Richard S. Kim

E-beam deposited Ag-nanoparticles plasmonic organic solar cell and its absorption enhancement analysis using FDTD-based cylindrical nano-particle optical model

We report the plasmon-assisted photocurrent enhancement in Ag-nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) embedded PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM organic solar cells, and systematically investigate the causes of the improved optical absorption based on a cylindrical Ag-NPs optical model which is simulated with a 3-Dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The proposed cylindrical Ag-NPs optical model is able to explain the optical absorption enhancement by the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes, and to provide a further understanding of Ag-NPs shape parameters which play an important role to determine the broadband absorption phenomena in plasmonic organic solar cells. A significant increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the plasmonic solar cell was experimentally observed and compared with that of the solar cells without Ag-NPs. Finally, our conclusion was made after briefly discussing the electrical effects of the fabricated plasmonic organic solar cells.

Reduction of scattering loss of silicon slot waveguides by RCA smoothing

Because of stronger optical confinement density, silicon slot waveguides tend to have higher scattering loss than normal ridge waveguides with same sidewall roughness. A wet chemical process is found to be highly effective in reducing the surface roughness and scattering loss. A reduction in scattering loss by 10.2 dB/cm for TE and 8.5 dB/cm for TM polarizations has been achieved.

Achieving Higher Modulation Efficiency in Electrooptic Polymer Modulator With Slotted Silicon Waveguide

Silicon slot waveguide based Mach-Zehnder interferometric modulators with electrooptic polymers in the slot have the advantage of low half-wave voltage-length product (Vπ *L). Several key aspects of this unconventional electrooptic polymer modulator design to optimize the modulator performance are studied in this work. Both computer simulation and experiments have been conducted to understand the relationship between modulator performance such as modulation efficiency, optical loss and the waveguide design parameters. Techniques to achieve efficient poling of electrooptic polymers in the silicon slot waveguide have been developed. The doping of the silicon to enhance conductivity for efficient poling and the trade-off between conductivity and optical loss are experimentally investigated. Surface passivation of silicon nanophotonic structures has been found to be effective in improving poling efficiency. By applying these techniques to a silicon slot waveguide Mach-Zehnder modulator, a low Vπ*L of 0.52 V ·cm has been achieved. Finally travelling wave electrode designs have been evaluated and the results show that the bandwidth is mainly limited by the attenuation of the radio frequency signal in the electrode and a standard coplanar waveguide electrode design is able to reach 20 GHz in modulators of silicon slot waveguide embedded in electrooptic polymer.

Polarization entangled cluster state generation in a lithium niobate chip

We present a design of a quantum information processing C-phase (Controlled-phase) gate applicable for generating cluster states that has a form of integrated photonic circuits assembled with cascaded directional couplers on a Ti in-diffused Lithium Niobate (Ti-LN) platform where directional couplers as the integrated optical analogue of bulk beam splitters are used as fundamental building blocks. Based on experimentally optimized fabrication parameters of Ti-LN optical waveguides operating at an 810nm wavelength, an integrated Ti-LN quantum C-phase gate is designed and simulated. Our proposed C-phase gate consists of three tunable directional couplers cascaded together with having different weighted switching ratios for providing a tool of routing vertically- and horizontally-polarized photons independently. Its operation mechanism relies on selectively controlling the optical coupling of orthogonally polarized modes via the change in the index of refraction, and its operation is confirmed by the BPM simulation.

Hybrid and Etch-Less Electrooptic Waveguide Modulator Based on Photo-Bleaching and Strain Induced Optical Waveguide Technique in Polymer

A hybrid and etchless electrooptic (EO) polymer waveguide modulator based on both a photo-bleaching-induced optical waveguide (PBOW) and a strain-induced optical waveguide (SIOW) is described. The SIOW is defined by a metal strip line stressor deposited on top of the upper cladding that introduces the refractive index change within the core region. The PBOW technique is used to form an optical waveguide which is based on a photo-bleaching process, known as a photo-oxidation that is an irreversible decomposition of EO material, resulting in a permanent decrease in index of refraction. It is shown that this proposed fabrication idea combining two etchless techniques can be applicable to a wide range of polymer photonic integrated circuits. Preliminary results obtained from fabricated devices reveal that their half-wave voltage are ranging from 8 V to 10 V, their extinction ratio exhibits more than 15 dB, and the fiber-to-waveguide-to-lens loss is estimated to be ~9.5 dB for TM polarization at 1.55/m wavelength in the active interaction of ~1.5 cm long.

A periodic probabilistic photonic cluster state generator

The research detailed in this paper describes a Periodic Cluster State Generator (PCSG) consisting of a monolithic integrated waveguide device that employs four wave mixing, an array of probabilistic photon guns, single mode sequential entanglers and an array of controllable entangling gates between modes to create arbitrary cluster states. Utilizing the PCSG one is able to produce a cluster state with nearest neighbor entanglement in the form of a linear or square lattice. Cluster state resources of this type have been proven to be able to perform universal quantum computation.

Design considerations for monolithic beam formers based on electro-optic polymer phase modulators and strain-induced optical waveguides

The fabrication and characterization of a 1×4-element integrated beam former based on electro-optic (EO) polymer phase modulators (PM) is summarized including findings related to waveguide loss, near-, and far-field diffraction patterns. Based on this device, two alternate designs are proposed to improve performance: an unequally spaced 1×4- element and an equally spaced 1×8-element beam former both based on EO polymer PMs. Models of these alternative designs indicate that waveguide propagation loss and strong grating lobes, both of which degraded the performance of the initial device, can be substantially improved. The proposed approach explored by the 8-element beam former introduces novel components including strain-induced optical waveguides, hybrid integration of active and passive polymers, modified waveguide diffraction aperture, and directional coupler thermo-optic (TO) switches.

Light Concentration in Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with Plasmonic Nanoparticles

We investigate the light concentration effect of localized surface plasmon resonance by embedding a layer of silver nanoparticles in the low band gap polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells. Particle electromagnetic interaction is demonstrated by using the 3-dimensional finite-difference time-domain computational method. This nanostructure exhibits broadband optical absorption enhancement and weak dependence on incident light polarization. The optical concentration mechanism is discussed by near-field distribution analysis. This method can be used to optimize the design of plasmonic organic solar cells for high energy conversion efficiency.