Chiral Photonics
Encyclopedia
Chiral Photonics, Inc. is a photonics
company based in Pine Brook, New Jersey
, founded in 1999. The company is developing a new class of optical devices based on twisting glass optical fiber
s. These in-fiber devices aim to displace discrete optical elements such as laser
s, filters and sensors. They benefit from optical fiber’s transmission efficiency, robustness and ease of integration.
The company hopes that its manufacturing process, which is completely automated and scalable, will result, for example, in communications lasers that are fraction of the cost and three times more efficient than today’s semiconductor lasers. Chiral Photonics is also developing chirality
in polymeric thin films which, for instance, would enable high quality projection displays.
, angel
, and government sources including a US$2 million National Institute of Standards and Technology
Advanced Technology Program
award in 2004.
(CLC) films is a result of their unique self-assembling helical (chiral) microstructure. CLCs are the thin-film material often used to fabricate fish tank thermometers or mood rings, that change color with temperature changes. They change color because their molecules are arranged in a helical or chiral arrangement and with temperature the pitch of that helical structure changes, reflecting different wavelengths of light.
Drs. Genack and Kopp decided to pursue the possibility that CLCs, with their natural chiral structure, could provide a platform for a versatile new class of photonic devices. In biomimetic fashion, Chiral Photonics has abstracted the self-assembled structure of the organic CLCs to produce analogous optical devices using tiny lengths of inorganic, twisted fiber. Designing novel microforming towers, the company is able to fabricate devices based on fibers that can be twisted through more than 25,000 revolutions over a one-inch length.
These revolutions function as would a fiber Bragg grating
. The density of twists per inch, or periodicity, demonstrably results in the light being coupled to the fiber cladding, scattered out of the fiber, or reflected back within the fiber. This interaction with light can be harnessed to produce sensors, polarizers/isolators, and filter/lasers, respectively.
program officer who oversaw Chiral Photonics' first SBIR award, noted the range of existing and incipient markets. "This technology could be one of the most significant recent advances in the field of polarization and wavelength control. There is an enormous host of applications for which chiral fiber gratings could find markets."
Chiral Photonics’ components are all of the all-fiber variety. Released products include linear and circular polarizers, ultra-high temperature sensors, customized harsh environment pressure, axial rotation, and liquid level sensors, and a spot size converting interconnect.
The spot size converter, while not of chiral geometry, leverages the company’s glass microfabrication knowhow. The spot size converter (SSC) couples light between widely disparate (NA and MFD) components, such as, between <25 micrometre planar waveguides or laser diodes, and standard 125 micrometre SMF fiber. The SSC allows for direct light coupling with no air gap, sub-0.5dB loss, and extinction ratios of >20 dB for use in silicon photonics and other applications.
Chiral Photonics also offers twisted capillary tubes for proteomic analysis. The protein unfolds as it passes through the channel allowing for imaging. In other uses the rotation of the protein as it passes through the channel facilitates 360° imaging. The capillary tubes also have other microfluidic applications including mixing and uniform heat exchange.
In the near term the company plans to release an all-fiber isolator as well as a narrow linewidth laser. In the longer term, the company aims to release products based on thin-film application of its technology, including a higher resolution OLED and a dual-mode OLED screen/projector for cell phone and other handheld device use.
s relating to its photonics research.
Photonics
The science of photonics includes the generation, emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, detection and sensing of light. The term photonics thereby emphasizes that photons are neither particles nor waves — they are different in that they have both particle...
company based in Pine Brook, New Jersey
Pine Brook, New Jersey
Pine Brook is an unincorporated area within Montville Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 07058....
, founded in 1999. The company is developing a new class of optical devices based on twisting glass optical fiber
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
s. These in-fiber devices aim to displace discrete optical elements such as laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s, filters and sensors. They benefit from optical fiber’s transmission efficiency, robustness and ease of integration.
The company hopes that its manufacturing process, which is completely automated and scalable, will result, for example, in communications lasers that are fraction of the cost and three times more efficient than today’s semiconductor lasers. Chiral Photonics is also developing chirality
Chirality (physics)
A chiral phenomenon is one that is not identical to its mirror image . The spin of a particle may be used to define a handedness for that particle. A symmetry transformation between the two is called parity...
in polymeric thin films which, for instance, would enable high quality projection displays.
Funding
Chiral Photonics had received funding from venture capitalVenture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
, angel
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
, and government sources including a US$2 million National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
Advanced Technology Program
Advanced Technology Program
The NIST Advanced Technology Program is a United States Government program designed to simulate early stage advanced technology development that would otherwise not be fundable.ATP unique in that it is designed for early stage research in industry, not academia, though it...
award in 2004.
Technology
Chiral Photonics’ technology is an outgrowth of the 1997 discovery by two of the company's co-founders, Azriel Genack and Victor Kopp, that lasing in cholesteric liquid crystalCholesteric liquid crystal
A cholesteric liquid crystal is a type of liquid crystal with a helical structure and which is therefore chiral. Cholesteric liquid crystals are also known as chiral nematic liquid crystals. They organize in layers with no positional ordering within layers, but a director axis which varies with...
(CLC) films is a result of their unique self-assembling helical (chiral) microstructure. CLCs are the thin-film material often used to fabricate fish tank thermometers or mood rings, that change color with temperature changes. They change color because their molecules are arranged in a helical or chiral arrangement and with temperature the pitch of that helical structure changes, reflecting different wavelengths of light.
Drs. Genack and Kopp decided to pursue the possibility that CLCs, with their natural chiral structure, could provide a platform for a versatile new class of photonic devices. In biomimetic fashion, Chiral Photonics has abstracted the self-assembled structure of the organic CLCs to produce analogous optical devices using tiny lengths of inorganic, twisted fiber. Designing novel microforming towers, the company is able to fabricate devices based on fibers that can be twisted through more than 25,000 revolutions over a one-inch length.
These revolutions function as would a fiber Bragg grating
Fiber Bragg grating
A fiber Bragg grating is a type of distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a short segment of optical fiber that reflects particular wavelengths of light and transmits all others. This is achieved by adding a periodic variation to the refractive index of the fiber core, which generates a...
. The density of twists per inch, or periodicity, demonstrably results in the light being coupled to the fiber cladding, scattered out of the fiber, or reflected back within the fiber. This interaction with light can be harnessed to produce sensors, polarizers/isolators, and filter/lasers, respectively.
Applications
These basic components can be used for a variety of applications and all share a common production platform. In his comments upon the grant’s award, William Sargeant, the National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
program officer who oversaw Chiral Photonics' first SBIR award, noted the range of existing and incipient markets. "This technology could be one of the most significant recent advances in the field of polarization and wavelength control. There is an enormous host of applications for which chiral fiber gratings could find markets."
Chiral Photonics’ components are all of the all-fiber variety. Released products include linear and circular polarizers, ultra-high temperature sensors, customized harsh environment pressure, axial rotation, and liquid level sensors, and a spot size converting interconnect.
The spot size converter, while not of chiral geometry, leverages the company’s glass microfabrication knowhow. The spot size converter (SSC) couples light between widely disparate (NA and MFD) components, such as, between <25 micrometre planar waveguides or laser diodes, and standard 125 micrometre SMF fiber. The SSC allows for direct light coupling with no air gap, sub-0.5dB loss, and extinction ratios of >20 dB for use in silicon photonics and other applications.
Chiral Photonics also offers twisted capillary tubes for proteomic analysis. The protein unfolds as it passes through the channel allowing for imaging. In other uses the rotation of the protein as it passes through the channel facilitates 360° imaging. The capillary tubes also have other microfluidic applications including mixing and uniform heat exchange.
In the near term the company plans to release an all-fiber isolator as well as a narrow linewidth laser. In the longer term, the company aims to release products based on thin-film application of its technology, including a higher resolution OLED and a dual-mode OLED screen/projector for cell phone and other handheld device use.
Patents
Chiral Photonics has been issued 19 United States or International patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s relating to its photonics research.