Testing Hands-On Photonics Education (HOPE) Datacom Chips to Measure Loss, Interference, and Quantum Efficiency

Photonics is a field that utilizes the wave and particle-like properties of light with applications in sensing, telecommunications, and imaging. However, the industry’s needs are unmet with an insufficient number of workers with the knowledge and experience required to advance the field. AIM Photonics has developed the Hands-on Photonic Education (HOPE) kits to teach the fundamentals of photonics to community college instructors, employees in the field, and students through workshops. For my research, I tested Chip 1: Loss measurements, Chip 2: On-chip light manipulation with directional couplers and Mach-Zehnder Interferometers, and Chip 4: Germanium photodetectors. In Chip 1, the total coupling loss is -5.8 ± 1.8 dB, and the slope is -3.1 ± 0.5 dB/cm for the TE mode. For Chip 2, we find that the thru port the total fiber-to-chip loss is -5.5 ± 0.7 dB and the coupling length for max coupling is 62.8 ± 1.5 um, while the total fiber-to-chip loss for the drop port is -6.3 ± 0.2 dB and the coupling length for max coupling is 62.0 ± 2.1 um. For Chip 4, we tested different photodetector lengths to find the quantum efficiency and dark current. We plan to continue testing these chips and hold more workshops to eventually distribute the kits.