Objectif In the ERC project ULPICC, a new type of optical amplifier was invented that is much more compact than existing optical amplifiers based on rare earth doping and much cheaper to fabricate than the ones based on III-V semiconductors. It is based on our discovery that HgTe colloidal quantum dots (QDs) exhibit a gain threshold several orders of magnitude lower than any other type of QDs studied before. Semiconductor QDs are fabricated using wet chemical synthesis procedures and can be deposited with cheap solution-based techniques such as printing which makes them competitive with traditional gain host media, with the additional advantage that the gain peak wavelength of colloidal QDs can be set freely by controlling the size of the QD, making them extremely versatile. An application (considered by big industrial players such as INTEL, IBM, NTT, …) particularly suffering from the lack of a compact optical amplifier is that of optical interconnects (OI) between chips to accommodate increasing data-transfer rates elusive for electronics. The OI market is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2021, where we expect the amplifier function can be valued anywhere up to 10% of the total OI value ! A heavily investigated approach to realize such an OI is that of ‘silicon photonics’, which has been shown to fulfil the requirements in terms of bandwidth and power consumption but lacks a native optical gain medium required to compensate the OI intrinsic losses. Therefore, the objective of INTERDOT is to assess the technical and commercial potential of optical amplifiers based on colloidal HgTe QDs, integrated on silicon photonics chips or in board-level OIs. We will validate their gain, specify their efficiency, initiate reliability and performance testing (through close industrial collaboration) and investigate how the knowhow involved can be protected and commercialized, either through licensing and/or spin-off creation. Champ scientifique natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivitynatural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Thème(s) ERC-PoC-2014 - ERC Proof of Concept Grant Appel à propositions ERC-2014-PoC Voir d’autres projets de cet appel Régime de financement ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant Institution d’accueil UNIVERSITEIT GENT Contribution nette de l'UE € 145 000,00 Adresse SINT PIETERSNIEUWSTRAAT 25 9000 Gent Belgique Voir sur la carte Région Vlaams Gewest Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen Arr. Gent Type d’activité Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Liens Contacter l’organisation Opens in new window Site web Opens in new window Participation aux programmes de R&I de l'UE Opens in new window Réseau de collaboration HORIZON Opens in new window Coût total € 145 000,00 Bénéficiaires (1) Trier par ordre alphabétique Trier par contribution nette de l'UE Tout développer Tout réduire UNIVERSITEIT GENT Belgique Contribution nette de l'UE € 145 000,00 Adresse SINT PIETERSNIEUWSTRAAT 25 9000 Gent Voir sur la carte Région Vlaams Gewest Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen Arr. Gent Type d’activité Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Liens Contacter l’organisation Opens in new window Site web Opens in new window Participation aux programmes de R&I de l'UE Opens in new window Réseau de collaboration HORIZON Opens in new window Coût total € 145 000,00
