This project will experimentally investigate the slowing and stopping of light in polymeric, tunable, and nonlinear coupled high-Q optical microresonator waveguides. In principle, a light pulse can be slowed arbitrarily on a chip in ambient conditions. To achieve this goal, the project will target (i) the application of novel tunable and nonlinear optical polymers, (ii) the development of submicron resolution fabrication methods and processes for polymers, and (iii) the study of new device designs and concepts for optical microresonators.
Intellectual Merit: The demonstration of slow light on a chip will be important from a fundamental physics point of view while enabling new classes of optical delay lines, buffers, and memory elements which are important to interferometry, optical telecommunications, and optical computing systems. The development of tunable, nonlinear, and low-loss polymeric optical devices will be generally applicable to optical switches, filters, and modulators. The project will comprehensively address the issues concerning the materials, fabrication and processing techniques, and physical designs for polymeric integrated optical devices.
Broader Impacts: This project primarily supports the research of a female graduate student. Programs such as the summer and minority undergraduate research fellowships enable a diverse group of students to participate in this project. The budget will partially sponsor the student-organized Applied Physics Optics Seminars. Through this project, researchers will interact with collaborators at academic institutions, industry, and government laboratories. The collaborations and the seminar series promote an interdisciplinary cooperation, enhancing the dissemination of new ideas. Through publications and conference presentations, the discoveries from this project will be shared with the scientific community.
