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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Adaptive Plasmonic Metasurfaces For Radiative Cooling And Passive Thermoregulation, Azadeh Didari-Bader, Nooshin M. Estakhri, Nasim Mohammadi Estrakhri Jun 2023

Adaptive Plasmonic Metasurfaces For Radiative Cooling And Passive Thermoregulation, Azadeh Didari-Bader, Nooshin M. Estakhri, Nasim Mohammadi Estrakhri

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

In this work, we investigate a class of planar photonic structures operating as passive thermoregulators. The radiative cooling process is adjusted through the incorporation of a phase change material (Vanadium Dioxide, VO2) in conjunction with a layer of transparent conductive oxide (Aluminum-doped Zinc Oxide, AZO). VO2 is known to undergo a phase transition from the “dielectric” phase to the “plasmonic” or “metallic” phase at a critical temperature close to 68°C. In addition, AZO shows plasmonic properties at the long-wave infrared spectrum, which, combined with VO2, provides a rich platform to achieve low reflections across the …


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 …


Fabricating Nanophotonic Devices Using Nanofabrication Techniques, Scott Cummings Dec 2021

Fabricating Nanophotonic Devices Using Nanofabrication Techniques, Scott Cummings

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Nanofabrication processes are widely used to make the integrated circuits and computer chips that are ubiquitous in today’s technology. These fabrication processes can also be applied to the creation of nanophotonic devices. The ways in which we apply these fabrication techniques in the field of photonics is often constrained by the technologies used for electronics manufacturing which presents an interesting engineering challenge. These limitations include availability and cost of certain fabrication equipment and techniques required to create state-of-the-art nanophotonic devices. Through work with the University of California Irvine nano-fabrication cleanroom, we designed and fabricated various integrated photonic components including grating …


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 …


Integrated Photonic Device, Brittney Kuhn May 2020

Integrated Photonic Device, Brittney Kuhn

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In computer mediated communication networks, information is typically encoded optically to transmit signals over long distances. At a network node, the optical signal is transformed into the electrical domain, processed electronically, and transformed back to an optical state to reach its destination. Transitioning between optical and electrical encoding of the signal is a potential security weak point, especially for quantum communication links. If information can remain in one state as it travels through the network, then security breaches can be detected and dealt with more easily. Furthermore, keeping the information in one state can reduce power consumption in the network. …


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 …


Serpentine Low Loss Trapezoidal Silica Waveguides On Silicon, Xiaomin Zhang, Mark Harrison, Audrey Harker, Andrea M. Armani Sep 2012

Serpentine Low Loss Trapezoidal Silica Waveguides On Silicon, Xiaomin Zhang, Mark Harrison, Audrey Harker, Andrea M. Armani

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We report the fabrication and characterization of straight and serpentine low loss trapezoidal silica waveguides integrated on a silicon substrate. The waveguide channel was defined using a dual photo-lithography and buffered HF etching and isolated from the silicon substrate using an isotropic silicon etchant. The waveguide is air-clad and thus has a core-cladding effective index contrast of approximately 25%. Measured at 658, 980 and 1550nm, the propagation loss was found to be 0.69, 0.59, and 0.41dB/cm respectively, with a critical bending radius less than 375μm. The waveguide’s polarization behavior was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Additionally, the output power shows …