Title:
Subwavelength integrated nanophotonics in silicon nitride for on-chip light amplification, quantum communications and sensing
Agreement Value:
$25,000.00
Agreement Date:
Mar 25, 2020 - Mar 31, 2021
Description:
Silicon nitride is becoming established as an important nanophotonic platform because of its compatibility with CMOS fabrication and its substantially broader spectral transparency range compared to silicon. Silicon nitride allows CMOS integrated photonics to break into new application areas, in particular sensing in the visible and mid-IR spectral ranges, quantum photonics and nonlinear optics. However, silicon nitride poses some fundamental challenges. The high index contrast, which allows device miniaturization, causes significant optical scattering losses, mode size disparity between optical fiber and on-chip waveguides results in high coupling losses, and fabrication tolerances are tight, making manufacturing yield a major concern. Subwavelength engineering was successfully used to overcome similar challenges in silicon waveguides and the team believes that this strategy can also be advantageously implemented in the silicon nitride platform, which has not yet been done. In this proposed New Beginnings project, the benefits of subwavelength metamaterial engineering for the emerging nitride nanophotonic platform will be demonstrated. This can result in major advances in state-of-the-art silicon nitride integrated devices, including new photonic sensors, next generation quantum communications chips and on-chip optical amplifiers for telecom applications.
Organization:
National Research Council Canada
Expected Results:
In the short term, anticipated outcomes will be strengthened collaborations across industry, academia, and government to support research excellence. In the medium term, anticipated outcomes will be the development of new and potentially disruptive technologies with collaborators.
Location:
Hamilton, Ontario, CA L8S 4L8
Reference Number:
172-2019-2020-Q4-945264
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Recipient Business Number:
119035988
Additional Information:
This agreement has been amended 1 time(s). The end date of this agreements has been modified by 126 days.
Recipient's Operating Name:
McMaster University
Recipient's Legal Name:
McMaster University
Federal Riding Name:
Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas
Federal Riding Number:
35038
Program:
Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program – Ideation Fund
Program Purpose:
The Ideation Fund is intended to encourage, test and validate transformative research ideas generated by teams of NRC scientific personnel and external collaborators with complementary capabilities, acting as a demonstration phase for a continually-evolving suite of research and development (R&D) deliverables at the NRC. The fund supports exploratory research through two mechanisms: the New Beginnings Initiative and the Small Teams Initiative.