CBE Seminar: Nanomaterial-enhanced Integrated Photonics

Abstract:  Integrated photonics offers a potential alternative to integrated electronics, with reduced heating and faster data rates. However, to achieve many of the desired performance metrics, it is necessary to combine disparate material systems. Heterogeneous integration is plagued by challenges, including different lattice constants, thermal expansion coefficients and fabrication compatibilities, all of which can impact the final device performance and lifetime. Therefore, new materials and material systems as well as fabrication methods are desired. One approach is to combine the conventional top-down fabrication methods and optical materials, such as silica and silicon, with bottom-up fabrication and nanomaterials. These hybrid systems provide access to optical behavior and performance not attainable with conventional approaches. This talk will present several of the new integrated hybrid photonic devices being developed in the Armani Lab, including approaches based on nonlinear organic small molecules and plasmonic nanoparticles to develop Raman lasers and frequency combs.

Bio:  Andrea Armani received her bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Chicago and her doctorate in applied physics with a minor in biology from the California Institute of Technology. She is currently the Ray Irani Chair of Engineering and Materials Science and a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Southern California. She is the director of two nanofabrication cleanrooms: the W. M. Keck Photonics Cleanroom and the John D. O'Brien Nanofabrication Laboratory. Armani serves on the editorial boards of ACS Photonics, APL Photonics and Optics Letters. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Expert Network, Sigma Xi and NAI, a senior member of IEEE and AIChE, and a fellow of OSA and SPIE. She has received several awards, including the ONR Young Investigator Award, the PECASE and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, and she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Host: Associate Professor Alon Gorodetsky