Integrated metasurface converts colors of light over broadband inside a waveguideOne of the biggest
Integrated metasurface converts colors of light over broadband inside a waveguide
One of the biggest challenges in developing integrated photonic circuits—which use light rather than electrons to transport information—is to control the momentum of light. Colors of light travel at different speeds through a material but in order for light to be converted between colors, it needs to have the same momentum or phase.
Many devices have been designed to momentum-match or phase-match light at various points throughout an integrated circuit but what if the phase-matching process could be circumvented all together in certain cases?
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, together with collaborators from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, have developed a system to convert one wavelength of light into another without the need to phase match.
The research was published in Nature Communications.
“For any wavelength conversion process to be efficient, it has to be carefully designed to phase match, and it only works at a single wavelength,” said Marko Loncar, the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the paper. “The devices shown in this work, in contrast, do not need to satisfy the phase-matching requirement, and can convert light in a broad colorrange.”
