STTR DON27TZ02-NV003 (Navy): Growth and Production of As2S3 Waveguides

About this opportunity

Navy STTR topic — Accepting submissions 2026-12-02 to 2027-01-06. Multiple academic papers have indicated that the reverse mode of the SBS interaction between acoustic phonons and coherent 1.55 µm photons can cause Stoke’s peak gain on RF sidebands. It is desirable to harvest that effect for application in the burgeoning field of RF photonics. However, for that to happen, it is desirable that methods be developed to optimize the growth and etching of quasi-epitaxial As2S3, the material with the largest known SBS coefficient. In order to achieve low optical loss, achieving extremely low surface roughness of as-deposited films (< 10 nm rms roughness) is required plus ways to preserve that in producing waveguides of around 100 nm thickness and with high confinement bottom and top cladding. W...