Guided Waves & Optical Microcavities for Integrated Photonics: Meandering Waveguides & Microsphere Resonators

KOÇ UNIVERSITY  GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING PHYSICS SEMINAR

Ali Serpengüzel, Koç University

A top technological and industrial AIM of this century is manufacturing integrated photonics. In this talk, we will focus on guided wave distributed feedback (DFB) meanders and optical microcavity silicon microspheres for applications into integrated photonics technology and industry.

Guided waves can be modulated by DFB meanders, which are novel integrated photonic elements for planar lightwave circuits. [[i]] Guided wave DFB meanders, can exhibit  a variety of spectral responses such as coupled resonator induced transparency (CRIT) filter, Fano resonator, hitless filter, Lorentzian filter, Rabi splitter, self coupled optical waveguide (SCOW), and tunable power divider. 

Optical microcavities can be realized with silicon microspheres, which are ideal for volumetric lightwave circuits. The microsphere leads itself to various lightwave circuit element applications such as channel dropping Lorentzian filters [[ii]], Fano resonators [[iii]], tunable filters, [[iv]] optical modulators, [[v]] and dynamic tuners. [[vi]] These applications are realized using silicon spheres coupled with glass optical fiber half couplers. Biosensing might also be realized with silicon microspheres. [[vii]]

[i].             C. B. Dağ, M. A. Anıl, and A. Serpengüzel, “Meandering Waveguide Distributed Feedback Lightwave Circuits,” J. Lightwave Technol, 33, 1691 (2015).

[ii].          Y. O. Yılmaz, A. Demir, A. Kurt, and A. Serpengüzel, “Optical Channel Dropping with a Silicon Microsphere,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 17, 1662 (2005).

[iii].         U. S. Gökay, M. Zakwan, A. Demir and A. Serpengüzel, “Optical Fiber Excitation of Fano Resonances in a Silicon Microsphere,” Fiber Integrated Opt. 35, 38 (2016).

[iv].         A. Serpengüzel, A. Kurt, and U.K. Ayaz, “Silicon microspheres for electronic and photonic integration,” Photon. Nanostructur.: Fundam. Appl. 6, 179 (2008).

[v].         E. Yüce, O. Gürlü, and A. Serpengüzel, “Optical Modulation with Silicon Microspheres,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 21, 1481 (2009).

[vi].         E. Yüce, O. Gürlü, G. J. Thursby, and A. Serpengüzel, “Dynamical Electrical Tuning of a Silicon Microsphere: used for Spectral Mapping of the Optical Resonances,” Appl. Opt. 53, 6181 (2014). 

[vii].        U. S. Gökay, M. Zakwan, and A. Serpengüzel, “Spherical Silicon Optical Resonators: Possible Applications to Biosensing,” European Phys. J. Special Topics 223, 2003 (2014).

Short Bio: Ali Serpengüzel received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Physics from Bogaziçi University and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Yale. He was a research associate at Yale and a consultant to Texaco. He later joined Polytechnic University as a postdoctoral associate. Dr. Serpengüzel first joined Bilkent University as an Assistant Professor, and is currently a Professor of Physics and the principal investigator of the Microphotonics Research Laboratory at Koç University.