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PRINCIPAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The research activity is focalized on preparation and characterization of dielectric glass-based materials for photonics and optoelectronics. The  silica on silicon (SOS) technique is the main stream for optical integration and today is at very early stage of development. The optimization of waveguiding materials could avoid some limits related to both the SOS functionality and to the chemical-physical characteristics of the silica. An interesting contribution could derive from the sol-gel technique which, as proved also by the works published by our research group, allows the development of photonics materials with controlled optical, spectroscopic and structural properties.Other non-conventional materials, such as hybrids structures and IR glasses could extend the photonics applications. An improvement of our research activity has to be considered regarding:

  • the start of theoretical and experimental study of dielectrics or hybrid PBG photonic bandgap structures;

  • preparation of lossless devices;

  • study of microresonator-based devices (whispering gallery modes).

Preparation

  • preparation by sol-gel route and rf sputtering  of ultratransparent glass ceramics, planar waveguides deposited on silica-on-silicon and v-SiO2;

Materials

  • silica-based glasses

  • fluride-based glasses

  • organic-inorganic systems

  • IR glasses

Activation

  •  rare-earh ions  and metallic nanoparticles -co-doping

  •  organic chromophores

Characterization

  • study of the optical properties by m-line spectroscopy and attenuation measurements and study of  the spectroscopic and structural properties by Raman, Brillouin and luminescence spectroscopy

  • modeling of the structure, mechanisms and architecture of the devices

Developing

  • integrated optical amplifiers, lossless splitters, for application in the S,C,L telecom bands;

  • ultratransparent glasceramics;systems operating in up-conversion;

  • PBG on dielectric or hybrid structures;

  • Active and passive microrisonators;

  • All-optical chemical sensors.