Research Projects

Photonic devices, including CMOs technologies, are based on silicon photonics, which have a high refractive index and enable the construction of submicron-sized waveguides with sharp curves and dense packing. However, silicon has a high thermo-optical coefficient and lacks second-order nonlinear susceptibility, which is essential for second harmonic generation (sHG). silicon-based PICs are rigid and non-reconfigurable, making each manufactured PIC single-application-specific. smart photonic technologies demand bendable NLO materials that provide circuit reconfigurability, allowing light propagation direction to be altered depending on the application. Flexible molecular crystals are an attractive choice for photonic technologies, as their bending is facilitated by the expansion and contraction of molecules from their equilibrium position. Miniature organic PIC (OPIC) technology realization stems from gaining control over micron-sized crystals' mechanical processing towards circuits. The mechanophotonic properties of flexible micro-crystals (2-50 microns) can be exploited to fabricate crystal-based NLO circuits. This proposal aims to fabricate NLO flexible organic crystal circuits with exceptionally curved shapes, such as right-angle bent optical waveguide (OW) and ring-resonator (RR) of various diameters on silica substrate. These shapes allow control over light propagation direction via active/passive/energy transfer mechanisms. Numerical calculations will be used to probe the electromagnetic field distribution of PICs, and the fabricated OPIC will be investigated using ps-laser pumped nonlinear-optical microscopy.