Silicon-rich silicon nitride Nonlinear Integrated Photonic ciRcuits & Systems (juNIPeRS)

Internet communications have effected a massive transformational effect in modern societies over the past few decades, affecting all aspects of modern life, from commerce and healthcare through politics to education and entertainment. Optical communication technologies have played a decisive role and remain central to this revolution. Wavelength division multiplexing allows the transmission of hundreds of terabits per second over a single mode fibre and has enabled wavelength routing, where the optical frequency, rather than the physical fibre path, determines the routing of a signal in a network. The relentless growth in communication traffic necessitates an effective use of network resources, and in response, modern optical networks increase in complexity and require dynamic allocation of their resources.

The ultimate objective of this project is to enable a next generation reconfigurable add-drop de/muliptlexer that will allow re-allocation of the signal wavelength through all-optical wavelength conversion. In order to achieve this, juNIPeRS will study silicon-rich silicon nitride as a CMOS-compatible optical nonlinear material platform and will exploit its unique characteristics to implement integrated devices with unprecedented nonlinear performance.

juNIPeRS will follow a vertical research path, that will include material optimisation and fabrication of photonic integrated systems, device design and optimisation, system integration, and demonstration and testing in a communications environment. Specifically, juNIPeRS will:

- Develop low-loss, dispersion engineered nonlinear waveguides that will form the core of wavelength converting systems.

- Optimise couplers for efficient coupling of light between these integrated components and fibre optic systems.

- Demonstrate integrated wavelength converters and phase-sensitive amplifiers, the operation of which will be independent of the polarisation of the incoming signal.

- Implement multi-layered photonic systems integrating both linear (e.g. switches) and nonlinear components (e.g. wavelength converters).

With the development of the new technological platform, the ambition of juNIPeRS is to facilitate a shift in the design of flexible optical networks, where practical integrated photonic components will be used for the manipulation of the optical frequencies. The new material platform is expected to have important implications in other areas of nonlinear optics outside communications, and the investigators will take active steps to promote it.

juNIPeRS brings together academic groups and key industrial partners who are best placed to critically appraise the commercial relevance of the new technology and guide its development. The project will train a new generation of highly qualified optical engineers and will contribute to the health and sustainability of the UK photonics sector.

The primary impact of juNIPeRS will be to facilitate the seamless growth of communication networks by allowing a flexible and efficient utilisation of network resources. The implications of this to modern society and the improvement of the quality of life are profound. The new photonic components realised in juNIPeRS will offer an economically viable route towards the implementation of diverse applications, ranging e.g. from the delivery of low-latency ultra-high definition video to telemedicine. Therefore, through its activities, juNIPeRS will contribute towards building a Connected Nation, one of the outcomes underpinning UK prosperity, as identified by the EPSRC.
Specifically, juNIPeRS will maintain a high quality research programme aimed at solving timely challenges in optical networks and targeting the development of technologies that will lead to new products. The ultimate ambition of juNIPeRS is to enable the emergence of a next generation reconfigurable add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) in an integrated platform. The global market for ROADMs is projected to surpass $10.8 billion by 2020, driven by the growing need for cost effective deployment of advanced networking solutions to address the expanding data, voice and video traffic. Factors such as increased social networking activity, data centre virtualization, file sharing, video downloads, cloud computing and online gaming are all generating a massive volume of network traffic. juNIPeRS has secured close partnership with some key industries in photonic technologies and communications that can play a catalytic role in both influencing the supply route to manufacturing (Rockley, HPE) and shaping the needs of systems providers (BT, Microsoft).

juNIPeRS will generate and protect valuable IP (targeting at least 2 patent applications or one know-how transfer) and will communicate regularly with the photonics industry (starting from the project partners) to ensure the industrial relevance of the research and provide direct exploitation routes benefiting the UK economy. The project will also support the growth of its industrial collaborators by helping to develop innovative new products and enabling access to new sources of research funding.

These activities will also be supported through maintaining a record of high quality publications. juNIPeRS research will be used as a springboard to engage widely in collaborative EU projects building on the investigators' substantial prior experience. Collectively, the investigators have published over 750 peer reviewed conference and journal papers and have participated in more than 9 EU projects since 2004.

The technologies developed within juNIPeRS will not impact the communications industry alone. We anticipate that the nonlinear systems we develop will be directly transferable to other application areas, including metrology and sensing, nonlinear laser science and computing. The investigators' extensive international network of collaborators with relevant expertise (e.g. HPE, EPFL, HKU) allows confidence in achieving this goal.

The economic benefits of juNIPeRS will also be manifested through training a set of highly skilled early-career researchers. The interdisciplinary environment of the ORC will allow these researchers to acquire a variety of skills, ranging from materials engineering and fabrication to communications engineering. The Univ. of Southampton has established a rounded training programme to ensure the parallel development of soft skills of staff at all levels. It is anticipated that some of these researchers will form a new generation of entrepreneurs, forming spin-off companies that will emerge from the activities of the project and driving a new economy.

Finally, juNIPeRS will raise public awareness through outreach programmes, encouraging the PhD students to participate in the ORC's Lightwave Roadshow, while the applicants will participate personally in appropriate events with a wider public audience.