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Fiber Optics
Active Photonic Crystal Fibers
Fiber Draw Tower Facility
Fiber Preform Fabrication
High Power Fiber Lasers
Lasers and Advanced Optical Materials
Fiber Lasers
Photorefractive Polymer Optics Laboratory
Medical Optics and Image Science
Biophotonics Laboratory
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nano-biotechnology
Optoelectronic Devices
Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology
The Center for Optoelectronic Devices, Interconnects, and
Packaging
Hybrid Sol-gel/Organic Modulators
Microfabrication Facility: The Clean Rooms, Class 100, 1000
and 5000
Telecommunications
Advanced Photonic Materials and Devices Lab
Thin Films
Photonic Thin Films
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Active Photonic Crystal Fibers
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Optical Sciences Center
scientists have the capability to fabricate active photonic
crystal
fibers for lasing applications. Given a considerable interest
for passive photonic crystal fibers (mainly due to the ultra
low loss, designed dispersion, and large area single mode)
there is a need to develop compatible devices for such fibers.
Scientists and researchers at the Center have built Er doped
photonic crystal fibers for high power fiber laser programs.
This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Fiber Draw Tower Facility
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The custom draw tower
in this recently opened, state-of-the-art facility consists
of an atmospheric
controlled furnace, a diameter measurer, a plastic coater,
a take-up unit, and an electrical control system. The tower
has been specially modified for non-silica glass applications
not available commercially in the United States, including
phosphate glasses, fluoride glasses, chalcogenide glasses,
and polymer. In addition to the fiber draw tower, fiber splicing
apparatus, state-of-the-art polishing capability, and buried
glass waveguide fabrication facilities are in place and operational.
Plans for the immediate future include the acquisition of
fiber preform fabrication and fiber grating fabrication facilities.
The facility is home to several newly initiated glass research
programs, including the development of high quantum efficiency
erbium doped phosphate glasses, the first demonstrations
of ion-exchanged channel waveguide in photosensitive germanate
glasses, and the fabrication of high quality organic chromophore
doped fluorophosphate glass hybrid materials. Projects under
development include high power Er3+ -doped fiber lasers at
an eye-safe 1.54 microns, fabrication of large diameter single
mode photonic crystal fiber, and the development of novel
fiber amplifiers and lasers at communication and other wavelengths.
This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Fiber Preform Fabrication
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The recent acquisition of a custom
designed fiber preform fabrication facility enables the production
of preforms of various shapes and
designs. Examples of the preforms for non-conventional fibers are: D-shaped fibers
with off-centered core, 7 core fibers for Talbot imaging, 36 hole photonic crystal
fiber from active glass. A fiber grating fabrication facility is under construction
at present. This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
High Power Fiber Lasers
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Due to its excellent properties of transverse mode
control, thermal management, compactness and high power output, fiber lasers
are playing more and more important roles in the laser industry to generate high
power high quality beams. High power short cavity phosphate fiber lasers are
being developed that generate record high power per unit length for erbium doped
fiber lasers. Compared to long cavity fiber lasers that usually adopted by other
groups, the short cavity of the laser facilitates single frequency operation
and mitigation of the nonlinear effects that limits the output power. The high
power single frequency fiber lasers developed the group have applications in
telecommunications, sensors, and instrumentations like interferometers. This
research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Fiber Lasers
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. High power short cavity Er and Yb doped fiber lasers
as opposed to long cavity fiber lasers are being developed. There are formidable
challenges in achieving high power output from a short cavity fiber laser. Much
higher Er and Yb doping level in the glass host is required to efficiently absorb
the pump power within a short piece of fiber. Special phosphate glasses are successfully
developed in house that could accommodate very high doping levels of Er and Yb
ions without significantly inducing Er ion clustering and the detrimental up-conversion
process. Record high gain and power per unit length of fiber are generated from
fiber lasers with several centimeter long of active fibers. In addition, other
novel structures such as photonic crystals fibers, thulium doped tellurite glasses
for mid IR applications are also being developed for special fiber lasers. This
research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Photorefractive Polymer Optics Laboratory
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Research includes synthesis and characterization of
photorefractive polymer composites that contain sensitizing agents, photoconducting
polymers, nonlinear electro-optical chromophores, and plasticizers; optoelectronic
systems using photorefractive thin-film devices for applications in imaging,
laser communication, optical security verification, and industrial inspection.
Pioneering work has been performed in this lab. One of the current goals is to
use dynamic photorefractive hologram to achieve real-time, low-cost, all-optical
adaptive correction of phase distortion for high-performance laser communication
link. Another research direction is to employ the dynamic hologram for fast,
parallel imaging of biomedical tissues. Correspondingly, the focus of the material
research is to develop novel composites working at optical communication wavelength
of 1550 nm and other near infrared wavelengths that have low absorption, low
dispersion, and low scattering for biomedical samples. The general requirements
on the materials are good stability, high sensitivity, fast response, and high
diffraction efficiency. This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s
Technology & Research Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Biophotonics Laboratory
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The objective is to promote multi-disciplinary research
that provides rapid, noninvasive, high resolution imaging tools in biology and
medicine, new approaches for detecting and preventing diseases, and innovative
technologies for improving vision. The current effort is devoted to developing
next-generation adaptive spectacle lens using liquid crystal as the active material.
An important feature of this lens is its flexibility in changing the focusing
power. One focus area is to combine several cutting-edge technologies to develop
advanced scanning ophthalmoscope for early diagnosis of retinal diseases. Such
projects require extensive knowledge in optics, optical design, ophthalmology,
electronics, image processing, and neural network. Another focus of recent research
is to investigate real-time, wide-field, depth-resolved, low-coherence holographic
imaging of biomedical cells and tissues using photorefractive materials. With
high-performance photorefractive devices, this technique is faster than currently
used optical coherence tomography which requires intensive data processing. Other
research interests include fluorescence imaging and confocal imaging with improved
resolution. top
Nanotechnology
Dr. Mahmoud Fallahi, Dr. Masud Mansuripur, and Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Photonic
crystals are periodic dielectric media that exhibit a complete photonic band
gap, prohibiting the propagation of light in one, two, or three dimensions over
a finite frequency range. Applications of 2D nano-photonic crystal structures
made of a triangular lattice of air holes in silicon are being explored theoretically
and experimentally. E-beam lithography together with ECR-RIE etching are adopted
for fabricating photonic crystals working in the near infrared regime. A custom-built
blue laser writer (wavelength = 405 nm) and optical holography are also being
employed to fabricate photonic crystals for longer light wavelengths. This research
is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research Initiative
Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Nano-biotechnology
Dr. Masud Mansuripur and Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. A nano-pore is a protein-based
structure that can be created in a lipid membrane. The diameter of this pore
(around 1-2 nm) is small enough to make it a sensitive detector for the passage
of biological and other macro-molecules. We have fabricated micro-chambers in
various glass and plastic media, embedded a proteinaceous nano-pore in the lipid
wall that separates two adjacent chambers, and monitored the flow of electrolytic
current across the membrane through this nano-pore. When DNA molecules are dissolved
in one of the chambers, their passage through the pore modulates the electrolytic
current in such a way as to make possible the identification of various base-sequences
(composed of the familiar G, C, A, T nucleic acids) of the DNA molecule. This
technology has many promising applications, including the storage of digital
information in single macromolecular strands, detection of various chemical and
biological agents, and implementation of massively parallel procedures for drug
design and discovery. This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s
Technology & Research Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Corporation,
the University of Arizona is a participant in the multi-national Exploratory
Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) project. Working with the Cooperative
Excitation Project team, the Optical Sciences Center researchers focus on various
aspects of cooperative and coherent effects in solids, such as semiconductors
and organics. The Optical Sciences Center team is working on theory and modeling
of the new optical phenomena and the design and testing of various optical devices
based on these effects. This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s
Technology & Research Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
The Center for Optoelectronic Devices, Interconnects,
and Packaging
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian.
COEDIP, a University of Arizona multidisciplinary Center,
is dedicated to research and education in the areas of
design, fabrication, integration, and packaging of optoelectronic
devices and optical interconnects. The Center occupies
a unique position within the scientific community, with
activities spanning a wide range from fundamental understanding
of innovative optical devices to fabrication of optoelectronic
devices, to activities encompassing integration, packaging,
reliability testing, and manufacturing. University of Arizona
researchers from several departments including the Optical
Sciences Center, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and
Radiology are working together in in state-of-the-art facilities
that allow the fabrication of optoelectronic devices and
interconnect sub-systems, with packaging occupying center
stage from inception to completion. The Center provides
a resource base to the scientific community for the development
and fabrication of new innovative devices, the understanding
of both hybrid and monolithic device integration, and the
development of a reproducible and controllable packaging
technology. Photonics is an emerging technology that is
making major, if not revolutionary, contributions to optical
signal processing, communications, and computing. The success
of optical fibers for information transmission, the generation
of picosecond and femtosecond optical pulses, and the development
of promising optical logic elements, nonlinear etalons,
and waveguides has led to increasing excitement about the
potential for photonics. This research is partially supported
by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research Initiative
Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Hybrid Sol-gel/Organic Modulators
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. Research in this area is focused
on combining the advantages of organic/polymeric materials
and the cost-effective sol-gel waveguide fabrication procedures
for the development of Electro-Optic (EO) modulators for
optical communication. The all-wet etching process adopted
in the sol-gel waveguide fabrication permits fine control
of refractive indices of the sol-gel under-cladding, over-cladding,
side-cladding as well as the core thus minimizing coupling
losses. EO modulators are fabricated in state-of the-art
clean room facilities. Various EO polymers with enhanced
nonlinearities, thermal and photo-stability are investigated
along with modified design and fabrication of the waveguide
to improve optical mode confinement in the EO polymer.
This research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s
Technology & Research Initiative Funding enterprise:
http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Microfabrication Facility: The Clean Rooms, Class 100,
1000 and 5000
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The class 100 clean rooms are
compatible with large-scale integration requirements and
provide an environment for resist spinning, photolithography
and wet processes. The facility includes electron beam
lithography and scanning electron microscopes, a contact
printing mask-aligner, and an electron cyclotron resonance
reactive ion etcher with load-lock and size different gas
lines. Key capabilities include microlithography with a
resolution of better than 1 micron, nanolithography of
arbitrary shape features with linewidths as small as 40
nanometers, dry etching of various semiconductor and organic
materials, rapid thermal annealing up to 1000 degrees,
precision packaging of various optoelectronic components,
and scanning electron microscopy inspection and characterization.
This facility provides the Center with a unique opportunity
for training graduate students in integrated optics and
optoelectronics, including surface emitting lasers, unstable
resonator semiconductor lasers, heterogeneous integration
of optoelectronic modules, polymer based LED modulators
and optical components, and glass integrated optics and
amplifiers. This research is partially supported by TRIF,
Arizona’s Technology & Research Initiative Funding
enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Advanced Photonic Materials and Devices Lab
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The Laboratory for Advanced Photonic
Materials and Devices develops materials and devices for
photonics and telecommunication applications. One current
research project is the development of next generation
eye glasses using adaptive optics and electroactive polymers.
Another project involves fabrication of organic photorefractive
polymers and injection molding technology for holographic
optical storage application. Study of hybrid structures
are also being conducted in which sol-gel optics are designed
and tested for applications in micro-optical elements,
waveguides, pixel arrays, DWDM components, combiners and
routers, and high speed modulators. Another project involves
the study of polymer and molecular structures in which
molecular and polymeric light emitting devices are developed
with transport, fluorescent and phosphorescent materials.
An application under development is a hybrid device involving
micro-pixel CMOS driven OLED. This research is partially
supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
Photonic Thin Films
Dr. Nasser Peyghambarian. The thin film labs include a
number of thin film deposition facilities including sputtering,
ion beam assisted sputtering, electron beam sputtering,
electron beam deposition and thermal deposition facilities.
Thin film measurement capabilities including a prism coupler
and an ellipsometer for index of refraction measurements
at various wavelengths, a spectrophotometer for transmission
and absorption measurement, and a DSC system for glass
transition temperature and weight loss measurement. This
research is partially supported by TRIF, Arizona’s Technology & Research
Initiative Funding enterprise: http://www.optics.arizona.edu/TRIF. top
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