SBIR-STTR Award

TransWave Photonics, LLC in collaboration with Prof. Mikhail Belkin group at the University of Texas at Austin proposes to develop mid-wave infrared photonic integrated circuits based on monolithic integration of passive low-loss waveguides, thermo-optically tunable photonic elements, and quantum cascade laser gain sections within the same InGaAs/AlInAs/InP platform grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. The proposed approach will enable power combining and 2-dimensional electronic beam steering of the outputs from multiple high-power buried heterostructure quantum cascade lasers on the same InP chip. In Phase 1 we will demonstrate the feasibility of the key elements in the proposed quantum-cascade-laser-based mid-wave infrared photonic integrated circuit.

TransWave Photonics, LLC proposes to develop mid-wave infrared photonic integrated circuits based on monolithic integration of passive low-loss waveguides, thermo-optically tunable photonic elements, and quantum cascade gain sections within the same InGaAs/AlInAs/InP platform. The proposed approach will enable power combining and 2-dimensinoal beam steering of the outputs from multiple high-power buried heterostructure quantum cascade lasers on the same InP chip. In Phase 2 we will demonstrate a prototype full monolithic mid-IR beam-steering microchip system based on the proposed QCL PICs operating near ?~4.6 µm. The microchip system will produce >10 W average power steerable over a wide range of angles, ±90° along lateral direction and ±10° along longitudinal direction, at scan rates over 1 kHz.