Nanofabrication and numerical simulation techniques have facilitated the demonstration of photonic nanostructures, in which the propagation and confinement of photons are artificially engineered, and the magnitude, precision and efficiency of interactions between light and materials can be significantly enhanced. In the first part of the talk, I will present the demonstration of photonic crystal nanocavity lasers with InAs quantum dot active material. Due to the highly enhanced interaction between the quantized electronic carrier states and the small volume high quality factor optical modes, these devices are promising components for high-speed low-power intra- and inter-chip optical communication. Of particular importance is the demonstration of nano edge-emitting devices, which are crucial for high-density on-chip integration.
Photons, by themselves, can not be concentrated beyond the diffraction limit. Surface plasmons, the polaritons of photons and plasmons, are capable of concentrating optical fields to the nanometer scale, thereby bridging the dimension gap between optics and nano materials. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss the application of surface plasmon devices for nano optical sensing. In particular, I will describe our progress in developing a microfluidic chip for rapid zero-false single molecule DNA identifications.
I will also discuss our on-going research on nanophotonic interconnects, single molecule sensing and photovoltaics.