Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OPHELLIA (On-chip PHotonics Erbium-doped Laser for LIdar Applications)
Período documentado: 2021-01-01 hasta 2022-06-30
Unfortunately there are very few laser light sources available that could provide sufficient performance to achieve the required distance range, distance resolution, and velocity accuracy. Moreover, the available sources, namely single mode or multimode laser diodes and fiber laser sources, are either very costly, not sufficiently robust, or not compact enough for the applications.
The Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap (IPSR) has identified integrated photonics as a key enabling technology for LiDAR, allowing to achieve simultaneously high performance (in terms of range, distance, and velocity resolution), and low cost. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) - devices that integrate many optical functionalities on a single chip including light emission, routing, modulation and detection - have been recognized to play a crucial role in coming years to push LiDAR systems towards mass market applications.
The objective of OPHELLIA is to develop novel materials and integration technology for the realization of innovative PIC building blocks to develop PIC based laser sources for emerging TOF and FMCW LiDAR applications exhibiting low cost and low size thanks to the high chip integration and tolerant packaging technology while, at the same time, exhibiting the same or even higher performance than existing solutions.
Efficient coupling in and out the photonic chips is key for the performance of the final prototype. OPHELLIA has designed in- and out-coupling 3D printed microlenses to both increase the coupling efficiency and increase the alignment tolerance of the system.
A pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process for the deposition of the magneto-optical material, Bi:YIG, has been developed. A field rotation performance of 4.5 deg/µm has been reached after the optimization of the Bi:YIG growth conditions. In the next step, the material will be integrated onto Si3N4 waveguides to produce on-chip optical isolators.
Finally, a data management plan, exploitation and dissemination plan, internal training plan and a web survey have all been completed and are in execution.
1. Integrated 515nm laser Source for Quantum-Magneto-encephalography
2. Integrated 515nm laser source for submarine FSO
3. Integrated laser source for Wind mapping (C-Band)
4. Integrated laser source for Comb-based gas sensor
5. Atomic clocks
Among all these applications, Quantum-Magneto-Encephalography has a potential of 100,000s of units and is driven by key European players like Bosch, Thales, etc.