Nanophotonics

Summary

Students understand and apply the physics of the interaction of light with semiconductors and what happens when dimensions are reduced. They are introduced to different classes of photonic materials. They understand the operating mechanism and challenges of scaled photonic devices.

Content

Keywords

Integrated Photonics, Semiconductors

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

An understanding of solid-state physics and semiconductors is required; in particular, the students must be familiar with semiconductor basics and  energy band diagrams. Knowledge of Fermi distribution and density of states for bulk and quantized structures is an advantage. Other courses in MI or Physics might have similar content so the students should avoid overlap. The scope of the course is broad, so other classes which go into more detail on individual devices such as lasers or detectors may complement it.

Important concepts to start the course

The students must be familiar with basic solid-state physics, semiconductors and band diagrams. Otherwise it will not be possible to follow the content of the course.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Describe the physical mechanisms behind the interaction of light with semiconductors and other materials, such as absorption and emission of light as well as electro-optic modulation and how it is pendent on the material properties.
• Identify which material properties are appropriate to achieve different optical functions in a given wavelength regime.
• Assess / Evaluate different mechanisms for light detection in solid-state devices, such as pin and avalanche photodiodes or super-conducting nanowire single photon detectors.
• Explain the basics of light emission in semiconductors for LEDs and Lasers, and evaluate the trade-offs between different cavity designs such as whispering gallery, Fabry-perot or photonic crystal structures.
• Assess / Evaluate how dimensionality and scaling affects photonic devices. Be able to describe the effect of quantum wells, quantum dots and low dimensional materials in photonic applications
• Develop basic photonic structures using commercial FDTD simulation software

Teaching methods

Classroom teaching and simulation exercises using the FDTD software Tidy3D. The software will be presented through exercisesin suring teh exrecise classes and no prior experience is required. We will have a presentation by an industry guest speaker during the semester

Expected student activities

Active praticipation in class, study of provided course material, develop simulation framework for basic photonic devices.

Assessment methods

Oral exam accounts for 80% of grade, 20% of the grade is for the execution of the simulation project.

Supervision

Resources

Bibliography

In this course we will use the book: "Fundamentals of Photonics", by B.E.A Saleh and M.C. Teich, 3rd edition (different from 1st and 2nd edition). We will principally use volume 2: Photonics.

Additionally select other material will be used to complement the individual topics.

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Find the references at the Library

Notes/Handbook

Course notes will be provided via Moodle.

For exercises we will use the online FDTD software Tidy3: this runs remotely, but requires you to set up an account on your computer and use simulation credits linked to the account in order to carry out the simulation task which is part of the course evaluation. Information on requirements can be found on: https://www.flexcompute.com/tidy3d

Websites

• https://www.flexcompute.com/tidy3d

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/MICRO-516