Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Micrometer size photonic circuits composed of waveguides, resonators, semiconductor amplifiers, multiplexers, etc., is the fundamental constituent of the devices used in modern communication, instrumentation and medicine. My work relates to the exploitation of a subset of these circuits whose main component is the ring or disk resonator, fabricated by monolithic surface wave or by buried hetero-structure technology. In contrast to standing wave (axial mode) Fabry-Pérot resonators supporting counterpropagating waves, microrings and microdisks are unidirectional traveling wave devices, where simultaneous propagation in opposite directions occurs only if deliberately launched or created by an embedded discontinuity. This property gives rise to their unique features in add/drop filter and multiplexer applications. Within the framework of this grant application I shall complete the second and final phase of my work on the design of multiring optical multiplexers with extended free spectral range (FSR), with special emphasis on limitations imposed by waveguide, scattering and radiation loss. I shall also continue my work on composite reflectors built with coupled microrings to investigate some of their characteristics that control their use as laser mirrors and in interferometers. Finally, I plan to continue my work analyzing the group delay and dispersion of multiring filter devices to contribute to the novel art of "dispersion or phase engineering".