Current information technology uses light to transmit, store, display and scan information. Photonic technology is thus intimately interwoven with information technology and will continue to be so into the foreseeable future.

In addition, light plays a crucial role in the fabrication of current microelectronic devices. Optical lithography is still used to define the patterns of microelectronic circuits. The evolution of optical lithography to meet the demands of ever-shrinking devices is vital to the future of computer technology.

The shrinking scale of information technology presents both new challenges and new opportunities for those engaged in optics and photonics research. The ongoing development of new techniques for fabricating nanoelectronic devices opens up the possibility of using these methods for making nanophotonic devices. That is, devices that involve the interaction of light with features only tens or hundreds of nanometers in size. We have done exploratory research to investigate such effects and related devices that may find future use in information technology. One example is the application of interferometric lithography to the fabrication of photonic-crystal-like structures

A 2-D array of posts fabricated by interferometric lithography

Edge view

Top view

Accurate modeling of the interaction of light with nanostructures is computationally demanding but will be essential if nanophotonic science is ever to become nanophotonic technology. We have investigated improving the efficiency of computational techniques, such as the Finite-Difference-Time-Domain method of solving Maxwell's equations, by adapting these algorithms to powerful grid computing platforms, so modeling and optimization of nanophotonic structures can be greatly accelerated.

We have succeeded in getting these nanostructures to lase by optically pumping them (see spectra below). This was the subject of a paper, "Lasing in interferometrically structured organic materials," which was published in Applied Physics Letters 87, 241124 (2005).

Emission spectra taken for three different pump pulse energies. The inset shows a top view scanning electron microscopy picture of the interferometrically structured laser devices.