Novel materials for next generation photonic devices

Abstract

Ultrafast optoelectronics devices, critical for future telecommunication and data ultra high speed communications and data communications, have been limited in speed due to nature of the materials forming the devices. Only very few materials can be used today as substrates for high speed optoelectronics limiting the applicability of these devices and preventing their integration with other emerging platforms such as RF photonics and silicon photonics. I will discuss novel materials for integrated optics including SiC, SiN and 2D materials. In particular graphene offers the possibility to break the limitation of traditional photonic materials. Graphene has been shown theoretically to have very high electro-optic coefficient with ultra high speed. We show the first demonstration of graphene-based ultra high speed device (30GHz) consisting of a graphene sheet integrated on a passive non-electro-optically active substrate.