A versatile photonic platform for sensing and beyond
Abstract
Fundamental understanding of light-matter interactions and the development of novel structures to enhance such interactions will shed light to many interesting phenomena associated with light. It will enable us to develop photonic devices and systems with novel functionalities by discovering a new way to control and manipulate light flow. It will also help to elucidate and discover new strategies for novel device concepts that can be of great use in a variety of applications from lasing, communication, sensing, and light harvesting, just to name a few. Built on significantly enhanced light-matter interactions in high-quality optical resonators, a versatile photonic platform will be studied in this project to develop enabling technologies with innovative functionalities or performances superior to existing systems. In this project, the PI will study photonic molecules composed of two or more coupled resonators for unconventional control of light transport that is enabled by parity-time-symmetry or exceptional point. It is likely to have a major impact on silicon photonics and the discovery of new physics and applications. A self-referencing, compact, and inexpensive detector with high resolution for detecting nanoparticles down to several nanometers will also be investigated. Such a portable, real-time, in situ sensing system with single-nanoparticle resolution and nanometer sensitivity will allow investigation of the properties and kinetic behavior of nanoscale particles and structures. Due to its low-weight and compact size, the resonator-based sensor can be installed in public areas, transportation systems, and aircrafts, which are vulnerable to airborne contaminants and pandemic viruses. It is worth noting the interplay of optical gain with nanoparticles and highly confined optical field in a resonator provides a new mechanism to manipulate light-matter interactions. Following this direction, a solar powered on-chip microlasers will be explored and investigated. The narrow- line-width solar powered microlasers could be of great use for sensing applications, especially for the those with limited supply of power. In summary, the proposed work will opens up a new venue to study physics and novel device concepts beyond the fundamental limit that can be reached by current photonic devices. The interdisciplinary nature of this work will encourage collaborative research to discover new physical mechanisms associated with light-matter interactions and explore new classes of devices with unprecedented performances.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 16, 2018
- Source ID
- W911NF1710189
Entities
People
- Lan Yang
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- Washington University in St. Louis