Photonic, Electronic and Plasmonic Microstructured Optical Fibres

A major area of research activity at the ORC and in the worldwide photonics community is the exploitation of the optical fibre, not simply as a passive waveguide, but as a medium to directly modulate, generate, or otherwise manipulate light. As a result of this versatility, fibres form key components of systems in almost any applications that use light.

In parallel with these breakthroughs in photonics, the computer and microelectronics industries have seen exponential growth every 18 months since the 1960’s of the performance to price ratio of transistors on CPU and DRAM chips. This is equally matched with improvements in optoelectronic components such as the visible lasers used in DVD players, and the infrared laser diodes used to generate and modulate light for data communications in optical fibres. The crystalline semiconductors upon which all microelectronics are based, namely silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide and many others, are familiar to almost every scientist and engineer.

The advanced technological fields represented by silica glass based optical fibres and microelectronics based on planar chips fabricated by lithography, are typically integrated to create communication network systems. Integration can be achieved by using intermediate optics and packaging. However, it is preferable to avoid having to transform in-fibre photonic signals to chip-based electronic signals due to the complexity (and therefore high cost) of having to use heterogeneous, discrete optoelectronic components. Indeed, the ultimate vision would be a purely fibre based system.

We have developed and patented an innovative technique that takes a significant step towards this goal. Our technique allows us to fabricate crystalline semiconductor structures made from silicon and germanium directly inside the optical fibre itself. This technique utilises a deposition process similar to that used for modern planar electronic devices, opening up the possibility for directly combining the light guiding capabilities of optical fibres with the exceptional capabilities of semiconductors for manipulating light and electrons.

As a proof of principle, we have fabricated a transistor composed of crystalline germanium within a fibrewith with our colleagues at Penn State University, USA. This suggests that many of the functions currently performed by planar optoelectronics could now be integrated directly inside the fibre itself, and new semiconductor devices that cannot be realised in a conventional planar geometry may now become possible.

Advanced technological applications demand high performance devices, which in turn require exceptional materials. Our efforts focus on the fundamental materials research and development necessary to move this innovation beyond the laboratory to next-generation photonic devices and systems.

P.J.A. Sazio, A. Amezcua-Correa, C.E. Finlayson, J.R. Hayes, T.J. Scheidemantel, N.F. Baril, B.R. Jackson, D-J. Won, F. Zhang, E.R. Margine, V. Gopalan, V.H. Crespi and J.V. Badding, Microstructured Optical Fibers as High-Pressure Microfluidic Reactors. Science (2006), 311(5767), 1583-1586.

A comprehensive review article of this work can be found in Photonics Spectra Magazine 40(8) pages 80-88, August 2006, Building semiconductor structures in optical fiber, J.V. Badding, V. Gopalan and P.J.A. Sazio. Click here to download the pdf.

9 May 2007 - Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship awarded to Dr Anna Peacock more...

October 2000 – 2005: EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship (Grant Reference /A00766/02) “The physics and technology of novel self-assembled molecular nanoelectronic devices”

October 2000 – 2001: Research fellow, St. Edmund’s College Cambridge

A full list of well over 50 websites reporting the results of collaborative work with Penn State University can be found by visiting http://tanzanite.chem.psu.edu/publicity.html. This includes the US National Science Foundation, MIT technology review, Telephony Magazine, Nature Materials News, Frost and Sullivan High Tech Materials alert.