Larry R. Dalton: Hybrid Electro-Optics and Chip-scale Integration of Electronics and Photonics

Chip-scale integration of electronic and photonic elements is crucial for next-generation defense information technology. In this plenary session, Larry Dalton of University of Washington (USA) reviews its challenges, solutions, and future perspectives.

Dalton discusses the utilization of new coarse-grained theoretical methods together with advanced quantum mechanical methods to quantitatively simulate the physical properties of new classes of organic electro-optic materials and to evaluate their performance in nanoscopic device architectures, including the effect of material interfaces.

Dalton notes that significant progress has been made toward targeted performance parameters, enabled by both improved organic electro-optic materials and novel device architectures.

Multiscale theories have been utilized to quantitatively simulate the physical properties of new materials and evaluate their performance in nanoscale devices. These theories include quantum mechanical calculation, coarse-grained Monte Carlo simulation, and molecular dynamic statistics.

At the same time, new device architectures have been implemented, such as silicon-organic-hybrid and plasmonic-organic-hybrid.

With these efforts, record-high parameters (e.g, driving voltage, footprint, bandwidth, energy efficiency) have been demonstrated. Future goals include to further increase the in-device electro-optic activity, to explore interfacial issues and surface modifications, as well as to optimize new processing techniques.

Larry Dalton is the George B. Kauffman Term Professor and B. Seymour Rabinovitch Chair Professor of Chemistry (Emeritus) at the University of Washington. He was the founding Director of the NSF Science & Technology Center on Materials & Devices for Information Technology Research. He is a Fellow of SPIE, ACS, MRS, OSA, and AAAS.