Photonics Apparatus Provides Groundbreaking Light Bending Capability

Abstract

Researchers at UCF and the University of Texas at El Paso have designed and developed a device that can bend and steer data-carrying light beams through tighter turns and with higher efficiency than current technologies. The micron-scale, spatially variant photonic crystal (SVPC) enables extraordinary control of light and electromagnetic waves over very abrupt size scales; thus, companies can steer light through turns with a bending radius as much as 10 times the optical wavelength. The invention offers a way to build efficient, integrated photonics systems that can control optical beams in three dimensions while providing high data throughput.

Technical Details

The invention consists of a 3D lattice structure design, an algorithm for describing the fabrication of the lattice structure, and methods for fabricating the structure using multiphoton lithography. SVPCs can be fabricated from low-refractive-index media and commercially available photopolymer IP-DIP materials. With this technology, a manufacturer can create a spatially-variant lattice structure that can be graded or bent without deforming cells or losing electromagnetic properties. The invention enables the self-collimation effect, so that electromagnetic beams propagate along an axis of the lattice regardless of the beam's angle of incidence.

A single SVPC lattice can be used for two or more multiplexed optical functions, including (but not limited to) a curved optical path, a lens, a filter, a beam steerer, a multiplexer, a beam splitter, a beam combiner and a polarizer. An SVPC can also act as a photon funnel to concentrate or disperse light for energy harvesting, sensing, illumination, microscopy or endoscopy.

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