Passive Temperature Stabilization of Silicon Photonic Devices Using Liquid Crystals

Abstract

In this work we explore the negative thermo-optic properties of liquid crystal claddings for passive temperature stabilization of silicon photonic integrated circuits. Photonic circuits are playing an increasing role in communications and computing, but they suffer from temperature dependent performance variation. Most existing techniques aimed at compensation of thermal effects rely on power hungry Joule heating. We show that integrating a liquid crystal cladding helps to minimize the effects of a temperature dependent drift. The advantage of liquid crystals lies in their high negative thermo-optic coefficients in addition to low absorption at the infrared wavelengths.

Liquid crystal-doped liquid electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

“…E7 has an extraordinary dielectric constant of ~19.3, an ordinary dielectric constant of ~5.2, and thus an average dielectric constant ~9.9 at room temperature. The viscosity constant of E7 is ~40 cps at room temperature [25]. The same cyano terminal group enhances the intermolecular interaction between LCs and 3-MPN, and the aromatic rings of E7 with cyano groups attached improve the thermal stability of the LC-doped liquid electrolyte.…”

I22: SAXS/WAXS beamline at Diamond Light Source -- an overview of 10 years operation

“…Liquid Crystals (Zeng et al, 2016) Research into the formation and structure of liquid crystal systems has delivered a myriad of technological and societal advances. Despite the maturity of this field new exotic compositions and morphologies are continually being discovered facilitating exciting possibilities in display technologies, (Xiang et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2016) passive thermal stabilisation (Ptasinski et al, 2014) and adaptive optics. (Arines, 2009;Harada et al, 2018) Concomitantly, such studies have also extended our understanding of the mechanics within cellular membranes (Lee, 2017) and the formation of certain biological materials, such as silk.…”

Athermal third harmonic generation in micro-ring resonators

“…The critical criteria for effective THG of visible emission in wavelength selective MRRs lies is the phase matching between the resonances of the pump mode and the third harmonic (TH) modes. Similar to that of the Kerr frequency comb generation [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] , understanding and controlling the thermal behaviors of these modes remain a challenge in maximizing their THG efficiency 27 , as both the linear and nonlinear thermo-optial (TO) effects impart refractive index variations of the waveguide [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] . For platforms with a positive linear TO coefficients, the linear TO effect gives rise of tens of pm/°C temperature dependent wavelength shifts (TDWS) to the cold-cavity resonances of MRRs [17][18][19] .…”

“…For platforms with a positive linear TO coefficients, the linear TO effect gives rise of tens of pm/°C temperature dependent wavelength shifts (TDWS) to the cold-cavity resonances of MRRs [17][18][19] . It is possible to compensate the intrinsic linear TDWS by adding a cladding having a negative TO coefficient, such as polymer [31][32][33][34][35][36] or TiO 2 [37][38] and liquid crystal 39 to offset the thermal dependency 30 . These types of structures can achieve nearly athermal operation over temperature ranges of tens of degrees.…”