Mie resonances may result when light interacts with nanoscale semiconductor structures; such resonance is described by exact solutions published by Mie in the early twentieth century. The IHPC team developed a highly efficient computational model to collectively compute such Mie resonances which can be used to accelerate the design process of Mie-based devices by three orders of magnitude compared to commercially available software. Using the highly efficient computational code, the IHPC team designed a Mie-based nanolaser that is more efficient by two orders of magnitude over conventional lasers based on the Fabry-Perot resonance mechanism, a result that was experimentally verified by IMRE. The highly efficient computational code could be used for other structural designs and materials to achieve high-efficiency lasing at room temperature.
As Mie resonances leverage on nanoscale structures, the efficient computational model for Mie resonances facilitate the design of miniaturised optical devices down to their fundamental limits at the nanoscale. The availability of such miniaturised optical components is critical to realising the optical interconnect for optical computing; optical computing is widely believed to be the sole solution capable of addressing both the energy-consumption and speed problems of the current electronic computing technology. The efficient computational model could also be leveraged to design novel optics and photonics components for biosensing, and classical and quantum communications based on CMOS manufacturing process, such as the single-photon source and nanoantenna modulator. In an industry project scheduled to start in Jan 21, IHPC will use the developed capabilities to accelerate commercial design of large-scale photonic metalenses.
The article was contributed by both IHPC and IMRE researchers and published in
Nano Letters (impact factor of 11.238)
Credits to IHPC researchers: Dr Hoang Thanh Xuan, Dr Phua Wee Kee, Dr Jason Png, and Dr Chu Hong Son.