear optical materials. In this project, we will establish crystalgrowth and processing methods such as cuttingand polishing the crystals with specific orientationalignment. These steps are critical to provide high quality samples to fully characterize thebroadband anisotropic dielectric function tensors, and also nonlinear optical coefficients such aselectro-optic coefficient, and second harmonic generation susceptibility. In summary, we proposea novel solution Bridgman growth and processing method to develop a family of infrared materialswith large anisotropy and nonlinear susceptibility in the mid-wave and long-wave infrared energiesfor DoD-relevant photonic and electronic applications.(This abstract is publicly releasable)
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 11, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312818
Entities
People
- Jayakanth Ravichandran
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Southern California