Room SFB 560, 10 King’s College Rd, Toronto, ON M5S 3G4

Monday, September 24th 2018, Wei Jiang, Professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Nanjing University, and an Associate Director of Optical Communications Systems & Network Engineering Research Center of Jiangsu Province will be presenting “Silicon Photonics: High-Density Integration for Novel Functionality”. Day & Time: Monday September 24th, 2018 2:00 p.m. ‐ 3:00 p.m. Speaker: Wei Jiang Professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Nanjing University, Associate Director of Optical Communications Systems & Network Engineering Research Center of Jiangsu Province Organizers: Amr S. Helmy and IEEE Toronto Circuits & Devices Chapter Location: Room SFB 560 10 King’s College Rd, Toronto, ON M5S 3G4 Contact: Mengqi Wang Abstract: Silicon photonics can potentially transform the photonics technology owing to its low-cost fabrication and large-scale integration advantages. Integration can open up new opportunities, such as solid-state LIDARs for autonomous vehicles and chip-scale optical interconnects. To realize these opportunities, reducing device size and increasing integration density will be crucial. Towards these directions, this talk will discuss our recent experimental work on novel micro/nano-photonic structures, including photonic crystals, waveguide superlattices, and free-form structures. (1) A waveguide superlattice is introduced to enable low-crosstalk, high-density waveguide integration at half-wavelength pitches, which opens the door to high-performance optical phased arrays, next-generation LIDARs, and high-density space-division multiplexing. (2) Novel free-form structures are explored to create an ultra-short waveguide “taper”. Interestingly, the evolutionary algorithm yields an optimal structure with anomalous shapes. Through wavefront analysis, the role of a subtle “semi-lens” is identified. (3) Further opportunities in slow-light photonic crystal switches/modulators will also be briefly discussed. In many cases, underpinning physics needs to be fully understood first, and then be formulated into precise theory to guide experiments and achieve viable results. Biography: Wei Jiang is a professor in the college of engineering and applied sciences at Nanjing University, and an associate director of Optical Communications Systems & Network Engineering Research Center of Jiangsu Province. Prior to working at NJU, he was an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA. His current research interests include silicon photonics, photonic crystals, nanophotonics, and their applications in optical interconnects, communications, sensing, and computing. He contributed to the fundamental understanding of silicon electro-optic and thermo-optic devices, high-density waveguide integration, slow light, superprism effects, and photonic crystal interface properties. He received his B.S. degree in physics from Nanjing University, and his M.A. degree in physics and his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. Prof. Jiang received the DARPA Young Faculty Award, and IEEE Region I Outstanding Teaching Award, among other honors.