Assistant Professor (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

Office: Stocker Center 377
Telephone: 740-593-2462
Fax: 740-593-0001
Email: whaleyr@ohio.edu

The research group of Professor Ralph Whaley, SEECS, is currently investigating the use of nanostructured amorphous silicon (a-Si) and amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) as a disruptive technology for photonics integration.  Whereas the electronic and photovoltaic properties of a-Si have been studied extensively, the use of a-Si, doped with H2 and N2, for use as an optoelectronic integration platform, has not.  The salient feature of this technology is the wide refractive index tunability of a-Si (2.5 – 3.6), which is unparalleled in competing technologies.  Central to this research is the development of ultra-low loss, nanoscale optical waveguides, with large optical modes closely matched to standard fiber optics.  Such a waveguide is termed a low optical overlap mode (LOOM) guide and has the potential for optical propagation losses below 0.1 dB/cm – well beyond the industry standard of 1 dB/cm using silicon on insulator (SOI) technologies.  Because the LOOM guide supports such an extended, low-loss mode, the potential impact of this technology in chemical and bio-species sensing, through the development of high-Q, LOOM resonators, is significant.  Naturally, the flexibility of the a-Si platform has great promise for the promotion and integration of emerging photonics technologies currently being investigated at Ohio University such as rare-earth doped films, carbon and silicon nanotubes, silicon nanocluster light sources and others.

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