Nanotechnology for the Optical Internet

Presentation by Professor Edward (Ted) H. Sargent from the University of Toronto (IEEE Communcations Society Distinguished Lecturer)

The IEEE Seattle Section's Computer Society and Communication Society will jointly host a presentation entitled "Nanotechnology for the Optical Internet" by Professor Edward (Ted) H. Sargent from the University of Toronto, where he holds the Nortel Networks - Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
This is an IEEE Communcations Society Distinguished Lecturer Tour Presentation

Abstract

A truly agile optical internet will come into being through new network architectural strategies, new functional materials, and a radically higher level of device integration. I will present our research along these axes. I will discuss our results on optical code-division multiple-access and how this could fit into the metropolitan-area network; and will touch on some preliminary results on the impact of component-limited reconfigurability in optical add/drop multiplexers. I will present our results on controlling the self-organization of photonic crystals of differing photonic bandstructures onto planar substrates and will discuss our new approach to the design of photonic integrated circuits on this novel materials platform. I will discuss the implications of our research on spin-on-processible infrared-wavelength nanocrystals embedded in semiconducting polymers which can address a broad tunable spectral range within a single materials system.

About Dr. Sargent

Ted Sargent holds the Nortel Networks - Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Toronto. In 2002 he won the IEEE Canada Outstanding Engineer Award for "for groundbreaking research in applying new phenomena and materials from nanotechnology towards transforming fibre-optic communications systems into agile optical networks." In 2001 the Canada Research Chairs Foundation wrote that Ted Sargent has "...shown that a new kind of photonic macrocrystal-one which harnesses nature's underlying drive toward symmetry-will transform how communication networks are built. He works with novel materials that can be induced to organize themselves into specific arrays and patterns, spaced no further apart than the microscopic wavelength of the light which passed through them. He has also developed the photonic heterostructure."

In 1999 Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council award Ted Sargent its Silver Medal, writing in its citation: "This work shed light for the very first time on the essential physical mechanisms that underlie the operation of the lateral current laser. The groundbreaking research proved that it is possible to build and interconnect these laser devices using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques, thereby opening up an avenue for making laser light the driving force of future microchips." The Switzerland-based Chorafas Foundation, which awards scientific prizes worldwide for outstanding research in the engineering sciences, humanities and social sciences, medicine, and the natural science, wrote: "Dr. Sargent proved that it is possible to harness the combined power of photons and electrons to make new, integrated, functionally sophisticated devices and circuits to enable the fibre-optic networks of the future." In awarding Ted Sargent the Premier's Research Excellence Award of Ontario, the award committee wrote: "Dr. Sargent is innovating revolutionary ways to send, display, and acquire information using light. Dr. Sargent developed the theory and demonstrated the realization of the lateral current injection laser, a new semiconductor laser with the potential to enable the integration of many optoelectronic devices onto a single platform."

Ted Sargent's contributions have led to well over a hundred contributed and invited papers in refereed journals, conference proceedings, and institutional lectures in IEEE, Optical Society of America, American Institute of Physics, and Materials Research Society publications and conferences. Prof. Sargent's service to the profession is evidenced in his chairing and organizing numerous conferences and symposia, most notably the Photonic Networks Symposium at IEEE Globecom and the first Canada-France Conference on Molecular Photonics and Plastic Electronics.