LIGHT CONFINING DEVICES USING ALL-DELECTRIC METAMATERAL CLADDING

Researchers at Purdue University have developed an all-dielectric metamaterial cladding device that strongly confines light inside low-index waveguides. The new class of nanofabricated metamaterials have been fine-tuned by Purdue researchers to feature giant birefringence and ideal electromagnetic mode propagation inside a glass core. The order of magnitude for light escaping from glass cores has been decreased by a factor of one as compared to current technologies, creating an advantage for integrated photonic circuits and for resonators.

Ultra-compact, densely integrated optical components manufactured on a CMOS-foundry platform are highly desirable for optical information processing, on-chip LIDAR and electronic-photonic co-integration. However, the large spatial extent of evanescent waves arising from nanoscale confinement, ubiquitous in silicon photonic devices, causes significant cross-talk and scattering loss. Purdue researchers have demonstrated that anisotropic all-dielectric metamaterials open a new degree of freedom in total internal reflection to shorten the decay length of evanescent waves. Purdue researchers have achieved reduction of cross-talk by greater than 30 times and the bending loss by greater than 3 times in densely integrated, ultra-compact photonic circuit blocks.

Advantages:

-Confines light

-Reliable

Potential Applications:

-Photonic circuits

-Waveguides

-Resonators

TRL: 3

Intellectual Property:

Keywords: all-dielectric metamaterial, cladding device, low-index waveguides, giant birefringence, electromagnetic mode propagation, integrated photonic circuits, resonators, anisotropic all-dielectric metamaterials, evanescent waves, CMOS-foundry platform, Dense Photonic integrated circuits, Dielectrics, Electromagnetics, Lightwaves, Low cross-talk, Materials and Manufacturing, Metamaterials, Micro & Nanotechnologies, Microresonator, Nanocomposites, Nanomaterials, Nanophotonics, Nanotechnology, On-chip LIDAR, Photonic Devices, Photonics