UFOS · Integrated ultra-fast optical pulse processors
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2007-03-01 → 2010-02-28
- EU contribution
- €189,654
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- OIF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - UFOS (Integrated Ultrafast Optical Pulse Processors)
The fellow's scientific activity has explored two distinct themes of research: (i) the investigation of integrated optical devices for photonic applications and (ii) the development and exploitation of a high-intensity terahertz source. Regarding the first topic, a photonic temporal integrator has been developed, i.e. a device capable of performing the time integral of an arbitrary optical input. As expected for an all-optical technology, a photonic integrator can provide processing speeds orders of magnitude larger than its electronic counterpart. Another striking feature is that it enables the processing of complex information, whereas an electronic integrator is restricted to processing real data. The integrator has been used to implement an integrated pulse-shaper (which was the primary objective of the proposed project) capable of delivering flat-top waveforms by integrating two consecutive and identical out-of-phase pulses. The time duration of the generated flat-top has been proven to be tuneable, by simply varying the delay between the two pulses. Besides this, another integrated photonic device has been developed and characterised, namely a multiple wavelength source. Based on a doped-silca glass micro-ring resonator, the device possesses a low threshold power and its frequency spacing can be varied from few hundreds of gigahertz up to several terahertz. Its low loss, design flexibility, and CMOS compatibility may enable its use for telecommunications, computing, sensing, metrology and other areas. As far as the second topic of research is concerned, the fellow contributed in developing the most intense terahertz source based on optical rectification in Zinc Telluride. Few-cycle terahertz pulses with microjoule-level energy have been obtained and this has enabled the implementation of some of the first nonlinear experiments at terahertz frequencies in direct band-gap semiconductors. Techniques as Z-Scan, terahertz-pump / terahertz-probe and optical-pump / terahertz-probe have been employed to explore the nonlinear dynamics of free-carriers in both n-doped and photoexcited samples. The mechanism that dominates this kind of interactions have been found to be intervalley scattering and a simple two-valley electron transfer dynamic model coupled with a standard Drude-like response of free carriers in semiconductors well explains the experimental results.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This three-year long Marie Curie project is concerned with the development of a series of new devices based on long period gratings, and to their application to optical signal processing.The proposed experimental and theoretical research will allow the two university teams from INRS-EMT and the University of Pavia, to lead Canadian and European efforts in searching for low cost, high performance all-purpose optical sources.Our studies are directed toward the generation of train of pulses WITH ARBITRARILY CUSTOMIZED SHAPES, a problem of fundamental importance to several present and future applications.In particular, we propose an extremely simple geometry that will allow overcoming the limitations of both the conventional free-space based approach (limited integrated capabilities) and that based on fiber or semiconductor Bragg gratings (extremely demanding fabrication processes).Short-term research effort will be directed towards the:- Modeling of a series of devices for the realization of pulses of arbitrary shapes;- Design and fabrication of grating assisted co-directional couplers based on a novel thin film technology;- Experimental testing and analysis of the fabricated devices.This research will prepare the ground for the long-term integration of long grating based pulse shapers with semiconductor laser diodes. The resulting, compact sources could have a dramatic impact in several disciplines, such as telecommunication engineering and biomedical imaging. The simplicity of our design may well lead to the cost/performance and mass-reproducible characteristics, which are prerequisite to successful commercialization.Finally, the new knowledge generated from this project and the training associated to the different stages of this work will certainly contribute to offer a superb training to the candidate, and to enhance Europe and Canada's global competitiveness, especially in high-technology sectors.
Original text from CORDIS.
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Data: CORDIS, © European Union