A POLYMER WAVEGUIDE PLATFORM FOR HYBRID INTEGRATED PHOTONICS AND PHOTONIC SIMULATION

Abstract

Integrated photonics has been gaining traction as the workhorse of future optical technologies that target computation, environmental sensing, communication, and simulation. Going forward, new materials with optical activity in various degrees of freedom and new chip architectures are required to mitigate routing losses, increase connectivity of the routing structure, and facilitate light-matter interaction towards near-deterministic on-chip photon generation, detection and quantum-state manipulation. In this thesis, we develop a strain-tunable polymer waveguide platform, demonstrate the encapsulation of two-dimensional materials in different parts of the photonic mode, and explore the photonic simulation of topological defects in a 1D lattice model. The developed viscoelastic, single-mode optical polymer waveguide features a facile fabrication process while its heat-curing polymers and micrometer dimensions make it an adaptable testbed for optical phenomena in the UV-visible to near-IR range. The platform is mesoscopic, accessible, and versatile for the tailoring of light-matter interactions, the study of novel materials, and photonic simulation.