Exploration of Novel Applications for Optical Communications using Silicon Nanophotonics

Silicon photonics is considered to have the potential to enable future communication systems with optical input-outputs to circumvent the shortcomings of electronics. Today silicon is the material of choice for photonic and optoelectronic circuits, mainly due to its excellent material properties, established processing technology, low-cost, compact device footprint, and high-density integration. From sensing and detection to computing and communications, silicon photonics has advanced remarkably in the last couple of decades and found numerous applications. This thesis work focusses on three novel applications of silicon photonics for optical communications. The first application is the design and demonstration of a differential phase shift keying (DPSK) demodulator circuit using a ring resonator. DPSK-based transceivers are being actively considered for short-haul optical communication systems due to their advantages in terms of high extinction ratio, dispersion tolerance, and improved sensitivity. The ring resonator utilizes the concept of coherent perfect absorption and results into a compact demodulator circuit that can be easily integrated into an all-optical system. The next application involves a nonlinear optical process, namely, four wave mixing (FWM) inside a silicon nanowire. For FWM to occur efficiently, phase matching between the real propagation constants of all the frequency components is a key requirement. However, this condition cannot be easily satisfied in integrated optics semiconductor platforms. We propose an altogether new approach to achieve signal gain within the context of non-Hermitian photonics and parity-time (PT) symmetry and show that the phase matching criterion is not necessary to achieve efficient nonlinear interactions. Instead by introducing losses only to the idler components while leaving the pump and signal waves intact, we analyze a coupled-wave system of silicon nanowires using finite difference time domain technique and find that signal gain is indeed possible in such a system, irrespective of the fulfillment of the phase-matching condition. The final application of silicon photonics in this thesis is the engineering of zero group velocity dispersion (GVD) point in the C-band of communication channel. The problem of pulse broadening due to chromatic dispersion is becoming an increasingly important factor for signal degradation. We propose a hybrid silicon/plasmonic waveguide that can change the zero-GVD point by altering the geometry and material of the waveguide components. In addition, such hybrid system also has the potential to transmit both optical and electronic signals along the same circuitry

Advanced Applications in Nanophotonics

Nanophotonics is a fast-growing area of both scientific significance and practical value for applications. Nanophotonics studies the interaction between light and electronic systems in nanomaterials and nanostructures as well as the behavior of light in nanometer scales. It covers many hot topics such as plasmonics, two-dimensional materials, and silicon photonics. Increasing attention is given to the area and nanophotonics is expected to have significant impact on future technology advances. This thesis work focuses on three aspects of nanophotonics. The first aspect is in exploring the nonlocal effect and surface correction for nanometer-length-scale plasmonic structures. Plasmonics is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and free electrons in a metal. It exploits the unique optical properties of metallic nanostructures to enable routing and manipulation of light at the nanoscale, where nonlocal effect becomes important. Here we introduce a new surface hydrodynamic model for plasmon propagation at interfaces, which incorporates both nonlocality and surface contributions. This surface correction is calculated via a discontinuity in the normal component of the electric displacement in conjunction with Feibelman's d-parameters, thus enabling rapid numerical calculation of nanostructures without requiring a full quantum calculation because of its large computational requirement. We examine numerical calculations of surface plasmon polaritons propagation at a single interface structure, and then for a more complex thin-film structures. The second aspect is investigating the third-harmonic generation in thick multilayer graphene. Graphene is the first two-dimensional material to be discovered and has attracted much interest because of its remarkable two-dimensional electronic, optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Multilayer graphene, can be seen as stacking of monolayer graphene, and it offers an array of properties that are of interest for optical physics and devices. We describe the layer-dependent for third-harmonic generation in thick multilayer graphene on quartz substrate. The third harmonic signal of multilayer graphene exhibits a complex dependence on its layer number showing that the optimal third harmonic signal at 24 layers, in good agreement with two theoretical models. The third aspect is an exploration in silicon photonics of design and demonstration of a differential phase shift keying demodulator based on coherent perfect absorption effect. Silicon photonics is considered a potential future communication system mainly due to its compact footprint, dense integration, and compatibility with mature silicon integrated circuit manufacturing. Differential phase shift keying based system offers advantages, e.g., dispersion tolerance, improved sensitivity, and does not require coherent detection. Coherent perfect absorption uses a ring resonator works for the critical coupling condition at resonance frequency. This work shows a new compact demodulator circuit can be integrated in all optical-system

High-speed and Robust Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics for On-Chip Interconnects

Optical interconnects offer advantages over electrical interconnects such as higher bandwidth, low power, reduced interconnects delay, and immunity to electro-magnetic interference and signal crosstalk. However, in order for optical interconnects to be widely adopted, the technology must be made cost effective and must be simple to implement with CMOS electronics. Silicon photonics offers a great promise due to its inexpensive material and its compatibility with the current CMOS fabrication technology. Moreover, Silicon as a platform has the ability to integrate with different types of the optical components such as photodetector, modulator, light source, and waveguide to form a photonics integrated circuit. The goal of this work is to develop and fabricate devices that utilize a hybrid electronic-photonic integration to enable high performance optoelectronic computing and communication systems that overcome the barriers of electronics and dramatically enhance the performance of circuits and systems. We experimentally demonstrate a novel broadband optical time division multiplexer (OTDM) on a silicon chip. The system has a footprint× 700 micrometer and is inherently broadband with a bandwidth of over 100nm making it suitable for high-speed optical networks on chip. Also, we propose and fabricate a novel design to demultiplex the high bit rates of OTDM data using two differentially operated 5Gb/s modulators. Moreover, we propose a high-speed hybrid optical-time-division-multiplexing (OTDM) and wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) system that seamlessly generates high bit-rate data (\u3e200Gbit/s) from a low speed (5Gbit/s) quantum-dot mode locked laser pulse source. By utilizing time and wavelength domains, the proposed design is a promising solution for high-speed, compact and low-power consumption optical networks on chip. And finally, we experimentally demonstrate a robust, low insertion loss, compact Silicon ring resonator electro-optic modulator for Binary Phase Shift Key (BPSK) coding/decoding that encodes data in the phase of light. Our design improves significantly over recently demonstrated PSK modulator designs in terms of insertion loss and stability

Open-access silicon photonics: current status and emerging initiatives

Silicon photonics is widely acknowledged as a game-changing technology driven by the needs of datacom and telecom. Silicon photonics builds on highly capital-intensive manufacturing infrastructure, and mature open-access silicon photonics platforms are translating the technology from research fabs to industrial manufacturing levels. To meet the current market demands for silicon photonics manufacturing, a variety of open-access platforms is offered by CMOS pilot lines, R&D institutes, and commercial foundries. This paper presents an overview of existing and upcoming commercial and noncommercial open-access silicon photonics technology platforms. We also discuss the diversity in these open-access platforms and their key differentiators

Investigation into Smart Multifunctional Optical System-On-A-Chip Sensor Platform and Its Applications in Optical Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely used in various applications to acquire distributed information through cooperative efforts of sensor nodes. Most of the sensor nodes used in WSNs are based on mechanical or electrical sensing mechanisms, which are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and can hardly be used in harsh environments. Although these disadvantages of conventional sensor nodes can be overcome by employing optical sensing methods, traditional optical systems are usually bulky and expensive, which can hardly be implemented in WSNs. Recently, the emerging technologies of silicon photonics and photonic crystal promise a solution of integrating a complete optical system through a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. However, such an integration still remains a challenge. The overall objective of this dissertation work is to develop a smart multifunctional optical system-on-a-chip (SOC) sensor platform capable of both phase modulation and wavelength tuningfor heterogeneous sensing, and implement this platform in a sensor node to achieve an optical WSN for various applications, including those in harsh environments. The contributions of this dissertation work are summarized as follows. i)A smart multifunctional optical SOC sensor platform for heterogeneous sensing has beendeveloped for the first time. This platform can be used to perform phase modulation and demodulation in a low coherence interferometric configuration or wavelength tuning in a spectrum sensing configuration.The multifunctional optical sensor platform is developed through hybrid integration of a light source, an optical modulator, and multiple photodetectors. As the key component of the SOC platform, two types of modulators, namely, the opto-mechanical and electro-optical modulators, are investigated. For the first time, interrogating different types of heterogeneous sensors, including various Fabry-Perot (FP) sensors and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, with a single SOC sensor platform, is demonstrated. ii)Enhanced understanding of the principles of the multifunctional optical platform withanopto-mechanical modulator has been achieved.As a representative of opto-mechanical modulators, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based FP tunable filter is thoroughly investigated through mechanical and optical modeling. The FP tunable filter is studied for both phase modulation and wavelength tuning, and design guidelines are developed based on the modeling and parametric studies. It is found that the MEMS tunable filter can achieve a large modulation depth, but it suffers from a trade-off between modulation depth and speed. iii) A novel silicon electro-optical modulator based on microring structures for optical phase modulation and wavelength tuning has been designed. To overcome the limitations of the opto-mechanical modulators including low modulation speed and mechanical instability, a CMOS compatible high speed electro-optical silicon modulator is designed, which combines microring and photonic crystal structures for phase modulation in interferometric sensors and makes use of two cascaded microrings for wavelength tuning in sensors that require spectrum domain signal processing. iv)A novel optical SOC WSN node has been developed. The optical SOC sensor platform and the associated electric circuit are integrated with a conventional WSN module to achieve an optical WSN node, enabling optical WSNs for various applications. v) A novel cross-axial dual-cavity FP sensor has been developed for simultaneous pressure and temperature sensing.Across-axial sensor is useful in measuring static pressures without picking up dynamic pressures in the presence of surface flows. The dual-cavity sensing structure is used for both temperature and pressure measurements without the need for another temperature sensor for temperature drift compensation. This sensor can be used in moderate to high temperature environments, which demonstrates the potential of using the optical WSN sensor node in a harsh environment

Photonic chip interconnects and integrated polarization management for coherent communication

En este trabajo se han expuesto diversas aportaciones originales, entre las que cabe destacar el desarrollo de redes de difracción eficientes para el acoplo chip-fibra, el diseño de rotadores de polarización integrados de grandes tolerancias a errores de fabricación o el diseño de un receptor para comunicaciones coherentes basadas en multiplexación por polarización que no requiere de rotadores ni de separadores de polarización

Optical Communication

Optical communication is very much useful in telecommunication systems, data processing and networking. It consists of a transmitter that encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel that carries the signal to its desired destination, and a receiver that reproduces the message from the received optical signal. It presents up to date results on communication systems, along with the explanations of their relevance, from leading researchers in this field. The chapters cover general concepts of optical communication, components, systems, networks, signal processing and MIMO systems. In recent years, optical components and other enhanced signal processing functions are also considered in depth for optical communications systems. The researcher has also concentrated on optical devices, networking, signal processing, and MIMO systems and other enhanced functions for optical communication. This book is targeted at research, development and design engineers from the teams in manufacturing industry, academia and telecommunication industries

Control Systems for Silicon Photonic Microring Devices

The continuing growth of microelectronics in speed, scale, and complexity has led to a looming bandwidth bottleneck for traditional electronic interconnects. This has precipitated the penetration of optical interconnects to smaller, more localized scales, in such applications as data centers, supercomputers, and access networks. For this next generation of optical interconnects, the silicon photonic platform has received wide attention for its ability to manifest, more economical, high-performance photonics. The high index contrast and CMOS compatibility of the silicon platform give the potential to intimately integrate small footprint, power-efficient, high-bandwidth photonic interconnects with existing high-performance CMOS microelectronics. Within the silicon photonic platform, traditional photonic elements can be manifested with smaller footprint and higher energy-efficiency. Additionally, the high index contrast allows the successful implementation of silicon microring-based devices, which push the limits on achievable footprint and energy-efficiency metrics. While laboratory demonstrations have testified to their capabilities as powerful modulators, switches, and filters, the commercial implementation of microring-based devices is impeded by their susceptibility to fabrication tolerances and their inherent temperature sensitivity. This work develops and demonstrates methods to resolve the aforementioned sensitivities of microring-based devices. Specifically, the use of integrated heaters to thermally tune and lock microring resonators to laser wavelengths, and the underlying control systems to enable such functionality. The first developed method utilizes power monitoring to show the successful thermal stabilization of a microring modulator under conditions that would normally render it inoperational. In a later demonstration, the photodetector used for power monitoring is co-integrated with the microring modulator, again demonstrating thermal stabilization of a microring modulator and validating the use of defect-enhanced silicon photodiodes for on-chip control systems. Secondly, a generalized method is developed that uses dithering signals to generate anti-symmetric error signals for use in stabilizing microring resonators. A control system utilizing a dithering signal is shown to successfully wavelength lock and thermally stabilize a microring resonator. Characterizations are performed on the robustness and speed of the wavelength locking process when using dithering signals. An FPGA implementation of the control system is used to scale to a WDM microring demultiplexer, demonstrating the simultaneous wavelength locking of multiple microring resonators. Additionally, the dithering technique is adopted to create control systems for microring-based switches, which have traditionally posed a challenging problem due to their multi-state configurations. The aforementioned control systems are rigorously tested for applications with high speed data and analyzed for power efficiency and scalability to show that they can successfully scale to commercial implementations and be the enabling factor in the commercial deployment of microring-based devices