Teratronics and Photonics

Prof. Dr. Christian Koos [Contact]

The research of the Koos group aims at photonic integrated circuits. Just like microelectronic devices, photonic in­te­gra­ted circuits allow to combine hundreds or thousands of optical components on a single mi­cro­chip, thereby enabling systems that are particularly compact, cost-efficient and robust. The ac­ti­vi­ties cover technologies as well as applications of photonic in­te­gra­ted cir­cuits. On the tech­nology level, ongoing pro­jects aim at hybrid pho­tonic devices that merge the strengths of com­ple­mentary material systems such as silicon, III-V semiconductors, silicon-nitride or polymers, at no­vel con­cepts for photonic multi-chip integration using three-dimensional nano-printing tech­ni­ques, and at compact and robust integrated frequency comb sources. On the ap­pli­ca­tion side, we ex­plore energy-efficient high-speed communications, industrial sen­sing and me­tro­logy, life sci­en­ces and teratronics.

Nanophotonic and Teratronic Devices

 

Nanophotonics employs fundamental opto-electronic principles of light-matter interaction to implement novel functionalities on chip scale at lowest footprint, lowest energy consumption and highest operating speed. The focus is on design, fabrication and characterization of Silicon Photonic and Plasmonic devices in our state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities and characterization laboratories.

Teratronic devices ultimately target at the generation, processing and detection of data at rates in the Tbit/s regime and of signals with THz bandwidths. To this end, novel nanophotonic and electronic methods are developed.

3D Photonic Integration

 

Photonic wire bonds fabricated by 3D lithography enable the seamless combination of various photonic integration platforms, for e.g., to realize high-speed energy-efficient transceivers. This new fabrication technology enables low loss interconnects with a high density without the need for active alignment.

Further research in our group focuses on the fabrication of 3D micro-photonic components for freespace applications, such as lenses, prisms and micro-mirrors.

Biophotonic Sensors

 

The goal of this interdisciplinary research group is to develop photonic sensor systems for applications in chemistry, biology, and the life-sciences. The developed sensors are based on active and passive microoptical cavities, which are integrated on a chip with microfluidic structures. The major research objectives are optimization of the sensors for high sensitivity, low analyte consumption and easy handling but also include low-cost production to enable use of the chips as disposables..

Teratronic Signal Processing

 

The Teratronic Signal Processing Group specializes in pushing the technological limits of the on-chip signal processing into the Tbit/s regime using high-speed plasmonic modulators and detectors which exploit the high non-linearity and fast response of electro-optic polymers. The group develops devices cutting-edge technology using its state-of-the-art fabrication facilities available on campus.