PhD position: Integrated photonic devices and circuits harnessing novel phenomenon

Micro-technology has underpinned the information revolution, enabling exceptionally precise and almost incomprehensibly complex microelectronic systems to be mass-manufactured, reliably and at low-cost using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) wafer processing. Integrated photonics has emerged as a successor to integrated electronics, enabling ultra-high speed information transfer through a single optical fibre [1]. Integrated photonics is also attractive to non-data transfer applications, with a particular emerging opportunity being bio-sensing.

Our team at RMIT has pioneered research into an unusual phenomenon in integrated photonics, particularly in silicon photonics, called lateral leakage behaviour and bound states in the continuum [2, 3]. We are seeking talented and passionate PhD candidates to join our team to explore this phenomenon in the emerging integrated photonic waveguide platform Lithium Niotate on Insulator (LNOI) [4] and to create new integrated photonic devices and circuits harnessing this phenomenon. The possibility of utilising the strong electro-optic and nonlinear effects of this waveguide platform to achieve high speed data modulation, programmable/reconfigurable integrated photonic circuit, dynamic filtering functions will also be investigated.

This project will be conducted within the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre (InPAC, https://www.inpac.org.au/) at RMIT. This centre has expertise in integrated photonic chip simulation and design, fabrication and testing and packaging and interfacing enabling research from novel device concepts to realise practical solutions for real world applications. The integrated photonic chips will be realised using the state-of-the-art facilities at the RMIT Micro-nano Research Facility (MNRF).

References:

[1] Hochberg, M., Baehr-Jones, T. “Towards fabless silicon photonics,” Nature Photon, 4 (2010).

[2] Nguyen, T.G., Ren, G., Schoenhardt, S., Knoerzer, M., Boes, A., Mitchell, A., “Ridge Resonance in Silicon Photonics Harnessing Bound States in the Continuum”, Laser and Photonics Reviews, 13 (2019).

[3] Nguyen, T.G., Boes, A., Mitchell, A., “Lateral Leakage in Silicon Photonics: Theory, Applications, and Future Directions,” IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 26 (2020).

[4] Boes, A., Corcoran, B., Chang, L., Bowers, J., Mitchell, A., “Status and Potential of Lithium Niobate on Insulator (LNOI) for Photonic Integrated Circuits,” Laser and Photonics Reviews, 12 (2018).

Please contact Dr. Thach Nguyen or Dist. Prof. Arnan Mitchell for more information.