NEPOMUQ: Development of integrated optoelectronic modulators based on nonlinear optical perovskites

AMO GmbH and the University of Wuppertal have launched the research project NEPOMUQ (New Perovskite Materials for Integrated Optoelectronic Modulators in Quantum Systems). Over the next three years, novel perovskite materials with strong nonlinear optical properties will be investigated. The aim is to realize integrated optoelectronic modulators that serve as key components for a variety of optical and photonic applications.

The advent of microelectronics in the early 1970s marked the beginning of digitalization – a paradigm shift that continues to have a profound impact on almost all aspects of our daily lives. A similar revolution could be triggered in the future by photonic circuits that use light particles, or photons, rather than electrons, as information carriers. The combination of electronic and photonic circuits on a single microchip (integrated optoelectronics) can potentially exceed anything we know today in terms of speed and efficiency. The range of potential applications is huge, spacing from information and communication technology, to sensing and quantum technologies.

While microelectronics uses transistors to switch electricity, switching light requires modulators. However, modulators that can be integrated directly into low-loss photonic waveguides together with electronic circuits are still lacking. The NEPOMUQ project aims to fill this gap by exploring novel optically nonlinear perovskite-materials that can be prepared from a liquid phase at low temperatures.

“The integrated optical modulators targeted in NEPOMUQ will enable to dynamically control light routing on photonic chips using electrical signals – and with negligible power consumption,” explains Dr Stephan Suckow, head of the Nanophotonics research group at AMO GmbH and coordinator of the NEPOMUQ project. This innovation could pave the way for completely new design paradigms in integrated photonics. Potential applications include ultrafast communication systems, laser displays and advanced optical sensors. In addition, the technology developed in NEPOMUQ has the potential to revolutionize ion-based quantum computing by creating photonic chips that can confine and manipulate hundreds or even thousands of ions.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with around €2 million over three years. It involves the research groups of Dr Stephan Suckow and Dr Maryam Mohammadi at AMO GmbH and the groups of Prof Thomas Riedl, Prof Patrick Görrn and Prof Ullrich Scherf at the University of Wuppertal. The complementary expertise and infrastructure of the two partner institutions is a key factor for the success of the project. The challenge is to demonstrate that the nonlinear optical properties exhibited by the novel perovskites in single crystals are also preserved in thin films with a polycrystalline structure and that these thin films can be used to fabricate novel electro-optical devices.

First companies in the field of quantum computing are already showing great interest in application-oriented follow-up projects. Companies in the field of communications technology are also following the NEPOMUQ work and see prospects for the application of the research results.

The NEPOMUQ project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant-agreement Nr. 13N17112.