• CMOS-compatible monolithic optoelectronics
   

Monolithic integration of photonics with electronics on a single substrate is highly desirable. Optical devices have always been the realm of exotic III-V materials such as indium, gallium, and so forth, whose fabrication is incompatible with advanced electronics of silicon. The GNS scientists seek to provide monolithic integration strategies of photonics devices and subsystems on a single silicon substrate, made of III-V materials, silicon, silicon, and/or Si-based materials for high speed data communication and signal processing.

 

• Si-based nanophotonics for data communication and signal processing

Photonic integrated circuits, in which beams of light redirect the flow of other beams of light, are a long-standing goal for developing highly integrated optical data communication and signal processing systems. In addition, Si-based photonic integrated circuits are more desirable because they are cheaper, more abundant, and easier to work with as opposed to III-V materials. GNS and its partners research and develop novel Si-based active and passive components and subsystems toward all-optical data communication and signal processing, i.e. silicon nanophotonics. They include but are not limited to Si-based light emitting diodes, lasers, photo detectors, modulators, amplifiers, switches, waveguides, bends, couplers, combiners, splitters, wavelength division multiplexers, and so forth.