EECS Seminar: Photonic Crystal Membrane Lasers for Heterogeneously Integrated 3-D Photonics

Abstract: Free-space coupled membrane photonic devices are highly desirable for 3-D integrated photonics, free-space communications, imaging, sensing, and ranging applications. Over the years, my group has been focusing on semiconductor membrane photonics, flexible electronics and optoelectronics, based on transfer-printed nanoscale crystalline membrane materials and scalable heterogeneous-integration photonic crystal nanaophotonic platforms. In this talk, I will discuss some of the research progress made by my group in the area of photonic crystal Fano resonance photonics for lasers, filters, imagers and sensors. Based on photonic crystal membrane reflectors, ultra-compact VCSELs were proposed and demonstrated based on heterogeneously integrated III-V quantum well structures with silicon photonic crystal membrane reflectors for on-chip integration. Based on the critical coupling concept, close to perfect absorption was demonstrated in graphene-coupled photonic crystal cavities. Based on high quality factor filters from single or coupled-bi-layer photonic crystal cavities, high-speed spatial-light modulators and high-sensitivity optical sensors were also demonstrated. 

Bio: Professor Weidong Zhou obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and his doctorate from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, where he leads the nanophotonic device group. Zhou has authored and co-authored more than 300 journal publications and conference presentations, including more than 60 invited conference talks. Zhou and his group have made significant contributions in the area of photonic crystal flat optics and membrane photonics, especially membrane lasers and imagers, for integrated silicon photonics and flexible optoelectronics. Zhou is a fellow of SPIE, a senior member of IEEE and a member of OSA, APS, MRS and AAAS.