Integrated All-dielectric Platform for Surface Enhanced Spectroscopy and Active Optical Control

I am proposing a method that paves the way towards improvement of the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). PICs are evolved versions of electronic integrated circuits that have been highly developed and well recognized in modern life. PICs use light instead of electrons to store, transport and process information. For example, the silicon nitride (SiN) waveguide is a promising candidate as the basic component of PIC. I propose a method to strongly couple nanostructured dielectric particles, such as silicon nanoparticles, with a SiN waveguide for optimized optical interactions. Such a coupled system is referred to as an integrated all-dielectric platform because of the absence of metallic components. The integrated all-dielectric platform will be applied for (bio-)molecular analysis based on surface enhanced spectroscopy, which is a widely used technique of exploiting nanoparticles to enhance fingerprint molecular signals. I will also explore the integrated all-dielectric platform for active optical controls to modulate signals transmitting in SiN waveguide. An ultrafast all-optical modulator is envisaged in this manner. In addition, besides SiN waveguide, I will also integrate the dielectric nanoparticles with other photonic systems, such as an optical microcavity, for novel optical manipulations.