Special OSA Student Chapter & OSE Seminar with Dr. Azad Siahmakoun on Plasmonic Light Coupling for Silicon Photonic Devices

Departmental News

Dr. Arman Rashidi

Posted: February 15, 2019

Date: Monday, February 18, 2019 

Time:  11:00 AM to Noon

Location:  CHTM, Room 101

Map to CHTM:

http://www.chtm.unm.edu/about/map-directions.html

ADA Accommodations are available.  Please send your request via email.

Speaker:

Dr. Azad Siahmakoun
Professor, Physics & Optical Engineering
Endowed Chair for Innovation in STEM Education
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Abstract:

Soon many integrated microelectronic devices could be replaced by the integrated silicon photonic chips. The silicon photonics devices and systems are the next technological development that will significantly impact our everyday function the same way that integrated microelectronics did in early 1960s. Just like the microelectronics, interconnects and inputs/outputs are important challenges for the high-density integrated silicon photonics circuits. In this talk we discuss the evanescent light coupling into the crystalline silicon waveguides using a dielectric prism and surface plasmon polaritons. However, contrary to the standard prism-coupling, our prism has a smaller index of refraction than the Si waveguide for the telecomm wavelength range. This coupling method is modeled numerically to simulate light-metal-silicon interaction. We will demonstrate an example device that is fabricated with the standard cleanroom technologies on a silicon-oninsulator wafer

Biography:

Dr. Azad Siahmakoun is an award-winning optical engineer and the current Endowed Faculty Chair of Innovation in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. He specializes in optics, micro-electro-mechanical Systems (MEMS), and nanotechnology. His educational and research/development activities have been supported by $6.4 million from federal/state agencies and industries. Dr. Siahmakoun holds four patents and has supervised more than 100 undergraduate research projects and dozens of master’s student theses. He directs the Micro-Nano Device and Systems (MiNDS) lab, the Nonlinear Optics lab, and the Center for Applied Optics Studies, and also is Associate Dean of Faculty and Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Siahmakoun has received the Board of Trustees Outstanding Scholar Award and is an International Society for Optical Engineering Fellow, a senior member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and a Senior Fellow in the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR).