The proposed research is to design, construct and characterized suitable diffractive optical elements (DOE) for use as optical interconnects monolithically integrated in VLSL circuits and hence significantly improve system performance of high level computing systems. The project has both experimental and theoretical aspects. Experimentaly meso-scopic diffractive optical elements and VLSI circuits will be designed and fabricated. Theoretical simulation using both boundary elements methods (BEM) and finite difference-time domain method (FDTD) will be performed. The educational component of the proposal is to integrate research into undergraduate courses which will require research participation and presentation of results by students.
