Guided Wave Holography Based on Polyimide Composites with Real-Time Capability and Semiconductor Electronic Compatibility

Holograms offer the ability to reconfigure free space and waveguide optical interconnects in real-time. As photonic devices become more sophisticated, it is important to explore holographic materials that provide substantial performance advantages in terms of speed, power, budget and diffraction efficiency. Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to fabricate a highly diffractive polyimide-based composite for real-time holographic materials, resulting in a totally new concept incorporating POC's birefringent dye polymer into a polyimide matrix for building a large reconfigurable 2-D and 3-D network using wavelength-selective holograms. This program's success will exploit the advantages of polyimides, including good processibility, high thermal stability, low dielectric constant, excellent mechanical strength, and compatibility with silicon wafer technology. POC has developed a fast response, high diffraction efficiency birefringent material which will be incorporated in this new composite. The multiplexing of birefringent holograms makes the in- and out-of-plane coupling of guided waves feasible. The high optical qualities and multi-chip module (MCM) compatibility of polyimide thin film layers permit integration in guided wave devices with electrooptical modulators in a material system which is compatible with hybrid fabrication of semiconductor electronics and laser diode sources.