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University Photonics Research Centers (UPR)
Program Manager: Dr. Jagdeep Shah
Autonomous and semi-autonomous platforms are being increasingly used for surveillance and precision weapons delivery. Such platforms operate under severe constraints on the size, weight and power consumption of the sensing, processing and communication systems they carry. Furthermore, these platforms usually operate in harsh conditions where mechanical ruggedness and thermal stability of the on-board systems are critically important. In addition to these constraints, the operational needs of responding in a timely manner to a complex and dynamic battlefield environment and to evolving mission objectives have to be satisfied. This combination of constraints and requirements necessitates revolutionary advances in microsystems that are able to change their behavior in an adaptive manner and dynamically allocate their internal resources. This adaptive behavior and dynamic allocation of internal resources are often considered to be hallmarks of intelligent systems. Current systems consist of modules with sharply defined functionality (sensing, processing, communication, storage, actuation/output transduction) and highly optimized, but static, operational characteristics. As a result, major bottlenecks occur at the interfaces (e.g., A/D conversion) between different modules. Furthermore, revolutionary improvements in the performance of a single module do not often result in commensurate improvements in the performance of the whole system. It is envisioned that a new design approach for intelligent microsystems that goes well beyond the current design strategies will be required to satisfy future military needs. This new system design paradigm will necessitate radically different device and materials infrastructure.
During the past few years, there have been significant scientific advances in the materials and structures for optoelectronics and passive optics. Of particular note are advances in techniques for tight 3D confinement of photons and electrons. For photons, this corresponds to high index contrast sub-wavelength features that can confine and guide light much more strongly than was previously achieved. This, coupled with exploitation of near-field effects, has allowed tailoring of optical properties of materials to an unprecedented degree. For electrons, this confinement corresponds to quantum dot and nano particle-based devices. The nano-particle systems have been explored in both semiconductors as well as in metals leading to dramatic optical effects controlled by geometry as well as material composition. Yet another development has been in novel resonator designs with very small mode volumes and / or very high Q. Resonators perform many useful functions and can be used as a basic component in more complicated optical circuits. These developments together have made it possible to explore quantum optical effects for applications to secure communications and computing. In the temporal domain, light sources for producing stable sub-picoseconds pulse trains have made significant advances in the recent past. Ultra-short optical pulses generate very high peak powers for low average power thus making nonlinear optical interactions more readily accessible. Reduction in size, complexity and power consumption of these light sources implies that they can now be exploited as field tools outside the laboratory. Dramatic advances in photolithography and novel techniques for self-assembly provide new tools that can be exploited to create a foundation for next generation photonic device technologies.
Scope:
The UPR Centers efforts focus on the strategic challenges for meeting specific goals that should simultaneously result in:
- The development of technologies, that would not otherwise exist, with promise for national security applications
- An effective mechanism to link universities (the long term research performers) with industry (the near term product developers)
- The use of inter-disciplinary teams to create new opportunities for the development of revolutionary applications of photonic technologies
- The creation of a knowledge base that enhances national security and domestic economic growth.