Seminar Announcement: Jonathan Bradley

Data pubblicazione: 14-giu-2018 13.52.43

Announcement

Monday, 11 June 2018, 15:00

Sala Grande Palazzina B via alla Cascata 56/C

"Rare-Earth-Doped Light-Emitting Thin Films and Photonic Devices on Silicon"

Jonathan Bradley

Barber-Gennum Chair in Information Technology, Department of Engineering Physics,

McMaster University

Abstract

Since the 1990’s, compact and low cost rare earth integrated amplifiers and lasers have received much attention, particularly for high speed telecommunications applications. Nevertheless, despite many advances, the technology has yet to see widespread application. The primary reason is that fiber-based devices, although bulkier, are very well established, offer good performance and can meet the requirements of larger telecom systems. Recently, however, with the rise of silicon photonics and scaling of transceiver technology in data centers, the demand for compact optical amplifier and light emitter solutions is high. In this talk I will discuss our recent progress in silicon-based rare earth amplifiers and lasers. I will focus on the rare-earth host material aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), which exhibits high thermal stability, broad emission spectra, and reduced rare-earth clustering and higher refractive index than other common rare earth host materials such as silica, thus enables smaller devices. We have demonstrated compact erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers and a number of on-chip near-infrared lasers, including distributed feedback, distributed Bragg reflector and microcavity devices. I will discuss the potential for integration of such devices in silicon photonic microsystems.