MateriAlZ Seminar: Judson Ryckman
Friday, August 26, 2022, 10:50 a.m. MST
Judson Ryckman
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Clemson University
"Silicon and Porous Silicon Photonics: Subwavelength Structuring for Sensing and Security Applications"
Zoom Link | Passcode: 10810
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Abstract
Silicon is famous for its semiconducting properties, abundance, low cost, and extremely successful microelectronic applications. Despite its lack of efficient light emission, it became an important material to the broader photonics community owing to its high refractive index, infrared transparency, and CMOS process compatibility. “Sculpting” silicon at the micro- and nano-scales enables precise tailoring of light-matter interactions in compact chip-scale technologies with a wide and growing variety of optical functionalities. In recent years, Dr. Ryckman’s Nanophotonics Laboratory at Clemson University has specialized in the design, nano-manufacture, and photonic applications of silicon when structured on the subwavelength scale. The use of mesoporous silicon, for example, enables new types of high-performance optical sensors and biosensors which provide enhanced interaction and sensitivity with nanoscopic analytes. Direct nanoimprinting has further been shown as a viable route for patterning refractive index on the surface-of-a-chip, offering a novel route toward low cost and high-performance flat-optics. In the context of silicon photonics, conventional optical structures typically mold the flow of light using discrete regions of continuous or periodic translational symmetries. Breaking these symmetries in the form of quasi-periodic or super-periodic moiré lattices, however, offers an attractive platform for controlling light localization/delocalization – echoing similar phenomena observed in ‘twistronics’. Such structures have recently been harnessed to construct quasicrystal interferometers (QCIs) which harvest entropy in the form of nanoscale fabrication disorder to realize chip-unique fingerprints or physical unclonable functions (PUF). Silicon photonic PUFs offer an exciting avenue for enabling hardware and information security applications ranging from supply chain assurance to secure communications.
Bio
Judson Ryckman earned his Ph.D. (2013) in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt under Prof. Sharon Weiss. From 2013-2016 he worked at Intel in Santa Clara, CA as a research scientist and photonic design engineer, ultimately contributing to the development and successful commercial release of Intel’s first silicon photonics products (100G PSM4 and CWDM4). In 2016, he joined Clemson University as an assistant professor where his research is centered in the field of nanophotonics which studies and harnesses light interaction with nanostructured materials and devices. Within this domain, he currently specializes in: (1) optical biosensors based on colorimetric and waveguide devices, (2) nanostructured silicon photonics for cybersecurity and enhanced light-matter interactions, and (3) scalable nanomanufacturing techniques for flat-optics and metasurfaces. He has been recognized with both the AFOSR YIP and NSF CAREER Awards, and holds 10 patents, and currently serves as an advisor to Anello Photonics.