Title: “Towards Advanced Photonic Integrated Systems through Electronic-Assisted Design”

Abstract: Optical systems have applications ranging from traditional areas such as communication and spectroscopy to emerging fields such as quantum computing and cryptography. Bench-top optical systems, using free-space optics or fiber optics with standalone devices, have been successful. However, they tend to occupy a large space and are costly to build. With the advance of the photonic integrated circuit, many of those systems are being integrated on-chip, promising portable and energy-efficient implementations with orders of magnitude reduction in cost and volume. Similar to the scaling of the electronics, the scaled photonic devices also give rise to better device performance and eventually better system performance. In this work, I will leverage the bandwidth, the low latency and phase coherence of the photonic integrated circuit, in combination with the processing power and the control capabilities of the electronic integrated circuit, to enable new functionalities and new architectures of the optical systems.

Dissertation Committee: 
Chair: Prof. Jan Van der Spiegel
Supervisor: Prof. Firooz Aflatouni
Member: Prof. Nader Engheta
Member: Prof. Bo Zhen