Unraveling the nonlinear optical behavior and boosting the performance of nonlinear photonic integrated circuits enhanced with 2D materials

The topic of this proposal is situated in the field of photonics, i.e. the science and technology of light. Photonic devices made of waveguides integrated on a chip are very promising for nonlinear optical functionalities such as on-chip wavelength conversion in datacom links and on-chip spectral broadening for biomedical imaging. Such conversion and broadening devices rely on four-wave mixing (FWM) and self-phase modulation (SPM), respectively, and their performance could greatly benefit from adding 2D materials like graphene and MoS2 on the chip. However, so far it has been very difficult to exploit this potential as the nonlinear optical behavior of
2D-material-covered waveguides has remained poorly understood and a general theoretical framework for describing this behavior is still lacking. In this project proposal, the PI and her team will address both challenges: on the one hand, they will theoretically and experimentally investigate FWM in graphene-covered waveguides and SPM in MoS2-covered waveguides to unravel their nonlinear behaviors and boost their performances. On the other hand, they will develop a unique all-in-one framework to describe these behaviors with combined terminologies of photonics engineers and semiconductor physicists. This groundbreaking research will strongly
impact both the fundamental science and the practical applicability of
2D materials in nonlinear photonic integrated circuits, hence allowing the exploitation of their full potential