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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Utilizing Inverse Design To Create Plasmonic Waveguide Devices, Michael Efseaff, Kyle Wynne, Mark C. Harrison Mar 2023

Utilizing Inverse Design To Create Plasmonic Waveguide Devices, Michael Efseaff, Kyle Wynne, Mark C. Harrison

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

In modern communications networks, data is transmitted over long distances using optical fibers. At nodes in the network, the data is converted to an electrical signal to be processed, and then converted back into an optical signal to be sent over fiber optics. This process results in higher power consumption and adds to transmission time. However, by processing the data optically, we can begin to alleviate these issues and surpass systems which rely on electronics. One promising approach for this is plasmonic devices. Plasmonic waveguide devices have smaller footprints than silicon photonics for more compact photonic integrated circuits, although they …


Three Wave Mixing In Epsilon-Near-Zero Plasmonic Waveguides For Signal Regeneration, Nicholas Mirchandani, Mark C. Harrison Mar 2022

Three Wave Mixing In Epsilon-Near-Zero Plasmonic Waveguides For Signal Regeneration, Nicholas Mirchandani, Mark C. Harrison

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Vast improvements in communications technology are possible if the conversion of digital information from optical to electric and back can be removed. Plasmonic devices offer one solution due to optical computing’s potential for increased bandwidth, which would enable increased throughput and enhanced security. Plasmonic devices have small footprints and interface with electronics easily, but these potential improvements are offset by the large device footprints of conventional signal regeneration schemes, since surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are incredibly lossy. As such, there is a need for novel regeneration schemes. The continuous, uniform, and unambiguous digital information encoding method is phase-shift-keying (PSK), so …


Implementing Inverse Design Tools For Plasmonic Digital Logic Devices, Krishna Narayan, Mark C. Harrison Mar 2021

Implementing Inverse Design Tools For Plasmonic Digital Logic Devices, Krishna Narayan, Mark C. Harrison

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the benefits that optics and photonics have brought to improving communications, there remains a lack of commercialized optical computing devices and systems, which reduces the benefits of using light as an information-carrying medium. We are developing architectures and designs of photonic logic gates for creating larger-scale functional photonic logic circuits. In contrast to other approaches, we are focusing on the development of logic devices which can be cascaded in arbitrary ways to allow for more complex photonic integrated circuit design. Additionally, optical computing often uses on-off keying, which fails to take advantage of denser encoding schemes often used to …


Spatiotemporal Fluorescent Detection Measurements Using Embedded Waveguide Sensors, Mark C. Harrison, Andrea M. Armani Jun 2013

Spatiotemporal Fluorescent Detection Measurements Using Embedded Waveguide Sensors, Mark C. Harrison, Andrea M. Armani

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Integrated waveguide biosensors, when combined with fluorescent labeling, have significantly impacted the field of biodetection. While there are numerous types of waveguide sensors, the fundamental excitation method is fairly consistent: the evanescent field of the waveguide excites a fluorophore whose emission is detected, either directly via imaging or indirectly via a decrease in power transfer. Recently, a sensor device was demonstrated which is able to back-couple the emitted light into the waveguide, allowing the signal to be detected directly. However, this previous work focused on the development of an empirical model, leaving many theoretical questions unanswered. Additionally, the results from …