NONLINEAR POLYMER ETALON FOR HIGH RESOLUTION OPTICAL COMPUTING

THE USE OF OPTICAL SYSTEMS IN HIGH SPEED SIGNAL PROCESSING APPLICATIONS IS DESTINED BECAUSE OF THE OVERWHELMING ADVANTAGES OF PARALLEL DATA TRANSMISSION. MANY APPLICATIONS REQUIRE NONLINEAR TRANSFORMATIONS TO BE PERFORMED IN PARALLEL AT HIGH SPEED AND RESOLUTION. THE USE OF ORGANIC MATERIALS WITH LARGE OPTICAL NONLINEARITIES IS PARTICULARLY ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE OF THEIR FAST RESPONSE, BROADBAND TRANSPARENCY IN THE NEAR INFRARED AND THE COMPATIBILITY WITH SI VLSI FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY. HOWEVER, HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION IS IMPOSSIBLE IF WAVEGUIDES ARE USED TO ACHIEVE THE REQUIRED OPTICAL THICKNESS. IN CONTRAST, HIGH LEVELS OF INTEGRATION CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH LIGHT AT NORMAL INCIDENCE IF HIGH FINESSE RESONATORS FILLED WITH NONLINER POLYMERS CAN BE DEVELOPED. THIS DEVICE STRUCTURE GIVES SUFFICIENT ENHANCEMENT OF THE OPTICAL FIELDS INSIDE THE NONLINEAR CAVITY TO ACHIEVE SUFFICIENT OPTICAL THICKNESS WITH 2 MICROMETER POLYMER FILMS. THE OBJECT OF PHASE I IS TO FABRICATE NOVEL, INTEGRATED, THIN-FILM, NONLINEAR FABRY-PEROT ETALONS WHICH DISPLAY NONLINEAR TRANSMITTANCE CHARACTERISTICS AT MW POWER LEVELS. PHASE II WILL FOCUS ON REFINING THE ETALON DESIGN TO OBTAIN QUANTITATIVE AGREEMENT WITH DESIRED LOGARITHMIC RESPONSE AND EXTENDING THE FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY TO PERMIT THE LARGE SCALE INTEGRATION OF THE DISCRETE DEVICES.